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Is the tide changing?
American Muslim organizations’ efforts in
terrorism prevention is getting media attention
By Nahal Ameri
American Muslim organizations have always been against terrorism and have continuously issued statement after statement condemning terrorist activity before and after 9-11. Shortly after September 11th, the media chose to ignore those statements and under-report the condemnations made by every major American Muslim leader in the United States.
There was an underlying tone of "Muslims haven't done enough to condemn September 11th".
News show hosts will often ask when interviewing American Muslim leaders in regard to terrorism "Well its great that you are condemning terrorism, but where are the rest of the Muslim leaders?". That attitude then bleeds over into the viewers of those shows.
Dr. Maher Hathout, Senior Advisor the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) often recalls how non-Muslims often approach him to say that Muslims haven't done enough to condemn September 11th, and that Muslims must go out and rally in the street to rally against terrorism. His reply would often be "Have you done that sir?". The conversation would end there.
There is no doubt that the gap between the reporting of condemnations of terrorism by American Muslim leaders and the reporting of those condemnations is large.
Recently however, it seems that the tide is changing towards more accurate media reporting of the American Muslim community. The media is beginning to report more and more on the work that American Muslim organizations are doing in the area of terrorism prevention.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) grassroots campaign to fight terrorism was covered by over 60 major media outlets in the past week including the Los Angeles Times and CNN. They told the story of an MPAC town hall meeting held this past Sunday (July 11, 2004) to discuss the grassroots campaign with a gathering of a little under a hundred people.
Participants met at Islamic Center of Southern California and many chapter leaders from across the nation including Buffalo, NY and Houston, TX joined through teleconferencing. The participants in the town hall meeting aimed to cooperate with the FBI in the fight against terrorism because of its incompatibility with Islam.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has received similar media attention for their "Not in my Name" anti-terrorism petition.
The significance in this shift in attitude of the media is that American Muslim grassroots activities are being rightly notated in the mainstream public. This is an example of the success that the community has achieved.
We have become a significantly more organized, active and accomplished community in the past few years and it is paying off. The truth is that positive or negative reporting does affect our community.
The recent coverage on the beheadings in Iraq has led to anti-Muslim backlash with perpetrators vandalizing mosques in Florida and in Missouri. When the media is biased it skews the public's truth of many issues that are important to us.
Media is one of the major areas that affect the American Muslim community. If activism efforts are sustained in the community by all members of it, each person doing their share according to their talents we may see a day when watching the news wont be so frustrating. Frustrating like the coverage of the green stoles bearing the shahada at the UCI graduation, when Fox news host Bill O'reilly called them "sashes honoring Hamas".
By Nahal Ameri - Community Relations Coordinator of the Muslim Public Affairs Council
Los Angeles Times - July 12, 2004
Muslim Americans meet to address terrorism concerns
The series of national forums is meant to help people spot terrorist activities
within their communities as well as to confront fears and prejudices.
By Jia-Rui Chong
Muslim American leaders — calling it a "critical time for our community and country" — met at a Los Angeles mosque Sunday to kick off a national series of town hall meetings intended to provide the Muslim community with tools to fight terrorist activity, as well as a forum for voicing concerns and fears.
Officials from the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a Los Angeles-based Arab American advocacy group, instructed mosque leaders to keep detailed and "transparent" financial records, to scrutinize bags on Fridays when large audiences are present and to be aware of the background of guest speakers and the content of their remarks. Religious leaders also were reminded that most mosques do not have the permits to allow overnight lodging.
The guidelines are part of planned education efforts that include teaching in Muslim and non-Muslim communities that Islam does not condone terrorism. Officials also offered guidelines for better controlling and monitoring activities inside mosques, as well as on how to detect criminal activity.
Muslim Public Affairs Council leaders said they hoped the planned outreach will help make their community a partner in the fight against terrorism, a role they say is key in light of recent warnings by top government officials about heightened danger leading up to the national elections this fall.
Maher Hathout, coordinator of the "mosque to mosque" campaign, said that after Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft held a press conference to announce that an Al Qaeda plot against America in the summer was 90% complete, he believed the average American reacted by thinking, "Oh my God. What are those Muslims going to do to us?"
But Hathout said the majority of Muslim Americans want "to be part of the solution, not part of the problem."….
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/los_angeles_metro/la-me-muslim12jul12,1,6118217.story?coll=la-commun-los_angeles_metro
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