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MPAC urges Rep. King to substantiate (WASHINGTON D.C., February 12, 2003) -- New York’s Newsday has reported that Representative Peter King of New York has asserted that 85% of the mosques in the United States have “extremist leadership” and Muslims are “reluctant” to cooperate with law enforcement. King first made his comments on Sean Hannity’s syndicated radio show. Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) asks King to repudiate his comments, specifically the charge that Muslims have not cooperated with law enforcement. In an interview FBI Director Robert Mueller granted to The Minaret Magazine, America’s largest American Muslim magazine, on April 23, 2003, Director Mueller made statements about the cooperation of the American Muslim community that directly contradicts King’s allegation. In an interview with Minaret Magazine publisher Aslam Abdallah, Director Mueller said that American Muslims had been “alert and they have alerted us of situations where individuals may represent concern. I find it very helpful that a great number of our investigators have received help from Americans, in fact Muslim Americans. When I met with Muslim American leaders, they do believe that it is important for our various communities to be alert because nobody wants another terrorist attack. Mueller said later in the interview: “I would like to thank the Muslim Americans for their support on the war against terrorism and working with the FBI around the country as well as state and local law enforcement on our task forces for continuing and opening a dialogue and the exchanged views, for participating in our training. Secondly, I would like to thank the Iraqi Americans for the information that was provided during the hostilities with Iraq. That information proved to be valuable to our troops overseas. Much of it was corroborated with what we found in Iraq and the Department Of Defense said that the information was timely, excellent, relevant and greatly assisted in breaching gaps with other intelligence. In a press conference last week with the Attorney General, I did indicate how appreciative we were, everybody from the President down with the efforts of the Iraqi American people and community in assisting with the war, and more generally we want to say that there is no one agency that can succeed in the war on terror to prevent the next attack. It is not only the FBI but also the other federal agencies with law enforcement and intelligence, state and local law enforcement but also all our communities and most particularly the Muslim American Community. So we look at them to work with us as they have in the past to prevent another attack.” Given the FBI Director’s clearly positive assessment of American Muslim cooperation in law enforcement efforts, we ask Representative King to substantiate his slanderous, erroneous and irresponsible statements against the American Muslim community immediately. |