http://www.archives2004.ghazali.net/htm ... ounce.html
Call it a battle for hearts and minds.
A growing number of American Muslim leaders are publicly denouncing the violence committed by religious extremists and are trying to take control of defining their faith. Through news releases, public forums and petitions, Muslim groups in Minnesota and across the country have gone on record condemning the recent beheadings of Americans Nick Berg and Paul M. Johnson Jr. and South Korean Kim Sun-il.
"We wish to state clearly that those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent," read a statement by the Twin Cities-based Islamic Resource Group on the day news broke of Johnson's murder.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have signed an online petition condemning terrorist acts since it was posted last month by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil rights group in Washington, D.C.
The public denunciations are part of a broader effort to show Americans that the masked individuals who spew hateful rhetoric in grisly videotape messages do not represent the majority of the 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide.
"A lot of people now are realizing that taking a passive stance is not a good stance," said Hesham Hussein, president of the Muslim American Society's Minnesota chapter. "We have to speak out and we have to let people know who we are and not let others define who we are."
His organization has sent letters of condolence to the families of the slain kidnap victims and has called on religious leaders in the mosques to clearly address the issue. "We cannot and must not be silent about this deviant conduct," a statement from the Muslim American Society says.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Muslim leaders have faced criticism that they have not expressed sufficient outrage about violence committed by Islamic radicals, leaving an impression that perhaps some Muslims tacitly support such behavior. Hussein and other Muslim leaders insist that they have made their objections known but that their words often do not reach the masses.
"There is a clear outrage and clear speaking out against it. The problem is there is a buffer between us and the general public," he said. "The media chooses which part to show and which part to highlight. Unfortunately, showing a crime is very attractive but showing the response to the crime is not so attractive. We have not been silent."
