American Muslims slate series of 9-11 events

Yet over the last several months they've learned many of their neighbors think U.S. Muslims did nothing. On the anniversary of the tragedy, they hope to change that impression with very public events meant to distinguish Islam from terrorism.

Several speakers at the Islamic Society of North America convention, which ended last week, said Muslims are not a fifth column in the United States and wanted terrorists to be punished.

Agha Saeed, national chairman of the American Muslim Alliance, a California-based advocacy group, urged the estimated 30,000 attendees at the convention to have "at least one event to express Muslim concerns."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington civil rights group, has a list of interfaith services and mosque open houses in about 70 communities. The Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles plans panel discussions on Muslim-Jewish relations and a ceremony honoring heroes of Sept. 11. Muslim volunteers also plan to sew a quilt with the names of victims.

"It's not a political statement to go out and say we have sympathy for those who died on Sept. 11. It's a statement about humanity," said Mohammad Choudhry, a 23-yearold New Jersey college student who plans to commemorate the anniversary.

Hossam Ahmed, an Air Force engineer from Virginia, said his co-workers have asked him why Muslims didn't do more. He plans to attend a memorial event on Sept. 11 and he hopes his colleagues take note.

"I want to ask our detractors, `Where have you been? What have you been listening to?' " Ahmed said.

Among those who have questioned the Muslim response is the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, who said in an August radio interview that "the silence of the (Islamic) clerics around the world is frightening to me. How come they haven't come to this country, how come they haven't apologized to the American people?"

Ashraf Sabrin, a medical technician who volunteered for the relief efforts at the twin towers and the Pentagon, said he was angered by such remarks and by suggestions that American Muslims have been silent.

"We've had so many different events - open houses, candlelight vigils, national press releases. What's it going to take, exactly?" Sabrin said.

The impact of the attacks, the new limits on legal rights that followed and U.S. foreign policy were central topics of the conference, the largest and most important American Muslim event of the year.

In the final session Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary general of the society, said he hoped the federal government would come to see American Muslims as a resource for "building bridges" between Islamic countries and the United States.

Awatef Aqeal, a teacher at the Universal Academy of Florida, said she is less concerned about making a statement on Sept. 11 than keeping children safe. Her Islamic school is in Tampa, where police say they uncovered a plan last month to blow up Muslim mosques and buildings.

"Our kids are frightened," Aqeal said. "We don't want them to feel this."

Uploaded September 9, 2002