This should probably be posted as an individual thread, but I'm short on time. If someone wants to take on the task, feel free. Just promise me you'll have the words "Hillary" and "Muslims" (or "Islam") in the title. :-)
She's probably planning on running for President in '04. The public masses need to see her love for the radical Hamas-lovers.
NPR
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR 8:00 pm ET)
November 1, 1996, Friday
News; Domestic
Religion and the Clinton Administration
John Burnett; Linda Wertheimer
(snip)
BURNETT: In other actions during the past four years, the Small Business Administration dropped a ban against making loans to religion-related businesses. And the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission convinced a national department store chain to change its policy which refused employees religious absences on Saturday or Sunday.
The attention to religion has not been restricted to Christianity. This year the Postal Service is issuing its first ever Hanukkah stamp. And earlier this year, Muslim families were invited to the White House to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Abdurahman Alamoudi, director of the American Muslim Council, gives the president high marks.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
Abdurahman Alamoudi, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN MUSLIM COUNCIL: For the first ever time in the White House, the first lady, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, invited about 30 Muslim families.
We have been asking for this for years. Where the Christian kids, the Jewish kids will always get their Christmas celebration party or the Hanukkah party, this was the first time for our kids to go to the White House and have their own party.
Daily News (New York)
October 25, 2000, Wednesday SPORTS FINAL EDITION
NEWS; Pg. 7
ISRAEL FOES GIVE HIL 50G;
Muslim group backs Palestinian use of force
By LARRY COHLER-ESSES
An American Muslim group whose leader backs the Palestinians' right to use "armed force" against Israel has raised thousands of dollars for Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign.
The American Muslim Alliance says it sponsored a $500-a-ticket fund-raiser in Boston in June at which $50,000 was raised. Clinton confirms she attended and accepted a plaque from the alliance citing her work for human rights, but argues that another group sponsored the event.
The alliance's Web site features photos of a 12-year-old boy killed by Israeli troops in Gaza this month under the title "The Real Face of Israel." As First Lady, the Daily News has learned, Clinton also held several White House Muslim holiday receptions to which individuals opposed to the Mideast peace process and Israel's existence were invited.
One of the guests, Abdurahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council, later boasted, "We are the ones who went to the White House and defended what is called Hamas."
Alamoudi contributed $1,000 to Clinton's campaign in May.
The State Department has designated Hamas a terrorist organization because of attacks on Israeli civilians for which it has taken public responsibility.
After inquiries from The News about Alamoudi, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said yesterday that his $1,000 contribution would be returned immediately.
"Hillary is a strong supporter of peace and security for Israel and proud to have the support of Elie Wiesel, Chuck Schumer and Ed Koch," Wolfson said. "They support her because they know her views."
He noted that Clinton - for whom Jewish support is critical in her race against Republican Rick Lazio - has voiced support for Israel's efforts to quash the violent Palestinian protests that erupted there this month. She also has criticized Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Her performance has been closely watched by some Jews who fault her for, among other things, embracing Arafat's wife, Suha, last year after Arafat gave a speech accusing Israel of using poison gas on Arab children.
Clinton said later she had not received a timely translation of the Arabic speech.
Information about the White House visits and the Boston event, independently confirmed by The News, will appear in an article by Steven Emerson, a counterterrorism researcher.
Massachusetts American Muslim Alliance chairman Tahir Ali organized the Boston fund-raiser. He said Clinton's forceful criticism of Arafat during the last few weeks has not made him regret his group's decision to support her.
"The idea is to win the election," he said. "[So] she must change her tune. But that doesn't mean anything. It's just at the spur of the moment that she must say these things, and we understand that."
Agha Saeed, national president of the American Muslim Alliance, which has many Pakistani and other non-Arab Muslim members, told The News he thinks the Palestinians should pursue their own state in the West Bank and Gaza, "first and foremost through peaceful means." But if that fails, he said, UN resolutions "say specifically they have the right to resist by armed force."
Wolfson, the Clinton campaign spokesman, confirmed that she attended the Boston fund-raiser but insisted it was sponsored by members of the Boston Muslim community and not the American Muslim Alliance.
"All my fund-raising people say it was not hosted by these folks," said Wolfson. "It was hosted by two other individuals. These folks were not the hosts."
However, a human rights plaque given to Clinton that night says, in large type: "Presented to the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton" from "American Muslim Alliance; Massachusetts June 13, 2000."
Wolfson pointed out that invitations to the event contained no mention of the group. But Ali said this was because his group took over sponsorship "about one week" before the event took place.
In addition to helping Clinton, the alliance held a fund-raiser in Brooklyn last February for Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Calif.) for his race against Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Ali said the Boston chapter also raised funds for Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.), whose district is home to many Arab-Americans.
The alliance joined with several other Muslim organizations Monday to endorse George W. Bush for President, at a news conference in Washington.
Saeed, the group's national leader, who also heads the Muslim coalition, said Bush had promised to "address Muslim concerns on domestic and foreign policy issues."
The White House holiday gatherings, which took place between 1996 and 1999, were organized as annual recognitions of Eid Al-Fitr, an important Muslim festival.
Alamoudi, the American Muslim Council official, attended at least one. He has made a series of public statements supporting Hamas. In August 1997, for example, days after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem for which Hamas took responsibility, Alamoudi told Fox News, "I think it's a freedom-fighting organization."
Last June, Alamoudi boasted to the Muslim publication Al-Zaitounah that his group had defended Musa Abu Marzouk, the Hamas political leader who was detained by the U.S. before being deported to Jordan.
A spokeswoman for the American Muslim Council said Alamoudi was traveling out of the country this week. Efforts to reach him abroad were unsuccessful.
Wolfson, defending the decision to invite people with such views to the White House, said: "Obviously, Hillary strongly disagrees with them. I would hope [attendance at such meetings] would mainstream their views."
The Times (London)
October 26, 2000, Thursday
Overseas news
Hillary caught out by Muslim money
James Bone in New York
Hillary Clinton found herself embroiled in a new controversy over the Middle East yesterday after it emerged that she had received a campaign contribution from an American Muslim leader who backs the Palestinians' right to use "armed force" against Israel.
The First Lady has had an uneasy relationship with Jews in New York ever since she voiced support for a Palestinian state and kissed Suha Arafat, the wife of the Palestinian leader. She was forced to return a $ 1,000 (Pounds 690) donation from Abdurahman Alamoudi, the leader of the American Muslim Alliance.
The New York Daily News reported that Mrs Clinton had attended a $ 500-a-ticket fundraiser hosted by the group in Boston in June, which raised $ 50,000.
But Mrs Clinton's campaign said the fundraiser was sponsored by members of the Boston Muslim community. A human rights prize awarded to Mrs Clinton at the event states clearly that it is from the "American Muslim Alliance".
The Muslim leader also made a similar donation to the Bush presidential campaign.
The Washington Times
October 31, 2000
Tuesday, Final Edition
PART A; COMMENTARY; OP-ED; Pg. A21
Bigots of the left; Hillary's anti-Semitic friends
Evan Gahr
Will liberals finally judge their woman by the company she keeps? Or just follow the money? Long before she needed to curry favor with voters in her adopted home state, Hillary Rodham Clinton helped fund Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) front groups. Now comes word that veteran anti-Israel activists - including an outspoken supporter of the radical terrorist group Hamas - have contributed to Mrs. Clinton's campaign for New York senator.
First, it was $500 from American University professor Clovis Maksoud, the Arab League's former "special envoy" to the United Nations. In an open letter to PLO chieftan Yasser Arafat this summer, Mr. Maksoud urged the semi-retired terrorist to extricate himself from the Oslo peace accords. Otherwise Israel - or the "Zionist colonial entity" to borrow Mr. Maksoud's classic term - would use peace negotiations to advance its "Zionist dream" of "international legitimacy." Those shrewd Jews. Around the same time as that lovely missive, Mr. Maksoud donated $500 to Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign war chest. Mr. Maksoud says he made the donation this May at a Virginia fund-raiser because of Mrs. Clinton's obvious sympathy for the "Palestinian cause." Others apparently feel the same way. The New York Daily News reported on Oct. 25 that Abdurahman Alamoudi of the pro-Hamas American Muslim Council donated $1,000 to Hillary's Senate campaign this May. Mr. Abdurahman, who calls Hamas a "freedom fighting organization," explains that, "We are the ones who went to the White House and defended what is called Hamas" (an apparent reference to the White House receptions Mrs. Clinton is known to have hosted for the American Muslim Council and like-minded groups).
Mrs. Clinton even posed for a photograph with Mr. Alamoudi at a June fund-raiser sponsored by the American Muslim Alliance.
All this was breathlessly reported in a front page Daily News story. But given Mrs. Clinton's background it shouldn't surprise anyone. Nor is any of this likely to knock some sense into her liberal acolytes. Whenever she's caught playing footsie with the anti-Israel crowd or alleged to have indulged outright bigotry, liberal activists vouch for Hillary's sainthood. If they were not much bothered by her stony silence last November in the face of Mrs. Arafat's blood libel against the Jewish state, then, hey, what's $1,500 dollars among friends? (Hillary's campaign has promised to return the $1,000 from Mr. Alamoudi. Mr. Maksoud tells this writer the campaign has not returned his $500, which was first reported by the New York Observer.)
But it's probably not necessary to return any of the money. No matter what she says or does, liberal Jewish organizations - every conceivable outfit from the Anti-Defamation League to the women's group Hadassah - stand resolutely behind Hillary. Would a Republican be accorded such kid glove treatment? Doubtful. The Anti-Defamation League, quite smitten with Hillary, cringes at Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, a strong Israel supporter. Yes, the usual double-standard obtains. But Hillary seems to benefit from an even more curious phenomena - the widespread belief that liberals are utterly incapable of bigotry or really any odious sentiments.
Recall Hillary and Co.'s response to allegations that she used an anti-Semitic slur in 1974. Sen. Charles Schumer, blessed with the power to read minds, declared that Hillary "does not have an anti-Semitic thought . . . in her body." Not a thought? Is Mr. Schumer blessed with the ability to read minds? Or has he assumed that bigotry on the part of liberals is inconceivable? By what logic does adherence to a particular set of political beliefs preclude the kind of prejudice that has bedeviled mankind from time immemorial?
Here's the rub: Notwithstanding the cultural elite's fixation on supposedly intolerant conservatives, it is the left which readily indulges bigotry, including anti-Semitism thinly cloaked as anti-Zionism.
Consider the left's shameful record. Liberals can certainly sniff out the slightest whiff of anti-Semitism on the right from miles away. Too bad they are olfactory-challenged when the stink is closer to home.
Whether it is the anti-Semitic skit at SUNY-New Paltz's recent conference on sexuality or the upscale Jew-baiting by novelist Gore Vidal back in the 1980s, anti-Semitism on the left abounds. Long before Al Sharpton was ushered into the Democrat's big tent, the cultural elite accommodated quite a few "progressives" who openly trafficked in anti-Semitism.
In recent months, the only public anti-Semitism in response to Al Gore's selection of a Jewish running mate has emanated from "liberal" environs. Amsterdam News publisher Bill Tatum suggested the Jews had bought the nomination. The sad fact is that much prejudice, both sophisticated and crude, regularly emanates from the left. Nevertheless, bigotry is widely considered the exclusive domain of conservatives.
No wonder Hillary gets a free ride from most liberals in the media and elsewhere. Or even from relatively nonpolitical types like Elie Wiesel. She couldn't possibly have said anything anti-Semitic or really wish the Jewish people any harm; even if she does she keeps company with some of Israel's -and arguably America's - worst enemies in this country. Hamas after all is nearly as anti-American as it is anti-Israel. Hillary's now infamous donors should feel right at home.
Evan Gahr is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
FOX NEWS NETWORK
FOX SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRIT HUME (18:31 ET)
November 1, 2000, Wednesday
Brit Hume
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
Abdurahman Alamoudi was captured on this videotape obtained by Fox News, declaring his backing for both Hamas and Hezbollah, groups branded terrorist organizations that many say have claimed the lives of Americans.
ABDURAHMAN ALAMOUDI, FMR. DIRECTOR, AMERICAN MUSLIM COUNCIL: Anybody who is supporting Hamas here?
(CHEERING)
ALAMOUDI: Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas.
I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah. Anybody who supports Hezbollah here?
(CHEERING)
SHAWN: Mr. Alamoudi, who has now reportedly apologized for his words, is a former director of the American Muslim Council. He met with first lady Hillary Clinton, and gave $1,000 to her campaign, as well as to George W. Bush's presidential effort. Both Clinton and Bush have returned his donations, but the controversy has become a major issue in the New York Senate race.
REP. RICK LAZIO (R-NY), NEW YORK SENATE CANDIDATE: I think the problem is, is that when you meet with people who supported the idea that violence is a legitimate tool to achieve political goals, when you invite them to the White House, when you appear at fund raisers, when you receive contributions, you provide credibility for not just that person, but that concept: the concept that terrorism and murder is a legitimate tool.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: I think that what we're seeing here is the most crass kind of effort to divert attention from the real issues in this campaign, from my real record, from the record of this admiration and this president. And I find it deplorable.
SHAWN: What is not in dispute is that Mrs. Clinton has met with members of the Muslim community for years, and has come under fire for some of those meetings. In 1996, she hosted the Niad Awad (ph) at the White House. He is the head of the lobbying group, the Council on American Islamic Relations, who only two years before his White House visit, publicly backed Hamas.
And recently, at rallies in Washington, he clearly put the blame for the latest Mideast crisis on Israel and America.
NIAD AWAD, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS: All these things that are happening are happening in the name of the United States.
SHAWN (on camera): Mrs. Clinton say she didn't know about Mr. Alamoudi's statements supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. As for Mr. Awad, he refused to do an interview. This could turn out to be a decisive issue in this very close race.
In New York, Eric Shawn, Fox News.
The New York Post
November 3, 2000, Friday All Editions; Pg. 026
HILL'S MUSLIM DONOR RIPPED AMERICA WITH DESTROY' TALK
NILES LATHEM
The controversial Muslim leader whose contribution to Hillary Rodham Clinton set off a political storm once advocated the destruction of the United States, but said violence should not be launched inside its borders.
Abdurahman Alamoudi told the Islamic Association of Palestine in Chicago on Dec. 29, 1996:
"I think if we are outside this country, we can say oh, Allah, destroy America, but once we are here, our mission in this country is to change it.
"There is no way for Muslims to be violent in America, no way. We have other means to do it. You can be violent anywhere else but in America."
Alamoudi is a founder of the American Muslim Council. His vocal support of Mideast terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah led Clinton last week to return his $1,000 contribution.
George W. Bush also returned a $1,000 contribution from Alamoudi.
Alamoudi did not respond directly to questions about speeches he has made, but insisted that he does not advocate terrorism.
"We cannot support people who do foolish things, because it will hurt our community," he said.
Shortly after he gave the Chicago speech, Alamoudi signed on as a goodwill ambassador for the U.S. Information Agency and took six all-expenses-paid trips to Pakistan, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Lebanon, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan and other countries to give speeches on Islamic life in America.
During one State Department trip, in January 1999, he gave an interview to the Al-Arab al-Yom newspaper in which he bitterly complained about the treatment American Muslims receive from the FBI and the CIA.
In the interview given while Alamoudi was the State Department's envoy, he said "there is not a single Muslim in the United States who is not convinced" that President Clinton ordered the 1998 bombing of Iraqi military sites "in order to deflect from his domestic crises" involving the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And he criticized Clinton's missile attacks against terror mastermind Osama bin Laden's base camps in Afghanistan and a chemical factory in the Sudan.
"Yes, those were stupid bombings," Alamoudi said.
The State Department had no immediate comment on Alamoudi's statements and fund-raising activities.
But earlier this week a spokesman said he has gotten "positive evaluation" from embassy officials in the countries where Alamoudi gave speeches.
The New York Post
November 5, 2000, Sunday
All Editions; Pg. 020 MODERATE' MUSLIM LEADER SHOCKED AT FLAP
NILES LATHEM
Abdurahman Alamoudi is amazed his fiery anti-Israel stance has put him at the center of the Muslim flap in the New York Senate race - since he calls himself a "moderate, conservative" seeking the American dream.
The 48-year-old biochemist, who lives in Washington with his family, says he's angry because, after two years of carefully cultivating the Clinton administration - attending White House functions, appointing Muslim clerics in the U.S. military, and working as State Department goodwill emissary - First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton wants nothing to do with him.
She's returned $50,000 in campaign funds he helped raise for her race against Rick Lazio, as well as a personal $1,000 contribution.
Alamoudi said he feels he - and his cause - are victims of hardball politics being waged by "Zionists" and by Republican contender Lazio, whose camp blasted Clinton for her links to him. The fierce battle in the hot-house atmosphere of the New York campaign that produced days of headlines linking Alamoudi and his American Muslim Council to terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah has taken its toll.
Other contributions are being returned by politicians, including GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush, who gave back $1,000 from Alamoudi.
And the AMC leadership, fearing the extremist agenda Alamoudi appears to be espousing is hurting the cause of Muslims in America, issued a statement claiming Alamoudi no longer speaks for the organization he helped found - and may soon vote to oust him from the organization.
"What have I learned from this? The controversy has strengthened my resolve to be more careful about what I say," Alamoudi said.
Critics say Alamoudi is now engaging in damage control, trying to put the best face on a questionable background that also includes defense of the World Trade Center bombers, membership in an organization that has been accused in two courtrooms of being a Hamas front, and allegations of shady fund-raising from mysterious Middle Eastern financiers.
Federal law-enforcement and anti-terrorist officials say the vast majority of Muslim charity and religious groups in this country are law-abiding and charitable.
But officials add that, in some cases, terrorist groups such as Hamas and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda hide behind religious and charitable groups and take advantage of religious and political freedom in the United States to raise funds, recruit operatives and disseminate information.
In Alamoudi's case, there appears to be a gray area - a murky netherworld that falls somewhere in between.
Steven Emerson, the journalist-turned-anti-terrorist crusader whose research led to news stories that forced the first lady to return Alamoudi's campaign cash, insists that Alamoudi is a dangerous man because he espouses and perpetuates the extremist Islamic agenda.
"He's not a terrorist. But he's emblematic of the great deception perpetrated by militant Muslim fundamentalists who are trying to hide under the veneer of being mainstream," Emerson said.
Alamoudi's background does not fit the typical terrorist profile.
Born to a family of wealth and privilege in Eritrea, he was trained in biochemistry, and intended to be a pharmacist after graduating from Cairo University in Egypt in 1975. He said he came to the United States in 1976 to flee war.
He became active in Muslim student affairs during an internship at the Boston Medical Center in the early 1980s.
He founded the American Muslim Council in 1990 and became a familiar and provocative sound-bite on TV news shows about events - including Mideast terrorism - involving Muslims.
He defended the World Trade Center bombers and said the blast's convicted mastermind, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, was not a terrorist. He has called Hamas a "freedom-fighting organization."
He also appears to have close ties to Musa Abu Marzook, the infamous Hamas leader jailed for two years in the United States before being extradited to Jordan in 1997.
The two were board members of the United Association for Research and Studies, a group that has been described in two court cases as the political leadership command of Hamas.
In a 1995 Washington Post interview, Alamoudi said of Marzook: "I know the man; he is a moderate man on many issues . . . He is the most gracious person, soft-spoken. He is for dialogue."
Alamoudi's high media profile seems to have gotten the attention of the White House.
In the late 1990s, he made several visits there on behalf of American Muslims - either to participate in Muslim holiday ceremonies, or to press issues of concern to his community.
Despite his incendiary speeches and questionable contacts, Alamoudi rose to higher prominence during the Clinton administration.
He was named to a special Pentagon panel to appoint Muslim clerics in the armed forces and as a special emissary for the State Department.
New York Observer
November 6, 2000 MEDIA&SOCIETY; Off The Record
The Murky Steve Emerson Surfaces in the Senate Race
Gabriel Snyder
(snip)
Those who follow Middle Eastern affairs likely recognized a name cited in the Daily News account: Steven Emerson. Mr. Emerson, a Washington, D.C. -- based researcher and freelance journalist, has made a career out of plotting the intricate networks that connect Arab organizations and link them to Islamic militants. Mr. Emerson told Off the Record it was he who brought the story to the attention of the Daily News. Why? He cites a broader context, one he has written about for years: the mainstreaming of militant Islamic groups through political organization. "You have a mosaic here, which I have provided to the New York Daily News," Mr. Emerson said. "There was no grand plan or effort that this article was designed to sink her candidacy."
The story may not sink the Clinton candidacy, but in the final days of the campaign, the issue is dominating coverage.
The News story said that Mrs. Clinton had raised $50,000 at a fund-raiser in Boston on June 13 hosted by the American Muslim Alliance, a pro-Palestinian organization. Further, the story reported that she had accepted a $1,000 contribution from a board member of the American Muslim Council, who once visited the White House and later said he went there and "defended what is called Hamas," the Palestinian group which the State Department has branded a terrorist organization.
The day the story appeared, Mrs. Clinton announced at a press conference that she was returning the $51,000. The next day, the story was on the front page of The New York Times, and the New York Post picked up Mr. Lazio's incendiary characterization of the contribution: "Blood Money."
Mr. Emerson has had a long and controversial tenure as a counterterrorism expert. He produced a documentary for PBS entitled Jihad in America, which traced Middle Eastern terrorist groups into the United States. He also wrote a book, The Fall of Pan Am 103, about the jet bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, as well as articles for The New Republic and the Wall Street Journal. In the process, he has generated criticism from Arab-American groups, some of which Mr. Emerson has written about.
His controversial moment, though, came in 1995 when, as a consultant for CBS News, he suggested that Islamic fundamentalists were responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing. "Oklahoma City, I can tell you," Mr. Emerson said the day of the bombing, "is probably considered one of the largest centers of Islamic radical activity outside the Middle East." He added, "This was done with the attempt to inflict as many casualties as possible. That is a Middle Eastern trait."
Mr. Emerson defended those remarks: "The information was correct at the time that it was stated, in the same way when one reports about an ongoing investigation, that's what the prevalent belief was," he said.
By the next day, however, reports surfaced that two white males having nothing to do with Middle Eastern politics were the suspects. Said one reporter: "I learned from Oklahoma City never to listen to the guy."
(snip)
The Washington Times
December 17, 2000, Sunday, Final Edition PART B; COMMENTARY; Pg. B4
Misjudged Muslims
Mustafa Elhussein
Much has been written and said in recent days about the Hillary Clinton campaign returning checks of the former executive director of the American Muslim Council, Abdurahman Alamoudi. This is further evidence, we are told, that Muslims have been systematically excluded from the political process by those who wish to maintain a monopoly over political power.
Several top American journalists and pundits, such as columnist Richard Cohen and ABC Commentator George Stephanopoulos, have suggested that only a few, renegade members of these groups have expressed hatred toward the U.S. and support for Middle East terrorist groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. They argue that these Muslim organizations have been unjustly blamed for the foolish acts of a few of their members. As a Muslim and secretary of the IbnKhaldun Society, an Islamic cultural organization, I have a very different perspective, one that I believe is shared by the majority of Muslims in the United States. Many of us in the Muslim community have been continually frustrated by self-appointed leaders who spew hatred toward America and the West and yet claim to be the legitimate spokespersons for the American Muslim community. These groups openly sympathize with Hamas, which the State Department has labeled a terrorist groups, and Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group responsible for acts such as the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut.
Most Muslims, if they have even heard of the American Muslim Council, the Council for American Islamic Relations, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and other such Islamist groups, regard these self-appointed spokesmen as impostors. Indeed, there is a great deal of bitterness that such groups have tarnished the reputation of mainstream Muslims, who do not share their sympathies with Middle East terrorist groups.
Like other immigrant groups, most Muslims want to avail themselves of the opportunities America has to offer and want nothing to do with these hateful, radical ideologies.
Just a few weeks ago, Mr. Alamoudi, the leading figure of the American Muslim Council since its inception in 1991, used the occasion of a demonstration in front of the White House to exclaim "Hear that Bill Clinton: We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah."
With such "leaders" at the helm, it is no wonder that things took an ugly turn when, at one D.C. demonstration over the situation in the Middle East, participants began to shout "Khaibar, Khaibar ya Yahud." or "Slaughter the Jews." Such calls are totally at odds with our tradition and a shameful violation of the standards of behavior toward other religions codified in the Koran. We Muslims consider Jews and Christians as spiritual kin, our Holy Book calls them "People of the Book."
When confronted with rifts in the Muslim community, Americans naturally assume such divisions are similar to the tensions existing between various churches or denominations within the Christian and Jewish communities. But schisms in the Muslim community today belong to a very different category. They are between mainstream Muslim immigrants who come to these shores to embrace America, and those who front for a radical political movement, referred to as Islamists. Such groups should not only be kept at arms length from the political process, they should be actively opposed as extremists.
Those in the media who decry the bias against Muslims are not doing mainstream Muslims any favors. They should look at the record of statements of those Islamist leaders and label them the hate-mongers that they are. Only then will we hear the authentic and moderate voice of the American Muslim community.
Mustafa Elhussein is a lawyer and secretary of the IbnKhaldun Society, an Islamic cultural association.
