A library photo of US Muslims and non-Muslims sharing Iftar

FLORIDA , November 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Seeking to create a better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims in American society, Muslim activists have launched a mosque effort to assuage doubts and fears stemming from misconceptions about Islam.

"Since Sept. 11, people have been getting the wrong impression of Muslim people," Florida’s much-hit PalmBeachPost.com quoted Tuesday, November 9, as saying Mohammad Osman Chowdhury, president of the Muslim Community of Palm Beach County.

"We want to show others who we are. We are Americans and we have a voice."

Arena Maleque, 15, a Muslim student at Suncoast High school said her neighbors had no longer spoken to her since the September attacks.

"People didn't understand the difference between ordinary Muslims and the terrorists," Maleque said.

"It took awhile for them to understand that I'm a normal teenager. My religion is just different."

A May report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded that the Muslim community in the United States has taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Iftar Token 

The Muslim heartfelt effort includes inviting non-Muslims to share Iftar banquets with Muslims during the holy fasting month of Ramadan with around 300 people attending the event in a suburban West Palm Beach mosque.

"We should have done this earlier," Pakistan native Salim Khan said.

"Now, we need to do it more often. We need to reach out to the public."

A member of an interfaith clergy group in the US , attending the Iftar banquet with his wife, highlighted the importance of the Muslim effort to help enhance understanding among followers of other religions.

"We look to the mainstream, moderate majority for peace resolutions in the Middle East ," Rabbi Geoffrey Botnick of Temple Torah in suburban Boynton Beach said.

Dan Liftman, an assistant to US Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, echoed the same message, saying the Americans should learn more about Islam.

"There's a lot of ignorance, and we tend to pigeonhole everyone very easily," Liftman said.

Last month, US Muslim organizations launched a nationwide campaign in Ramadan, in a similar effort to reach out to non-Muslims and create a better understanding of misunderstood Islam.

The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations - the largest US Islamic civil liberties group – has also run radio advertisements intended to educate the public about Ramadan.

Interviewed by IslamOnlin.net, many Americans said that they see US Muslims as “part and parcel” of society and having “excellent values”.