WASHINGTON, July 17, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The vast majority of peaceful Muslims should not be blamed for the work of a few disgruntled "criminals", a leading American Muslim activist said Sunday, July 17.

"The problem is that one or two criminals can create an impression that an entire community is to be blamed, and so you are always subject to those one or two people," Ibrahim Hooper, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"If you know the reality, you can see these handful of people as the aberration that they are -- the same way that we didn't say Catholicism was bad when the IRA was blowing up things in London."

CAIR, the leading US Muslim civil liberties group, is championing a nationwide television public service announcement to highlight Muslims' condemnation of terrorism and rejection of those who carry out terror attacks.

The "Not in the Name of Islam" ad, which will air nationwide by July 19, features two American Muslim women and Imam Johari Abdul-Malik.

"As Muslims, we want to state clearly that those who commit acts of terror in the name of Islam are betraying the teachings of the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)," they state in the 30-second ad.

The same point was made by imam Mohammad Adly of Gervais Street mosque during an open day organized Saturday, July 16, by the Islamic Center of Columbia.

He asked those gathered to reflect on the difference between the actions of individuals as opposed to their entire worldwide faith group, American local daily The State reported Sunday.

"The actions of some Muslims should not be seen as evidence against the entire Muslim faith, just as any wrong action by a Christian shouldn’t be seen as evidence against the Christian faith," Adly said.

He stressed that some verses of the Noble Qur’an are misinterpreted both by those who practice terrorism and those who are not familiar with Islam.

"Anybody can turn the verses of someone’s holy book around."

Wrote in The Guardian on Monday, July 11, famed British writer Karen Armstrong maintained that Islam should not be associated with terrorist acts committed by people who call themselves Muslims because they violate essential Islamic principles.

She also criticized stereotyping the Arabic word "jihad" as merely meaning holy war, adding that "jihad is a cherished spiritual value that, for most Muslims, has no connection with violence."

The open day, themed "Discover Islam," was the first such event held at the Gervais Street mosque, which serves a congregation of about 500 Muslims from the Columbia area.

"I believe in one god and I’ve learned that Islam says there’s one god as well," said Gary Ginn, a United Methodist.

"I think the bottom line is that both faiths believe there is only one god, not many. It’s interesting to learn what other people believe."

A library photo of US President George W. Bush meeting with American Muslim leaders.

Edina Lekovic of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) said last week's London bombings left him worried they might be next in line to face the chilling scenario of American-born Muslims turning against the homeland.

"The fact that these young men were British-born Muslims creates a degree of a different kind of anxiety within the community," he told AFP.

"If this could happen in the UK, it is our worst nightmare that it could happen here."

British police said four young British Muslims carried out attacks on three underground trains and a double-decker bus in London on Thursday, July 7, killing at least 55 people.

Their actions shocked the Muslim minority in Britain, as they all appeared well integrated into society, several came from middle-class families and they had shown little history of radicalism.

Lekovic said US Muslims are hoping that the special characteristics of the Muslim population in the US demographic "melting pot" will head off London-style attacks on the US mainland.

He asserted that America’s Muslims are typically more integrated, socially and politically, than their counterparts in Britain and other European nations.

"What we understand of the European Muslim community and even in the UK, there is a greater degree of Muslims living in enclaves.

"Muslims (in the United States) are living alongside their Christian and Jewish neighbors."

Some 35 percent to 40 percent of US Muslims are African Americans, 25 percent are South Asians and 15 percent are Arabs, according to MPAC.

The exact number of Muslims living in the US has been a matter of dispute, since the US Census Bureau does not sort people by religion. However, CAIR puts the number at seven million.

The minority came under scrutiny as never before after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

A May 2004 report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded that Arab Americans and the Muslim minority have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Amnesty International said that racial profiling by US law enforcement agencies had grown over the past years to cover one in nine Americans, mostly targeting Muslims.