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U.S. Muslim Leaders Agree to Help Victims, Protect Muslims Against Aggression
By Ayesha Ahmad
WASHINGTON, Sept 12 (IslamOnline) - A group of U.S. Muslim and Arab organizations agreed at a meeting Wednesday that the most important thing for Muslim Americans to do in the wake of Tuesday's devastating attacks was to focus on helping the hundreds of surviving victims.
Abdulwahab Alkebsi, director of the Islamic Institute in Washington, where the meeting was held, said that chapters and affiliates of the Islamic Institute all over the country had started blood drives Tuesday night, and that the groups agreed to work together to organize such drives in the coming days.
"We also agreed to call Friday a day of mourning," Alkebsi said, "and to ask all our imams during
khutba [sermon] to say a prayer for the victims of this terrorist act."
Several Washington-based national groups were represented at the meeting, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), American Muslims for Jerusalem (AMJ), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the American Muslim Alliance (AMA) and the Islamic Institute, as well as Arab representation groups such as the Arab American Institute (AAI) and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).
Alkebsi said the groups would ask Muslims to organize blood drives at mosques on Friday, when they go for the obligatory noon prayers. They have also called upon law enforcement agencies to put extra effort into providing protection for Muslim places of prayer this Friday, in light of the growing number of attacks against Muslims and their businesses and religious centers.
The issue of "what we can do to help the victims of this terrorist attack" was the first of a three-pronged plan of action that the Muslim and Arab groups established at Wednesday's meeting.
The second had to do with the protection of Muslim- and Arab-Americans, as nationwide anger at the terrorist attacks, compounded by media and government speculation of the various possible Middle East links, turned towards anyone who "appeared" to be Muslim or Arab in any way.
"What do we do to protect Muslim-Americans from a possible backlash?" Alkebsi asked.
He said the groups had decided that CAIR and AMC, as the "preeminent civil rights organizations in the Muslim Arab community," would work to compile a record of information regarding hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs, from which other organizations could draw as needed in the coming weeks.
The organizations would also work to produce clear and easy-to understand guidelines on how to handle and respond to hate crimes, in terms of reporting to police and to the Justice Department, which each group would mail to every member on its mailing list.
Lastly, Alkebsi said, the groups agreed that it was vital to involve the government in every step.
"We need to get [the] administration - Congress, the Department of Justice [and others] - to issue statements in support of the Muslim community," he said.
Alkebsi spoke very positively about the meeting, emphasizing the collaborating spirit of the groups and their willingness to be as deeply involved in the nation's healing as every other group.
"Everybody was on the same chapter," he said, "everybody was putting aside any differences. It was one of the best meetings [I ever had] with the Muslim and Arab leaders."
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