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Muslims Meet to Discuss Community Issues After Terror Attacks
by Ayesha Ahmad
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (IslamOnline) - Beyond the united reaction of grief and horror after the September 11th terror attacks on New York and Washington, many Muslims have begun to turn inwards, looking at the structure and function of their community here in the United States as it came under scrutiny all over the country.
As Muslims nationwide work to come to grips with the issues raised by the attacks and search for ways to reveal the truth about Islam to their fellow American citizens, a group of Muslims from the Washington/Northern Virginia communities came together Sunday for a "town hall meeting" to listen to each other's viewpoints on the past, present and future of the Muslim community in America.
"The reason why people did not want to learn about Islam [before] is because it wasn't deemed important to learn about," said Anwar al-Awlaki, imam of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, where community members met.
"Now the people are seeing that it is very important to learn about."
The importance of teaching their communities about Islam was echoed throughout the meeting, in which attendees broke up into discussion groups and then came back together to share their thoughts.
Nearly all the groups argued that it was imperative for Muslims to become more active and involved in their communities, from outreach programs to taking on non-Islamic issues, such as drug abuse, abortion and domestic and school violence.
"We should adopt societal issues as our own, because they are our own," said organizer Khaled Elgindy.
And one participant, who preferred to remain anonymous, reminded the crowd that, "Everyone is an ambassador of Islam. We need to remember that."
In focusing on the current state of Muslims in America, many said they were "not impressed" with the establishment of the Muslim community here so far, and felt that local mosques and religious centers should have done more outreach and interfaith dialogue before September 11th.
Some also said that internal problems prevented Muslim communities from being able to interact with other groups and from presenting a cohesive image of Islam.
"There are so many divisions within our Muslim community here in America," said participant Homeyra Mokhtarzada, a journalist with CNN, "and particularly in this time, we need to be united."
Nearly every discussion group also agreed that Muslim communities needed to empower the women among them, and include women in outreach activities, both to strengthen their own community and to combat negative images about Muslim women.
All the groups stated the urgent need to use community work, outreach and tolerance for each other's viewpoints to shed light on true Islam - not the distortions that may have been used to validate the terror attacks - and bring a greater understanding of the faith to Americans.
As participant Rebecca ElAhmar from Virginia said, "Islam is for everyone, and America is for everyone, and something about that makes it perfect."
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