Muslim organizations around the country are making concerted efforts to distance themselves from violence that some associate with Islam after the Fort Hood shooting spree, allegedly by a U.S. Army major of Middle Eastern descent.
Shortly after the shooter, accused of killing 13 people, was identified as Nidal Malik Hasan, the Darul Islah mosque in Teaneck, N.J., posted a message on its Web site condemning the massacre.
Days later, the mosque posted another message, this time assailing a former Virginia imam's remarks praising Hasan. "Islam is a religion of peace," the mosque stressed. The imam's views, the site read, were "not those of American Muslims, and do not reflect mainstream Islamic beliefs or sentiments."
"It's a necessary evil," said Salaheddin Mustafa, president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of New Jersey. "If you don't respond — and explain that what this man did is contrary to how Muslims are raised and taught — you get criticized."
However, Mustafa said, "If you do respond, there will still be people who say we haven't done or said enough."
Many mosques have urged their congregants to be extra vigilant of their surroundings. Some, including the Teaneck mosque, have asked their local police departments to step up presence around the mosques.
Even before the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Muslims say, they felt dread whenever news broke about an act of terror, especially in the United States.
"You think, 'Please God, don't let it be a Muslim,'" said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington.
In Michigan, which has the largest Arab and Muslim population in the nation, Muslim leaders recently gathered to call for the maximum punishment for Hasan, emphasizing that his actions were not reflective of Islam. Imams in the Detroit area also denounced the imam who praised Hasan and is now in Yemen.
Muslims also wonder whether they are chipping away at or perpetuating stereo types of their community as violent when they make statements after each act of widely publicized violence involving a Muslim.
"Some ask why we have to answer for the actions of someone we don't even know and we had nothing to do with, like the Fort Hood shootings," Mustafa said. "Even if he said he did it because of Islam, I say so what? That may be what he said, but Islam is about peace. His actions were contrary to what Islam teaches."
