American Muslim leaders who have endorsed the war on terrorism are facing a growing backlash from community members concerned about the impact on Afghan civilians and broader U.S. war aims.
The concerns have led the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization with a large grass-roots base, to draft a statement calling for an end to the bombing in Afghanistan.
Other Muslim groups so far have declined to sign the statement, prompting the council to debate whether to issue it.
Some Muslim leaders hesitate to sign for fear of provoking a backlash in the wider population and projecting an image of being unpatriotic. Others fear alienating the Bush administration at a time the community has made great strides in gaining political influence in Washington. Several prominent Muslim organizations in the U.S. backed George W. Bush over Al Gore in the presidential campaign last year, seeking to create a unified Muslim political position for the first time.
The debate over the antiwar statement illuminates the divisions within the American Muslim community. Leaders until now have tried to portray a united front in support of U.S. policy. But significant opposition to that policy exists in the community.
"The Muslim leadership is in a real dilemma," said Aslam Abdullah, editor of the Minaret, a Muslim magazine in Los Angeles. "If they oppose the war, people will point their fingers and say they are soft on terrorism. But if they support it, they may be speaking against their conscience."
Abdullah, a board member of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, has opposed the attacks on Afghanistan from the beginning of the U.S. bombing campaign, but was unsuccessful in persuading his organization to adopt his view.
Instead, in a statement issued Oct. 7, the day the air campaign began, the council said it wholeheartedly endorsed the campaign on terrorism without explicitly addressing the military action.
Local representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said they received e-mails from members disappointed by what they perceived as a timid stand and de facto support of an attack on a Muslim country. Kaukab Siddique, editor of New Trend, a Muslim newspaper based on the East Coast, circulated a call for leaders of the council and other "bootlicker organizations" to resign if they wanted to be considered Muslim.
