Muslims

Re "Current Events Test O.C. Schools," Sept. 24: The Orange Crescent School community was shocked at the negative sentiment and anti-American overtone of the article and questions your reporter's intention. We appreciate The Times' effort to facilitate a better understanding of Islam to the general public, however, we are concerned that the article unfortunately did more harm than good. We have received numerous disturbing telephone calls and letters mentioning the article and its suggestion that we are demeaning America and misguiding innocent children.

The Islamic teacher sat on the wooden porch of his house smiling politely, his infant son playing at his feet. Those who study the Koran are automatically suspect, Dul Nasir Hama said, adding that he's not a terrorist nor are his students part of the insurgency. As he spoke, a Thai army patrol skirted the grounds of his madrasa in Pattani, a jungle area of southern Thailand with a long history of violent clashes between Malay Muslims and Thai Buddhists. "They're afraid to come in here," he said.

Only days after British authorities foiled an alleged plot to blow up airliners en route from Britain to the United States, Muslim leaders and law enforcement officials in Southern California urged the public Monday not to demonize the Islamic community. At a news conference Monday at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles, the leaders and officials said Muslims worldwide have helped authorities fight terror.

Muslim employees of the Department of Defense are protesting plans for the Rev. Franklin Graham, who has called Islam an evil religion, to perform Good Friday prayers at the Pentagon. In letters to the Pentagon chaplain's office, Muslim office workers said they were dismayed by the choice of Graham and urged officials to find "a more inclusive and honorable Christian clergyman" to lead Friday's service.

Heads of state and foreign ministers from 51 Muslim nations around the world will convene today and Wednesday in this Moroccan city for the seventh annual Islamic summit. The deteriorating situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is likely to head the agenda as members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference debate what role the Muslim world can play in aiding the Muslim-led Bosnian government in the immediate future.

Re "An interpreter of Islam roams Big Sky State with a message," April 1 I applaud the retired Foreign Service officer's efforts to better inform Americans about the nature and beliefs of Islam. However, since 9/11 the voices we should have been hearing were those of the holy leaders of Muslims who eschew violence and the killing of innocents. Such voices united, regularly and forcefully proclaiming this credo, could well over time convince many potential terrorist recruits that it is impermissible for their religion to be the basis of suicide bombings and similar fanatical acts.

President Bush apologized for the Secret Service's asking a member of a group of Muslims who came to a White House meeting Thursday to leave, prompting the others to walk out. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush was angry about the incident, calling it a mistake by the Secret Service and "wrong and inappropriate." The Muslim leaders, who were at the Old Executive Office Building for a meeting with Rev.

The Islamic Center of Southern California condemned the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait this week as "alien" to Muslim principles. Dr. Maher Hathout, spokesman for the center, said Iraq may couch its goals in religious language but "there is no Islam in that mess. The Islamic stand, as stated in the Koran, is quite clear that disputes should not be solved by violence."

An Islamic civil rights group accused U.S. border agents Wednesday of religious profiling after dozens of American Muslims were searched, fingerprinted and photographed on return from a religious conference in Toronto. Some of those stopped said they were held at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge for six hours or more with no explanation.

The actions of Muslim terrorists are no more representative of the majority of Muslim people than the actions of Timothy McVeigh were representative of the majority of patriotic Americans. Targeting all Muslims and Arabs for blame is about as smart and effective as it would have been to "hunt down and punish" all white American males after the Oklahoma City bombing. Too many of us keep referring to the Palestinians who were dancing in the streets. Have we already forgotten the Gulf War and how many of us were celebrating those bombings?