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"Since the terrorist attacks on our nation in September, American
Muslims and groups that
represent them, have been the target of an unprecedented smear
campaign. These smears
have
been distributed by fax, e-mail and direct communication with
journalists and
government officials in an attempt to create links between
legitimate Muslim groups and
terrorists," said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.
CAIR
is an Islamic advocacy group based in Washington. This group called
for an end of
what
they say is an “Islamophobic smear campaign” against the American
Muslim
community and its leaders.
"On
almost a daily basis, we have been forced to defend our organization
to well-meaning
reporters who have been given information that is false, misleading
or ridiculously out of
context." Added Ibrahim Hooper.
At
the same time Hooper said: “"One of the first rules of political
debate is to avoid restating
the
charge of an opponent. But these malicious rumors have been spread
so far and wide
that
we've taken this extraordinary step to make sure journalists and
politicians understand
they
are being misled. "CAIR should be judged on its work, not on a few
false and distorted
slurs promoted by those who would seek to bar Muslims from political
participation and
influence "Media professionals and elected officials have a
responsibility not to let
themselves be used as unwitting tools in a campaign of defamation
and political
disenfranchisement.
We
ask that journalists and policy-makers examine the agenda of those
who are making
these false allegations and to refrain from assisting anyone who
would seek to silence the
voice of an entire American religious minority or to undermine the
President's assertions
that
we are engaged in a war on terrorism, not against Islam or Muslims.
"The seven-million
strong American Muslim community can serve as a bridge of
understanding to the Islamic
world during this time of national and international crisis. It goes
against our nation's
interests to let vocal and politically influential special-interest
groups dictate American
domestic policy or to drag our country into partisan disputes that
will impede efforts to form
an
international coalition against all forms of terrorism.
We
ask our fellow Americans for their support in resisting attempts to
divide us as a people
or
to drag our nation into a wider conflict with the Muslim world.”
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