U.S. Muslim Community

Re “It Matters What Kind of Islam Prevails,” Commentary, July 22: Daniel Pipes presents a picture of the American Muslim community as hostile and threatening to the U.S., with institutions mainly run by Muslim “chauvinists” who seek to “make the United States a Muslim country.” This is a preposterous inversion of reality.

In fact, the Arab American and American Muslim communities find themselves under constant attack for their identity and faith in our country. From “The Mummy” to “The Siege,” Arab and Muslim Americans find themselves under a constant barrage of negative images from Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Whenever tragedy strikes, from the federal building in Oklahoma City to the crash of TWA Flight 800, Arab Americans and Muslims find themselves guilty until proven innocent.

The real question before our country is not “what kind of Islam prevails,” but rather “what kind of America prevails.” Will it be an America where people like Salam Al-Marayati are barred from government service, where dozens of Arabs are held in prison without charge on the basis of secret evidence and where the entertainment industry resorts to constant defamation of an entire people? Or will it be a society that, true to its founding principles, rejects the wolf cries of fear mongers and hate peddlers and embraces the Arab American and Muslim communities without prejudice?

HUSSEIN IBISH

Communications Director

American-Arab

Anti-Discrimination Committee

Washington

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Every new religious or ethnic community in the United States has had to face unfair accusations and stereotyping by individuals who either are unable or unwilling to be open-minded. In 1999, Islam and Muslim Americans have had to take the brunt of self-serving individuals such as Pipes and his false and hateful accusations.

Pipes now talks about his fictional explanation of how Muslims seek to turn America into another Sudan. Throw this one into the bin with the Jewish bankers who rule the world’s economy, the Catholic politicians who get their orders from the pope and gays trying to convert children to homosexuality.

I hope independent-thinking Americans can look to Muslim Americans as just like anyone else: hard-working people trying to make a better life.

HASHIM S. RAZA

St. Louis