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Muslims denounce London attacks

They explain distance between themselves and radicals acting in name of Islam.

BLAKE MORLOCK
Tucson Citizen

The bombs went off in London and before Scotland Yard uttered the word "Islam," Muslims in Arizona and around the world were publicly denouncing the attacks.

The suspects in the bombings of the London Underground have since been identified in British media as Britons of Pakistani heritage.

In America, the Muslim American Society, the Muslim Student's Association and the Council on American Islamic Relations were quick to act and explain the distance between mainstream Muslims and radicals acting in the name of Islam.

On Friday, people in CAIR's Arizona office held a press conference in Phoenix condemning the attacks.

"Our response came fast and came furious," said Bushra Khan, CAIR Arizona spokeswoman.

"It's important in the post 9/11 world because Muslims are in the spotlight," Kahn said. "Unfortunately we are in the spotlight with people we have nothing to do with. So we have to speak out and explain that."

Muhammad As'ad, director of the Islamic Center of Tucson, was e-mailing to the media the condemnations from Muslims from around the world at 9:45 a.m. on the day of the blasts that killed more than 50 people.

By Sunday, his e-mails were titled, "Hoping to be heard this time."

The message was similar to the one delivered after the March 2004 attacks in Madrid and the September 2001 attacks in the United States, but more concerted and more aggressive.

"These people are not Muslims, and they are not acting in the name of Islam," As'ad said in an interview this week. "Islam forbids killing innocent people."

Irish terrorists of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Palestinian suicide bombers, so-called Islamists and Serbian aggressors of the last decade are cut from a similar cloth, he said.

Siraj Mufti, a retired University of Arizona professor and Muslim prison chaplain, said the Muslim outrage about the attacks flooded his in-box.

He takes issue with how the media tag terrorists as religious extremists when they seem more interested in politics than religion.

" 'Islamic terrorist' is the wrong word to use," he said. "Go find some other word because Islam does not condone it."

CAIR's Khan calls such perceptions a modern reality for Muslims, even if they aren't responsible for violence.

"I definitely experienced that with people," Khan said. "Why do we have to be the ones to jump out and do this? My response is that is the reality of the time we live in."