Muslim Message Decries
Terrorism
By Michael Turnbell,
Near one of South Florida's busiest crossroads, a new billboard
aims to tell people about the real Islam.
With the American flag visible
in the background, the message reads: "Islam Condemns
Terrorism, Islam Stands for Peace & Justice, Explore the
Qur'an."
The Florida office of the Council
on American-Islamic Relations hopes the ad along Florida's
Turnpike near Interstate 595 in Davie will fight the perception
that Muslims share the same violent convictions as the Islamic
fundamentalists behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and
recent bombings abroad.
"Four years later, one
would imagine the incidents of discrimination and harassment
against Muslims would diminish. Quite the opposite has happened,"
said Altaf Ali, Florida director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations.
The Washington D.C.-based CAIR
has recorded nearly 300 hate crimes against Florida Muslims
since Sept. 11, 2001. Many of the hijackers lived in South
Florida before they boarded the planes they crashed into the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the worst terrorist
attack on US soil.
In May, vandals threw a rock
through a glass door at the Islamic School of Miami. In June,
drivers rammed the school's gate with a car. Last year, the
mosque reported the scrawling of an expletive and a Nazi swastika
on an exterior sign.
The number marks a sharp
increase from just 12 incidents recorded the year before the
terrorist attacks. (Courtesy Sun Sentinel, 9/12/05
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-csecurity12sep12,0,6595398.story)
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