September 18, 2010

BBC: "An American Face of Islam"

The BBC published a profile piece yesterday, which featured MPAC-DC staff members Alejandro Beutel & Fatma Hocaoglu, intern Karam Hijji, and MPAC-DC Advisory Board member J. Saleh Williams discussing faith, identity and American values.

"Our narrative here [in the U.S.] is really a collection of narratives, multiple identities and communities," says Beutel. "We have been extremely vocal in condemning terrorism, which is evident if you look at the phenomenon of home-grown terrorism. Al-Qaeda's home-grown terrorists have a near perfect track record of failing in almost every single terrorist attack - because the only people they're able to recruit now are idiots."

PBS Religion & Ethics News Weekly: "Muslims Combating Extremism"

Host Kim Lawton interviews MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati and Director of Policy & Programming Edina Lekovic during our 4th annual National Muslim American Young Leaders Summit which took place this summer in Washington, DC.

"In a post-9/11 reality, [young Muslim Americans] sometimes have a hard time believing that their own government and their own elected officials want to hear from them, or even care about their opinions, because what they see on their campuses and in their hometowns is a rising level of Islamophobia," says Lekovic.

Al-Jazeera English: "Anti-Islam Sentiment on the Rise"

Is Islamphobia motivated by politics, or is it just exaggerated and blown out of proportion by the world's media?

MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati joins Al Jazeera English's "Inside Story" to discuss these questions, alongside Richard Miniter (author of "Losing bin Laden and Shadow War") and Alastair Crooke (director of Conflicts Forum).

C-SPAN: "The Image of Muslims in the U.S."

The Congressional Muslim Staffers Association hosted a special event called "Islam: Myths and Realities" for staffers on the Hill, which featured MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati, Arab American Institute President James Zogby and Aziza al-Hibri, President of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights.

Panelists talked about the image of Muslims in the U.S. Topics included the controversy surrounding the Islamic Center near Ground Zero in New York City. They also talked about increasing hostility toward Islam, the traditional practice of Islam in America, and opposing radical fundamentalism.