when the blame game stops

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   By PARVEZ AHMED, The Press-Enterprise, July 14, 2005
 http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/syndicated/stories/PE_Op Ed_Opinion_D_op_15_cair.1f67cc9.html 

Following the bomb blasts in London last week, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "The vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims both here and abroad are decent and law-abiding people who abhor this kind of terrorism every bit as much as we do." 

Even Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Brian Paddick said that "Islam and terrorism do not go together." 

Despite these sentiments, terrorism committed by Muslims is commonly referred to as "Islamic terrorism." This is a misnomer, as British writer Karen Armstrong points out in The Guardian newspaper, when she notes that acts of terrorism by the Irish Republican Army are not referred to as "Catholic terrorism." 

Following the bombings in London, every major Muslim group in America and abroad issued clear condemnations. "We join Americans of all faiths, and all people of conscience worldwide, in condemning these barbaric crimes," declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)." 

"Attacking civilians who are going about their daily business is a criminal act that violates Islamic principles and must be condemned by all Muslims," was the response from the Islamic Society of North America. 

The attacks also drew rebuke from senior officials in several Muslim countries. 

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said, "On behalf of the Syrian people and myself, we denounce these awful actions." Abdulmohsen al-Akkas, Saudi Arabia's social affairs minister, called the bombings "a heinous act." Officials in Iraq, Iran, Egypt and Morocco also decried the attacks. 

Misperception about Islam's position against terrorism is making an already jittery American public even more suspicious. More importantly, it is also preventing meaningful dialogue between American Muslims and policy makers. 

This important step cannot be achieved as long as the American public remains misinformed about Islam in general and Muslim positions related to terrorism in particular. 

Only when the blame game stops can meaningful dialogue begin. American Muslims should make it their mission to build bridges of understanding between America and the Muslim world. This can happen when mainstream American Muslim groups are constructively engaged by policy- and opinion-makers. 

Parvez Ahmed, Ph.D., is board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy 