American Muslims Five Years Later - PBS Show

VIDEO: AMERICAN MUSLIMS FIVE YEARS LATER PBS Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, 9/8/06




Watch video:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1002/feature.html#



BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: After the attack by Islamic radicals five years ago, American Muslims feared violent reprisals against them.
Those did not happen, but today many Muslims in this country say they live under the specter of suspicion. They feel their neighbors don't trust them and their government threatens them, as Saul Gonzalez reports. . .

HUSSAM AYLOUSH (Executive Director, CAIR Southern California): In 2001, when the American Muslim community was introduced to the FBI was when we were being suspected as a whole community. Muslims were visited at 3:00 a.m, They were visited in their home and their schools.

GONZALEZ: Hussam Ayloush is the executive director of the Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights and advocacy group. Although Muslim Americans still have concerns about how the FBI investigates their community, Ayloush says much has improved through continued interaction and improved communication.

Mr. AYLOUSH: Things have changed, and I have to admit to that. The positive atittude from the leadership of the FBI on the national level, but also on the local level, the openness, the agreement to work with the Muslim community as partners rather than suspects has made a big difference. Even when someone is being questioned, there is a high level of respect that is being presented and reflected in the attitude of the FBI towards Muslims.