A round of soul-searching among Muslims

That climate of suspicion, when coupled with a sympathy to terrorists' pet political causes and a perception that the US is clamping down on civil liberties, might nudge a few young American Muslims into extremism, some suggest.

Mohamad Ahmad, a senior at the University of California at Los Angeles and president of Muslim Student Associations-West, cites the post-9/11 arrests of some Muslim leaders accused of having ties to terror groups. The arrests of these imams, whom he characterizes as moderates, left a void in the community - and may have made Muslim youths more susceptible to actual extremist preachers and websites, he says. Young people may turn to someone whose "whole platform is ignorance," says Mr. Ahmad. "They don't impact a community. But they can get to a few individuals."

In the past two years, law officers have picked up mosque leaders in Albany, N.Y., Anaheim and Lodi, Calif., Cleveland, and Philadelphia. Some await trial; others have been deported. A few have been sacked by their own congregations.

Ahmad acknowledges that the "ignorant" leaders try to gain credence by building on a perception of US persecution of Muslims. Notably, each of the 11 Muslims interviewed for this article felt their community is unfairly linked to terrorist actions - and wondered why Muslims are asked to account for every terrorist event.

Why, they ask, are they so often associated with "deranged loners," a label Ibrahim Hooper, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, applies to the London bombers.

Mr. Hooper, for one, does not agree that Muslims in the US have now become more vigilant against extremism. "First you have to examine the premise of 'Are there extremists within the Muslim community?' If we knew they were there, of course we would point them out. I haven't seen preaching of hatred in any mosque I've been in," he says.

Ahmad allows that extremism may exist here, but says the suspicion that his faith equals guilt is vexing. "It's kind of like pulling someone over every day and saying, 'Were you speeding?' and being, like, 'No.' "

To combat that suspicion, some younger Muslims have rallied behind a fatwa, or religious injunction, issued July 28 by North American Muslim leaders. They say it's significant that the fatwa not only denounced terrorism, but extremism too - a term that could include, to a degree, support of political movements that call for the annihilation of Israel, or of Middle Eastern regimes that marginalize women.

"The voice of American Muslim youth is essential at this tenuous time, and we will rise to the occasion of making our values heard.... We seek to cultivate a culture of pluralism, tolerance, and coexistence for the advancement of all people," says a July 21 statement from M-PAC and Islamic Society of North America.

"This has been played [in the media] as a fatwa against terrorism," says Ms. Lekovic. "But it points out that extremism is also outside the norms of Islam. Calling into question these other issues is much more significant."

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