News Release

Islam — and War

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DONNA MARSH O’CONNOR
TALAT HAMDANI
O’Connor and Hamdani are members of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. O’Connor’s daughter was killed in the 9/11 attacks. Hamdani is a Pakistani-American living in New York. Her son, Salman, was a New York City police cadet who disappeared on 9/11 and was wrongfully accused of participating in the attacks. When his body was identified at the World Trade Center months later, it was believed that he had gone to the scene to provide help.

STEPHEN WALT
Available for a limited number of interviews, Walt wrote the piece “Why they hate us (II): How many Muslims has the U.S. killed in the past 30 years?“.

Author of a number of books, Walt is professor of international relations at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

ABDUL MALIK MUJAHID
Also available for a limited number of interviews, Abdul Malik Mujahid is an Imam in Chicago, president of Sound Vision Foundation and chairman of the Council for a Parliament of World Religions. He said today: “The hidden issue is war. War requires the demonization of people. Hate-mongers are using this environment to target vulnerable minorities, like Muslims, or Latinos, and you have politicians like Sarah Palin who will latch on to that.

“Muslims have done a lot of condemning terrorism as well as outreach in the U.S. in the last decade, but it hasn’t accomplished much. They’ve been too silent on issues of war and peace, and haven’t been as active in civil society as they should be.”

Mujahid’s pieces include: “Why Do Afghans Have a Life Expectancy of Only 44 Years?

He also wrote about the issue of President Obama visiting American churches and synagogues during his election campaign, but not a mosque, in a piece titled “Engaging American Muslims Will Give a Far Better Message to the Muslim World than Speeches.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167