JEDDAH, 5 July — A delegation of top Muslim leaders from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Egypt stopped in Chicago this week to offer a voice of "tolerance and moderation" after the Sept. 11 attacks and seek an end to the new media trend here of stereotyping Muslims, Saudi Press Agency quoted the Chicago Sun Times newspaper as saying.
"Sept. 11 had nothing to do with Islam and Muslims," said Dr. Al-Shieck Ahmad Lemu, president of the Islamic Educational Endowment in Nigeria. "Don’t define Muslims based on them," he said, referring to the terrorists who carried out the attacks.
Lemu is one of a dozen Muslim leaders, scholars and lawyers on a four-city "goodwill" tour organized by the Makkah-based Muslim World League.
The group is meeting with law enforcement officials, academics, inter-faith groups and the media in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles "to extend a hand of friendship and create a dialogue among Muslims and non-Muslims," Abdullah Al—Turki, secretary- general of the league, told a press conference.
The group met with FBI, Immigratio and Naturalization Service and police officials on Monday morning and was assured that "all citizens will be treated equally," said Mustafa I. Siric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"We notice a positive wind of change," Lemu said.
"There is clearly a better understanding of Muslims." Still, there is much work to be done, the delegates said.
"This is just one drop in a sea of efforts to meet this crisis," said Ahmad Abulmagd, the Arab League official responsible for the dialogue between civilizations.
Several delegates decried the continued trend to equate Islam with terrorism.
"You’re giving them a label they don’t deserve," Siric said. He and others were particularly disturbed by the term "Islamic fundamentalist," saying the word "fundamentalist" in Arabic simply describes someone who adheres to fundamental principles of Islam.
"Fundamentalist is understood as something intolerant, irrational and symbolic of violence," said Muzamil Siddiqi, former president of the Islamic Society of North America.. "All of those things aren’t Islamic."
