MPAC CALLS ON US MUSLIM LEADERS TO EMPHASIZE UNITY AFTER ANTI-SHIA ATTACKS IN DETROIT

(Washington, DC - 1/12/07)—The Muslim Public Affairs Council today condemned attacks carried out against at least a dozen Shia Muslim-owned businesses and mosques in Detroit just days ago, calling them a threat to previously healthy relations in the American Muslim community.

SEE: “Damage to Businesses and Mosques in Detroit Raises Wider Fears” (Detroit Free Press, 1/9/07) http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070109/NEWS01/701090400/1003/NEWS01

MPAC called on American Muslim leaders of all backgrounds to condemn both the attacks and the religious edict in order to make clear that American Muslim reject such divisiveness.

“We will not allow the senseless violence and finger pointing that has exploited the conflict in Iraq and the surrounding region to invade our shores,” said MPAC Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati. “As we’ve said for years, a climate of intolerance in the Muslim world against the Shia has been fermented in part by poisonous anti-Shia teachings.”

The attacks took place against the international backdrop of increased sectarian tensions resulting from the execution of convicted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the continuing escalation of sectarian violence in Iraq, and a widely denounced religious opinion issued by a Sunni Saudi cleric who declared all Shias as kafirs (or non-believers in Islam). MPAC encourages Muslim leaders to reinforce intrafaith relations and to prevent domestic tensions between Sunnis and Shias.

Last month, about 30 prominent Saudi Wahhabi clerics also called on Sunni Muslims around the Middle East to support their brethren in Iraq against Shiites and praised the anti-American insurgency. Since the first signs of sectarian conflict in Iraq became public in early 2004, MPAC has worked to promote intrafaith dialogue and understanding among American Shia and Sunni Muslims in order to prevent a domestic incarnation of rising discord in the Middle East.

SEE: “MPAC Condemns Anti-Shia Violence in Iraq” (MPAC, 3/3/04) http://www.mpac.org/article.php?id=158

In Summer 2005, MPAC held a series of townhall forums with nationally-recognized American Sunni and Shia leaders which resulted in a joint resolution condemning sectarian violence and expressing their commitment to call on internationally recognized Muslim scholars from Cairo (Egypt), Qum (Iran), and Najaf (Iraq) to make public statements deploring the bloodshed caused by the exploitation of sectarian differences.

 
SEE: “Muslim Leaders Sign Resolution Calling for End to Sectarian Violence in Iraq” (6/16/05) http://www.mpac.org/article.php?id=204

Founded in 1988, MPAC is a public service agency working for the civil rights of American Muslims, for the integration of Islam into American pluralism, and for a positive, constructive relationship between American Muslims and their representatives.