Islamic leaders react to TV report

A recent investigation by an Indianapolis television news station concerning a suspected al Qaeda operative with Bloomington ties has sparked local concern, leading area Islamic leaders to call for a "more informed analysis" of terrorist threats.\nThe series, "Under Surveillance," concluded Wednesday night on NBC affiliate WTHR and has been deemed "sensational" by the Islamic Center of Bloomington, which issued a formal statement earlier this week. The report, led by WTHR reporter Angie Moreschi, focused on the FBI's probe into Juma al-Dosari, a prayer leader who worked for the Islamic Center of Bloomington in the summer of 2001. \nAl-Dosari has been confirmed by Indianapolis FBI special-agent-in-charge Tom Fuentes as part of an investigation into the "Lackawanna" terrorist sleeper cell outside Buffalo, NY. The cell was exposed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, and al-Dosari is believed to have been captured in Afghanistan and sent to Guantanamo Bay. \nThe WTHR report credits the Bahrain-born al-Dosari with helping recruit the "Lackawanna Six," six American citizens of Yemeni descent who trained at terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Al-Dosari allegedly encouraged young Muslims in Lackawanna to attend al Qaeda training camps; the Lackawanna Six emerged as a result of those exhortations. The last of the six pled guilty May 19 to supporting al Qaeda, the day the story ran on WTHR.\nMoreschi spoke with Amr Sabry, former president of the center and an IU professor of computer science, about al-Dosari's tenure there and revealed al-Dosari worked as a prayer and spiritual leader with possible Taliban sympathies. \nSabry claims the report fails to depict accurately what was said in the interview, which lasted over two hours, and the Islamic Center expressed similar sentiments.\n"The Bloomington Islamic Center is alarmed by the recent sensationalist story created for sweeps week by WTHR Channel 13 news," the center said in a statement. "We are hurt that images of our mosque are being juxtaposed with pictures of al Qaeda training camps to form a highly sensational segment."\nThis is not just a local issue. Laila al-Uatami, spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the amount of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment dramatically increased after the Sept. 11 attacks, though "hate incident" cases have subsided somewhat in the past year. While the ADC continues to battle employment discrimination cases in particular -- typically between 25 to 30 cases per week -- she noted the media's role in perpetuating Islamic and Arab stereotypes. \nAl-Uatami said public perceptions of Arab Americans and Muslims typically intertwine, as many Americans fail to draw accurate distinctions between the groups. Local and national media and contemporary pop culture often tend to exacerbate and reinforce these negative connotations.\n"We do see a certain level of bias in TV, particularly when reporting on events concerning the Arab world or the Israeli conflict in particular," al-Uatami said.\nAl-Uatami also said she was familiar with the case and that the ADC legal department was likely following it. \nMoreschi maintained the integrity of her story, and said she felt it was too important to be left untold. \n"We made a point in stating in our story that the majority of the six to eight million Muslims in America do not promote violence or practice extremism," she said. "In many ways, we believe it helps to answer questions for Muslims and all others in the community as to why the FBI was so focused on Bloomington."\nShe said she's answered a few e-mails from people within local Muslim communities, responding to their concern that the report perpetuated negative Islamic stereotypes. \n"There was and is a great deal of fear among Muslims I've spoken to that they will be targeted randomly," Moreschi said. "This gives some perspective that ongoing investigations did have a credible reason and people were not being arbitrarily put under surveillance." \nJeremy Burcham, executive committee president and spokesman for the Islamic Center, has contacted Moreschi and claims the station and the center maintain an "open line of communication."\nHe said his main focus at this point is assuaging concern within the Bloomington community in general -- not just among area Muslims.