Area Muslim leaders say shootings not motivated by religion

Eastern Iowa Muslim leaders said Friday they were disappointed that some people assumed the suspect in the Thursday killings of 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas, was motivated by his Muslim religion.

“It's kind of a constant and consistent campaign by some people in some groups that have an agenda that involves attacking some people,” said Hassan Igram, board president at the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids and president and CEO of Cedar Graphics in Cedar Rapids. “There are going to be some people who are going to take this opportunity to say, ‘I told you so. They're all terrorists.'”

Authorities did not know what may have motivated Army Maj. Nail Malik Hasan, 39. But reports Thursday night, including an interview with Hasan's aunt, suggested that he was upset about a pending deployment to Afghanistan and had been called names by other soldiers because of his devout faith.

“This is an American tragedy -it has nothing to do with race or religion or color,” said Imam Taha Tawil, of the Mother Mosque of North America, in Cedar Rapids. “This is an American tragedy, it shook us all. People snap, we really don't know what happened.”

Bill Aossey, director of Islamic Services of America and president of Midamar Corp. in Cedar Rapids, was angry that the shooting was linked to Islam at all.

“Last week they found a man in Ohio with 11 dead women in his apartment, and I didn't see anyone talking to pastors about how that happened,” he said. “Fortunately in this community we have better relationships, we haven't experienced any backlash to our knowledge.”

Despite the Muslim community's long history in Cedar Rapids and Eastern Iowa, Aossey said, he wouldn't be surprised to hear some negative comments.

“Racism and prejudice are still alive and well in this country, unfortunately,” he said. “Discrimination exists in all societies.”

Tawil added: “I knew that some people would be fishing in such filthy water to blame us, to blame our religion, to blame our loyalty to this country. That is wrong, we are not like that.”