JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995, Page 63

American Muslim Activism

By Greg Noakes

AMC, ICNA Host Bosnian Rais Al-Ulama

The American Muslim Council (AMC) hosted Dr. Al-Hajj Mustafa Ceric, the Rais al-Ulama (Chief Alim) of Bosnia, during his October visit to Washington, DC. Sheikh Ceric, who holds degrees from Bosnia's Madrasa Ghazi Husrevbey (the oldest educational institution in the Balkans), Al-Azhar and the University of Chicago, brought greetings from Bosnia to an audience at AMC, and added that he would tell the residents of Sarajevo of the efforts made on their behalf by American Muslims. The sheikh noted that the tragedy in his homeland was continuing, however, and asked that Muslims in this country redouble their efforts. Dr. Ceric was accompanied to AMC by Dr. Nedzib Sacirbey, personal representative in Washington of Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, and Sven Alkalaj, Bosnia's ambassador to the U.S., as well as several Bosnian journalists and academics. While in Washington, Dr. Ceric also held a press conference at the Carnegie Endowment which was broadcast nationwide on C-SPAN.

Also during the sheikh's visit, the Jamaica, NY-based Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) organized a meeting with Ceric for imamsand presidents of New York City's mosques and Muslim organizations. Ceric, accompanied by Bosnia's Ambassador to the U.N. Muhammed Sacirbey, told the group the war in his homeland has strengthened the religious faith of Bosnian Muslims. "The Serbs have forced us to value our Muslim identity and heritage," Ceric said. "The Muslims are being killed and raped just because they happen to be Muslim, and this has caused the Muslims to turn to Islam." Dr. Ceric also visited Bosnian and Muslim communities in the Midwest and California.

CAIR Protests PBS Program

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) took a pro-active stance opposing the screening on Nov. 21 of "Jihad in America" on public television. CAIR asked officials at PBS for an advance screening of the documentary "based on what appear to be anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiments expressed in the past writings and public appearances of the documentary's producer, Steven Emerson."

After PBS refused repeated requests for an advance screening from a number of other American-Muslim and Arab-American organzations, as well as several Muslim and Arab journalists, CAIR organized a press conference outside PBS headquarters in Alexandria, VA. CAIR officials said that in the past, biased media reporting on Islam had resulted in hate crimes directed against Arabs and Muslims and warned that "Jihad in America" could have a similar impact. CAIR spokesmen said the documentary failed to produce "any hard evidence, other than the assertions of those whose credibility and objectivity is in doubt, to back up its allegations," and charged PBS with violating "its own guidelines by supporting and endorsing a program that does not meet the basic standards of fairness, accuracy and balance."

In response to public pressure, PBS finally agreed to air a "wrap-around" discussion on the "Charlie Rose Show" following the documentary. Emerson, Mohammed Mehdi of the National Council of Islamic Affairs, Amina Abd al-Fatah of the North American Council for Muslim Women and the American Muslim Council's Abdurahman Alamoudi took part in the half-hour roundtable discussion hosted by Rose.

Islamic Medical Texts on Exhibition At NLM

Bethesda, MD's National Library of Medicine (NLM) opened an exhibit on "Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts" to celebrate the 900th anniversary of NLM's oldest Arabic medical manuscript. The treatise by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi is the third oldest medical text in Arabic known to be preserved anywhere in the world. Nearly 40 of NLM's 351 Islamic medical treatises are on display, in addition to artifacts fromthe Smithsonian Institution, Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery, and the private collections of Dr. Ahmad Younis and American-Muslim calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya, who also designed the exhibition's poster. The National Library of Medicine, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, is located at 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814, tel. (301) 496-4000.

American Muslim Council Mobilizing Calls for Bosnia

The American Muslim Council has called upon its supporters to "flood the White House with calls and faxes" to "demand an immediate stop of the aggression and [commencement of] NATO airstrikes against the Serbian tanks and artillery, the primary source of the aggression and terror over civilians." The appeal provided the White House telephone and fax numbers and also called upon supporters to contact the Department of State and their own representatives in Congress. (See box on page 94 of this issue for appropriate phone and fax numbers.)