Muslims ask Bush to meet with them

"Muslims ask Bush to meet with them"
(AP, August 25, 2005)

Plainfield, USA - A leading U.S. Muslim group urged President Bush on Wednesday to show his support for mainstream Islam in this country and worldwide by meeting with it next week at a time when both are working to quell the spread of extremism. Bush could send a powerful statement to the world's 1.2 billion Muslims by appearing at the annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America, just as he showed his support for adherents of the religion when he visited a Washington mosque a few days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Sayyid Syeed, the group's secretary general.

"That trip of a few blocks sent a powerful message to the entire world," Syeed said in an interview with The Associated Press. ISNA, an umbrella organization of largely immigrant Muslim groups and mosques in the U.S. and Canada, will attract tens of thousands of Muslims to Chicago for its annual meeting. It is based outside Indianapolis.

"His coming to Chicago would send a powerful message that America's fight is against extremism and terrorism." AP left a message with the White House press office Wednesday afternoon seeking reaction to Syeed's comments. The administration will be represented at the meeting by Karen Hughes, a Bush confidante recently confirmed as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. Her tasks include improving the U.S. image in Muslim countries.