Ambassador to Pakistan William B. Milan on Muslim Americans

The USA is now a major "Muslim society" with Muslim citizens in this country numbering between six and seven millions ... The USA is against terrorism, not Islam .... Muslim Americans comprise the fastest growing religious group in the USA.

The simple reason that the United States is not an opponent of Islam is the fact that the United States is itself a major Muslim society ... Between six and seven million American citizens are Muslims. Another way of putting this fact is that the American Muslim population is larger than Jordan's and larger than the combined population of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman put together. Muslim Americans are found in every state and region of the country; they contribute to every part of the American economy - from labourers to company executives; they serve in the United States armed forces; and they are officials in all government departments, including the diplomatic service.

Most of these Americans, or their parents, have come  from Muslim nations like Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt and elsewhere. Like other immigrant groups they are deeply involved in the creative process of adapting to American society while at the same time preserving their faith and their culture. Admittedly, they are facing problems and instances of misunderstandings, as have other immigrant groups; but they are constantly becomi ng more effective in organising social pressure, political power and their legal rights to solve these problems. Under such circumstances, the calls by certain religious extremists for Muslims to declare war on Americans are ridiculous. These six million people are Muslims and Americans. They represent the fastest growing religious group in America today.

This large community within American society is having a constructive effect on us. The strong family bonds of Muslim families and their high standards of behaviour strengthen these factors in the larger society.

The thousands of mosques that dot the American landscape from Washington, DC, to Los Angeles, California, are artistic contributions to the fabric of our cities. The need to perform daily and Juma prayers is causing employers to rethink the work week in more flexible ways; and the codes of dress preferred by many Muslim families are challenging schools and even the armed forces to liberalise dress codes. None of these changes take place without friction and resistance, but the adjustments that American Muslims are fighting for present healthy challenges for America to become a more inclusive, multi-cultural and tolerant society than it has ever been. before.

My appeal today, then, is that we all rise to the challenge of rejecting the easy but misleading temptation to regard each other as mutual enemies ... if we all strengthen our efforts towards increased mutual understanding, greater democracy, more tolerance for minorities, a higher standard of human rights, and broader inclusion of all social groups in our political systems, we will not only reduce the suspicions between the United States and Muslim countries, we will also make each of our own countries a stronger and more just societies.

The USA encourages and supports the development of societies that are tolerant, inclusive and democratic but it does not seek to export to other countries its political institutions as uniform models ...

.. My own country has not fully realised the goals of tolerance, inclusiveness and democracy. These are goals toward which we strive. They are goals towards which we encourage others to strive. That is why our Congress has passed a law requiring us to issue a report annually on the status of human rights in countries around the world, a report on which we would, ourselves, not make a perfect score ...

The problem stems in great part from the fact that those Americans who fear Islam and those Muslims who see the US as the enemy confusing Islam with terrorism .. The US government does not share this confusion, nor do most of the American people, nor I am sure ... most Muslims. But this confusion, on the part of a very small minority of all of us, is very pernicious.

The US is not at war with Islam; it is at war with terrorism, While terrorism is nothing new in human history, it has become in recent decades the favourite weapon of those who have so little popular or moral support that they cannot press their demands through the political processes or appeal to popular opinion. Resorting to terrorism is not exclusive to anyone religion, region or political platform. (Source: The Nation and the World, 16 May, 2000)