From the editor, Charles Robideau:  Thanks to the Islamic Community
In the months after 9/11, one of the positive things to come out of the disaster was the sudden, joint effort by faith groups and other peace-loving folks to understand, befriend and protect the Islamic people in the Pittsburgh area, to shield them from any attacks, verbal or physical, by those who would equate any Muslim person with the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center.
     Equally positive was the corresponding effort by Muslims to invite non-Muslims into their mosques, their religion and their culture, and to give comfort and support to those suffering from fright and grief over the loss, not just of lives, but of their sense of security. Pittsburgh Muslims have also been second to none in condemning the terrorist attacks.
     The Merton Center has been especially active in this effort, and members of the Muslim community have responded fully in kind. Muslims have welcomed us to their services and social events, and have become active participants in Merton Center programs and activities, not just as casual observers, but as leaders. In fact, some of our Muslim members are among those whose names appeared in the Trib articles.
     So too, have members of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh begun to play a leading role in the newly formed Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN), with a special interest in the issue of civil liberties.
     With this background in mind, it was distressing to a see a battery of articles in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review of Sunday, August 4, purporting to link certain Muslims in Pittsburgh to the global terrorist network.
     Some of the articles appeared to be authoritative and well researched, and they quoted a wide array of sources. A chart and map accompanying the articles listed Pittsburgh as one of 10 "key locations" of the global network in the entire world - heading a list that included Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Egypt, Algeria and Yemen.
     Pittsburgh’s prominence was attributed to a foundation, "Attawheed Foundation, based in Greentree, where Saudi graduate students met for religious services in a South Hills motel; a West End Saudi school, Al Andalus; and a magazine, "Assirat Al-Mustaqeem," published between 1991 and 2000, which was said to publish inflammatory pro-terrorist articles.
     It would take an informed authority on Islam to evaluate all the academics and others quoted by the Tribune Review. It takes no expertise at all, however, to judge one of the Trib’s sources, the self-styled "anti-terrorism expert" Steven Emerson, well known for virulent anti-Arab sentiments.
     The point, however, is not to check our all the Trib’s allegations and prove them true or false. The point is that, in our experience, we have found our Muslim brothers and sisters to be as concerned as anyone else to oppose terrorism and to achieve the kind of world in which terrorists will be extinct.
     Whatever may have appeared in Assirat a year ago, or five years or ten years ago, appeared in another time. This is now. We’re working for the future, and we’re doing it hand in hand with the Muslims we know and respect.