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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Nihad Awad

Aired February 16, 2003 - 09:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Since 9/11, the headlines about American Muslims often lead to misconceptions about millions of people.
An Islamic civil rights group hopes to set the record straight with a year-long advertising campaign. It's called Islam in America.

The first ad, you'll see on the screen here, is in today's "New York Times." It shows three faces and asks, which of these is a Muslim? The answer, all of them.

Folks behind the ad are members of the Council of the American Islamic Relations. The group's executive director is Nihad Awad, and he joins us from Washington.

Mr. Awad, good to have you with us.

NIHAD AWAD, COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS: Thank you, good morning.

O'BRIEN: How serious a problem is this? I mean, we're not talking about the interment of Japanese Americans in World War II. It's a little bit harder to pin this down. But give us a sense of how you can quantify it.

AWAD: Well, it is a serious problem. I hope it will not amount to interment camps or -- but I think the misconceptions have shown that Islam has been attacked by every quarter. TV evangelists have been taking a hit on Islam in America.

And we believe that the picture has been obscured and we need to clarify misconceptions and we need to show that Muslims in America are a mainstream group, diverse.

If you look at the ad today in "The New York Times," you will see that, as you said in the beginning, these people are Americans, but the question is asking who is a Muslim? And you'll find out that all of them are Muslims. They come from European American backgrounds, African Americans, Asian Americans, Middle Easterners and those who have been brought up and born in this country.

It shows that the Muslims in America and around the world are very much the culture, very diverse. They have so many colorful, you know, culture that they bring with them. And Muslims in America are a vibrant and growing segment of the society that I think should be told, and their story has to be told to the Americans. O'BRIEN: Mr. Awad, we live in a time of tremendous fear, and so I suppose some of this is understandable.

Do you suspect this advertising campaign will stem this tide of discrimination, at the very least?

AWAD: Yes. It will help. It will provide average readers an opportunity to look inside the Muslim community in America.

It's like another fellow American speaking to another fellow American, who happened to be Muslim, to talk about Islam in the world and the Islamic faith. Something that we don't see much on the news and we don't see much, you know, in the front pages. Instead, we see a lot of sensation between Islam and violence, Islam and extremism.

Hopefully, these ads help, you know, deconstruct this misconception.

O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of how much fear there is within the Muslim American community right now.

AWAD: There is a great deal of apprehension, fear, especially after violent incidents take place around the world or sometimes in America that those who carry these acts climb claim to do it in the name of Islam.

We, the majority of Muslims, are not seen. And that's why we have to take these issues in our hands. We have to tell our own story, and we have to speak for ourselves. And we cannot let whether those who commit violent acts in the name of Islam or those who attack Islam for political or religious reasons, you know, take control over this.

So I think among...

O'BRIEN: I want to get one final question in, if I could.

On the right, the group that you have expressed some concern about in particular, there have been many interpretations of the Quran which suggest it actually endorses violence against Christians and Jews.

Could you clear that up for us?

AWAD: Yes. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Islam, as a devout religion, always instructs Muslims to be kind and peaceful and to respect people of other faiths, especially people of the both Christians and Jews.

Sometimes you see some people who try to obscure that view and try to make their own interpretation. But the Quran clearly speaks.

And that's why we offer this advertisement campaign to provide average Americans to get more information. They can also visit the web site at AmericanMuslims.info. Or our own web site, Cair-net.org. C-A-I-R-dash-net.org, to get to the reality of Islam and Muslims in America.

O'BRIEN: Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR. And it is AmericanMuslims.info on the web, if you want to find out more.

Thank you very much for being with us.

AWAD: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 16, 2003 - 09:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Since 9/11, the headlines about American Muslims often lead to misconceptions about millions of people.
An Islamic civil rights group hopes to set the record straight with a year-long advertising campaign. It's called Islam in America.

The first ad, you'll see on the screen here, is in today's "New York Times." It shows three faces and asks, which of these is a Muslim? The answer, all of them.

Folks behind the ad are members of the Council of the American Islamic Relations. The group's executive director is Nihad Awad, and he joins us from Washington.

Mr. Awad, good to have you with us.

NIHAD AWAD, COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS: Thank you, good morning.

O'BRIEN: How serious a problem is this? I mean, we're not talking about the interment of Japanese Americans in World War II. It's a little bit harder to pin this down. But give us a sense of how you can quantify it.

AWAD: Well, it is a serious problem. I hope it will not amount to interment camps or -- but I think the misconceptions have shown that Islam has been attacked by every quarter. TV evangelists have been taking a hit on Islam in America.

And we believe that the picture has been obscured and we need to clarify misconceptions and we need to show that Muslims in America are a mainstream group, diverse.

If you look at the ad today in "The New York Times," you will see that, as you said in the beginning, these people are Americans, but the question is asking who is a Muslim? And you'll find out that all of them are Muslims. They come from European American backgrounds, African Americans, Asian Americans, Middle Easterners and those who have been brought up and born in this country.

It shows that the Muslims in America and around the world are very much the culture, very diverse. They have so many colorful, you know, culture that they bring with them. And Muslims in America are a vibrant and growing segment of the society that I think should be told, and their story has to be told to the Americans. O'BRIEN: Mr. Awad, we live in a time of tremendous fear, and so I suppose some of this is understandable.

Do you suspect this advertising campaign will stem this tide of discrimination, at the very least?

AWAD: Yes. It will help. It will provide average readers an opportunity to look inside the Muslim community in America.

It's like another fellow American speaking to another fellow American, who happened to be Muslim, to talk about Islam in the world and the Islamic faith. Something that we don't see much on the news and we don't see much, you know, in the front pages. Instead, we see a lot of sensation between Islam and violence, Islam and extremism.

Hopefully, these ads help, you know, deconstruct this misconception.

O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of how much fear there is within the Muslim American community right now.

AWAD: There is a great deal of apprehension, fear, especially after violent incidents take place around the world or sometimes in America that those who carry these acts climb claim to do it in the name of Islam.

We, the majority of Muslims, are not seen. And that's why we have to take these issues in our hands. We have to tell our own story, and we have to speak for ourselves. And we cannot let whether those who commit violent acts in the name of Islam or those who attack Islam for political or religious reasons, you know, take control over this.

So I think among...

O'BRIEN: I want to get one final question in, if I could.

On the right, the group that you have expressed some concern about in particular, there have been many interpretations of the Quran which suggest it actually endorses violence against Christians and Jews.

Could you clear that up for us?

AWAD: Yes. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Islam, as a devout religion, always instructs Muslims to be kind and peaceful and to respect people of other faiths, especially people of the both Christians and Jews.

Sometimes you see some people who try to obscure that view and try to make their own interpretation. But the Quran clearly speaks.

And that's why we offer this advertisement campaign to provide average Americans to get more information. They can also visit the web site at AmericanMuslims.info. Or our own web site, Cair-net.org. C-A-I-R-dash-net.org, to get to the reality of Islam and Muslims in America.

O'BRIEN: Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR. And it is AmericanMuslims.info on the web, if you want to find out more.

Thank you very much for being with us.

AWAD: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com