CAIR-Philadelphia

A week after the cruel attack on the Boston Marathon, our nation is still trying to answer that piece of the — who, what, and why — puzzle. Despite our lack of information as to the “why,” we do know some facts as to “what” happened. We know that when the suspects placed their bombs amongst the crowd of joyous spectators, they did not check for the race or religion of their potential victims. Instead, they coldly sought a body count.

On Fox News, “liberal” commentator Bob Beckel suggested Muslim students should now be barred from coming to the United States. Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade seems to believe the U.S. should implant “listening devices” in mosques around the country and Bill O’Reilly shouted down the head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, who noted the two brothers were not representative of all of Islam. With that in mind, Philadelphia Weekly caught up with Rugiatu Conteh, Outreach and Communications Director at Council on American-Islamic Relations Philadelphia, for her take on the matter.

"I think that a lot of stereotypes are that Muslims are violent or terrorists or criminals," said Rugiatu Conteh, the communications and outreach director for the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. When a suspect in a crime or act of terrorism is Muslim, she said, "I think for a lot of people, it kind confirms those stereotypes."

Rugiatu Conteh, outreach director for the Philadelphia office of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said Friday her office had not received any calls from community members or mosques reporting harassment since the Tsarnaevs' faith was made public. "But we generally don't get that in our area," she said. "People are generally tolerant in Philadelphia."