CAIR-Philadelphia

Moein Khawaja: Open discourse and the freedom of conscience and speech is an absolute requirement for Islam to flourish. Extremism emerges where freedom is suppressed. Islam is a religion and not a government system; it flourishes in communist China, in the repressive monarchy of Saudi Arabia and in the democracy of America. Islam is healthier and reaches its full potential when practiced within the political context of a democratic culture.

CAIR-PA Executive Director Moein Khawaja debates the lower Manhattan mosque with Tea Party activist and constitutional law professor on NBC10's @issue.

"They said that Islam is a false religion, and it really disturbed a lot of the people that were inside," said Rugiatu Conteh, with the Philadelphia office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR. She was at the mosque during one of the incidents. "If they knew how much we had in common, they wouldn't do acts like that."

"Muslim Americans feel so muted today, drowned out by the hysteria in the mainstream media," lamented Moein Khawaja, director of the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations(CAIR), at a special iftar, or meal breaking the Ramadan fast, last week. "We're only about six million people in the U.S., and for the past nine years we've been on the defensive. We have to be proactive and produce our own media that's more representative of our experiences: media that's more positive; that shows the multitude of Islamic voices."

Local Philadelphia Muslims and CAIR-PA discuss Quran burning plans

Nationwide, CAIR is launching a series of public service announcements designed to highlight the bonds and similarities between American Muslims and other religions. One features a New York City firefighter who responded to the World Trade Center and is a Muslim. Another features pastors of various faiths. "We were all a part of 9/11. I have family in New York, and we were scared," said Conteh.

CAIR-PA Outreach and Communications Director Rugiatu Conteh discusses current Islamophobia and CAIR's public service announcements.

He was a 25-year-old South Asian Muslim working in a pharmacy in the Philadelphia suburbs with vivid memories of getting pushed around and even bullied in high school after the 9/11 attacks - but he thought that era was all in the past. That thought changed one afternoon in summer 2009, when he was working a long line at the pharmacy counter and two middle-aged white women accused him of being too slow - then told his manager to "watch this kid, otherwise he's going to blow up the store."