It is with heavy hearts that we, the undersigned national American Muslim organizations, feel compelled to defend our community and its representatives from false and defamatory allegations. In a January 7, 1999, presentation to a State Department Open Forum, Mr. Hisham Kabbani, Chairman of the self-styled "Islamic Supreme Council of America," made a number of unsubstantiated allegations that could have a profoundly negative impact on ordinary American Muslims.

In the State Department forum, Mr. Kabbani:

1. Alleged that the "ideology of extremism has been spread to eighty percent of the [American] Muslim population." Having also stated that "extremists" gained control of American mosques through elections, Mr. Kabbani further strengthens the impression that the Muslim community as a whole is extremist.
2. Claimed that "there are many, many Muslim organizations, that they speak on behalf of the Muslim community, but in reality they are not moderate, but they are extremist…These people are very well supported, very well affiliated with outside regimes, that they have been sponsored by billions of dollars to be active within the United States…"
3. Claiming that the main national Muslim student organization is "being run mostly by extremist ideology," Mr. Kabbani raised the bizarre specter that the Bin Laden organization was "able to buy more than 20 atomic weapons, atomic nuclear heads, from some Mafias in the ex-Soviet Union … and now they are hiring thousands of scientists from the ex-Soviet in order to make these atomic warheads into smaller partitions, smaller particles, in order to be, like small chips to be put in any suit case, even in a handbag, and be shipped anyplace, anywhere in the world… If these small nuclear atomic warheads reach these (U.S.) universities, you don't know, these students, what they are going to do, because their way of thinking is brainwashed and limited."

Adding insult to injury, Mr. Kabbani even promoted and generalized an allegation that Muslim women in Europe "who are during the day, covered from top to bottom and, during the night, have dates. They are dating high officials in many countries around the world to take the information from them and to give it to the extremists."

Through outrageous statements such as these, Mr. Kabbani has put the entire American Muslim community under unjustified suspicion. In effect, Mr. Kabbani is telling government officials that the majority of American Muslims pose a danger to our society. Additionally, Islamophobic individuals and groups may use these statements as an excuse to commit hate crimes against Muslims of the kind witnessed following the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City when Muslim-bashers, Steven Emerson and others, offered similarly unsubstantiated claims that Muslims were behind the attack.

We therefore ask Mr. Kabbani to promptly and publicly retract his statements, to apologize to the American Muslim community, and to exert his utmost effort to undo the damage these statements have done.

The issue is not that of a mere difference of opinion within an American religious community, but involves the irresponsible act of providing false information to government officials. This false information can jeopardize the safety and well being of our community and hurt America itself by damaging its values of inclusiveness, fairness, and liberty.