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      DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Finishing law school is a challenge for
Dewnya Bakri-Bazzi, but being an American and a Muslim can be
downright exhausting.


      As she crammed before class this week, Bakri-Bazzi caught up on
testimony from a congressional hearing on the radicalization of
U.S. Muslims. She contends Rep. Peter King, the New York Republican
who called it, is ignoring the positive steps Muslims have taken in
fighting terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.


      Bakri-Bazzi, president of the Muslim Legal Society at Thomas M.
Cooley Law School's Detroit area campus, says she fears Thursday's
hearing will only spark backlash against innocent members of her
community just going about their lives.


      "When people look at me walking down the street, they'll feel
like I'm an al-Qaida radicalist," said Bakri-Bazzi, who lives in
the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, home to one of the nation's largest
populations of Arabs and Muslims.


      As the profile of American Muslims has been heightened by the
9/11 attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many
Muslims say they too have been inspired to protect their
communities against terrorism. They are becoming more active in
civic and political causes and more regularly reach out to law
enforcement officials.


      "No community is working more diligently than the Muslim
community," said Sally Howell, an associate professor at
University of Michigan-Dearborn and author of several books and
essays on Arabs and Muslims in Detroit. "Really, there is nobody
in our society that is more concerned about this than the Muslim
community. There have been instances of this coming from their
community and they don't want it to happen."


      Emotions were strong in the hearing room in Washington. Framed
by photos of the burning World Trade Center and Pentagon, two
families argued Islam was responsible for luring young men to
become radicals. On the other side, Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison -
one of two Muslims in Congress - wept while discussing a Muslim
firefighter who died in the attacks.


      Jim Riches, a former New York City deputy fire chief whose son,
Jimmy, was killed at the trade center, said he believes Muslims can
do more.


      "All people should be treated the same way, but the Muslim
community has to step up," he said. "There are plots being
hatched in mosques. It's a major problem. Muslim terrorists are on
our soil."

      A handful of Somali and Muslim community leaders in Minnesota
gathered to watch Thursday's hearing, clapping and nodding their
heads in agreement when one witness called the proceedings skewed.


      Many said they feared the hearing would demonize Muslims,
particularly in the wake of reports that around 20 men left
Minnesota in recent years, possibly to join a terror group in
Somalia.


      "It's unjust to single out one group from another," said Hashi
Shafi, head of the Somali Action Alliance. "It's really an
emotional time. It's just too much. . . . We cannot be on the hot
spot all the time, every year. Just as we had in 2008, and 2009 and
'10 and now 2011, Somalis are still in another hot spot. It's
unfortunate."


      Zuhur Ahmed, host of a local Somali radio show, said a hearing
about radicalism is fair - because certain individuals do pose a
threat. But she says it's wrong to single out the Muslim community.
She says a threat to America is a threat to her as well.


      Before Friday prayers at the Islamic Center of Long Island in
Westbury, N.Y., retired physician Dr. Irfan Amin said he felt
"betrayed" by King.


      "I have contributed to his campaign," Amin said. "I
personally met him at one function and asked him to please come and
at least talk to us: 'You have been in our community so many times.
Have you seen anything with your eyes?' He didn't give me an
answer."


      The hearing also was on the minds of people going about their
business Thursday afternoon in Dearborn, where an Arab museum,
prominent mosques and scores of Arabic-signed business make it one
of the nation's best known Middle Eastern enclaves.


      Even as a college basketball tournament played on the television
in his family's Arabica Cafe, Allen Ghamlouche couldn't help but
reflect on what people elsewhere were watching play out in
Washington.


      "They're not trying to find the truth," Ghamlouche said. "The
non-Muslims are looking for the boogeyman."


      Cafe manager Mohamed Kobaissi took a break from preparing plates
of falafel, shwarma and other Middle Eastern dishes to defend his
loyalty to both his religion and country.


      "We're always under attack by the media," said Kobaissi, who
proudly points out that he served food to former President Bill
Clinton and got to shake the leader's hand in the mid-1990s during
a visit to Detroit Metropolitan Airport when he worked for a nearby
hotel.


      "Trust me - I'll be the first guy to defend the U.S., but at
the same time I like to (say) Islam is nothing about terrorism,"
Kobaissi said.


      At the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, one of the
nation's largest mosques, executive administrator Kassem Allie
fears that the hearing and promised follow-ups will only drive
those already susceptible to being radicalized further underground.


      "The greatest fear is the people we don't know about - the
people we don't see," Allie said.

      Associated Press writers Amy Forliti in Minneapolis and Frank
Eltman in Westbury, N.Y., contributed to this report.
      
      

Gallery

Minnesota Muslim leaders skeptical  and disappointed after radicalization hearing

Tears, anger as terror hearing becomes political

Rep. Ellison testifies at hearing on 'Islamic radicalization'

Minnesotans prominent in Muslim radicalization hearing

Social Issues

As the profile of American Muslims has been heightened by the
9/11 attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many
Muslims say they too have been inspired to protect their
communities against terrorism.

US Muslims find defending themselves exhausting

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