A leading Muslim civil rights group has launched a new program to help US mosques identify potential extremists to offer religious and social counseling instead of shutting troublemakers.
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"This question is always framed as, 'Why do we have to apologize for something that has nothing to do with us?''' Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), which is based in Los Angeles, told The Wall Street Journal.
"We're saying that you have to take responsibility…that there are Muslim extremists out there, and that they make it worse for all of us."
The new voluntary program will be unveiled on Monday, April 14, on the first anniversary of Boston Marathon bombing.
Last April, a pair of ethnically Chechen Muslim brothers allegedly set off explosives at the finish line of the race, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.
The attacks on the international marathon have drawn widespread condemnations from Muslims inside the United States and around the world.
With the overwhelming majority of American Muslims have no connection to extremism, the entire community is badly affected by the rare, individual attacks, such as the Boston bombings.
Therefore, MPAC introduced the new initiative to encourage Muslim to address extremist voices.
The strategy represents a departure from the long-held approach by the American Muslim community to distance itself from radical strains of Islam.
Though there are no official estimates, the US is home to from 7-8 million Muslims.
An earlier Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans Muslims are loyal to their country and optimistic about their future in the United States.
According to the new MPAC plan, called Safe Spaces Initiative, potential extremists will be offered help from imams, counselors and family members.
The program's creators liken the approach to intervention programs established at schools to prevent mass shootings or gang violence.
"There are some individuals who are at the edge of committing acts of violence. However, not every case of extremism involving an American Muslim has to end in an arrest or someone getting hurt," said an MPAC document describing the initiative.
"There are multiple opportunities for communities to protect their friend, family member or brother/sister-in-Islam from going down a dangerous and destructive path."
The program encourages mosque leaders to promote "healthy outlets" for "hot topic" issues such as politics, gender relations and drug abuse.
After religious and social counseling, the initiative’s second step involves direct engagement with a person who appears to be veering toward extremism.
If that intervention fails, the final step is expelling the person from the mosque and alerting law enforcement.
Earlier calls for mosque intervention to stop radical voices were urged by MPAC last May, calling on mosque and community leaders to offer a helping hand to young Muslims who might be leaning toward extremist ideology by engaging troubled youth rather than shunting them.
Muslim scholars have repeatedly condemned terrorism as running counter against the teachings of Islam.
In 2008, thousands of Muslim scholars from across India denounced terrorism as a violation of Islamic teachings, calling it the “biggest crime as per Qur'an."
Another Britain-based Muslim scholar, Sheikh Tahir ul-Qadri, issued a 600-page fatwa in May 2011, condemning suicide bombings, kidnappings and the killing of innocent people as “absolutely against the teachings of Islam”.
