Local Muslims will go about normal lives after deadly threat

http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070502/NEWS03/70502023

By Tiffany L. Parks
Staff Writer

Two days after an advocacy group received a letter that threatened the lives of all Muslims in the Detroit area, small children shuffled into a straight line outside of Crescent Academy International and giggled with each other.

According to the academy’s principal, life is normal at the private Islamic school located on the campus of the Muslim Community of Western Suburbs on Palmer Road in Canton.

A letter mailed to the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan on Monday made violent references to Muslims stating: “Our goal is to terminate all Muslums (sic) in the greater Detroit area...and we will kill you first!” Representatives from the Southfield-based organization have contacted the FBI.

“We are going to go about our work,” said Dawud Walid, CAIR-Michigan executive director. “We are not going to be intimidated.”According to its Web site, the group is “dedicated to the promotion and defense of civil rights and the image of Muslims through the use of grassroots activism, mediation, the media, education, and the law.”

Walid said the organization has gotten hate mail in the past, but nothing that ever included death threats. “We have no clue (who did this),” he said.

“We are leaving it to law enforcement.”Saleem Qureski, Muslim Community of Western Suburbs vice president, said the Canton organization has never received any hate mail, but said people are concerned about the threatening letter.“We all are Americans,” he said. “We all are human beings. Our nationalities don’t change the color of our blood.”(MORE)

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