Obama Adviser Decries Anti-Muslim Sentiments

"The things you can say about Islam you can't say about any other faith," Rashad Hussain, Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said Saturday night at the annual fund-raising dinner of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Muslim-founded think tank based in Clinton Township. "During tough economic times, groups that are seen to be the other ... the scapegoating can increase."

Hussain travels the world on behalf of the U.S. government to improve outreach to the Muslim world. Metro Detroit has a sizeable Muslim population.

Hussain said he's concerned about the increasing vitriol directed at Muslims, which he said may be due to their increasing visibility in the U.S.

It's a "reaction to a lot of progress made by Muslim communities," he said.

It's a reaction to Islamic supremacism, gender apartheid, suppression and oppression.

When he was growing up in the U.S, Hussain recalled that many didn't know too much about Islam. But now, it's more well known, he said.Hussain said that the backlash against Muslim-Americans has precedent in the U.S., as African-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Irish-Americans, Japanese-Americans, and Chinese-Americans have faced similar challenges.

He urged the Muslim-American crowd at the Livonia dinner to form alliances with other groups, noting that Jewish-Americans have been active in fighting for the rights of other groups in American history.

One challenge for Muslim-Americans, said Hussain, is that "Muslims are still seen as an aggressor" because of terrorists like Osama bin Laden and the Times Square bomber.

At one point during his talk, Hussain recited in fluent Arabic a verse from the Quran, Islam's holy book, that says killing one innocent life is like killing all of humanity. He said that there is a consensus of Islamic scholars that terrorism is against their faith, but "we continue to lose people to this ideology" of extremism.

One challenge is the Internet, where young Muslims are enticed to become terrorists, he said.

Hussain also attacked ethnic divisions among Muslim-Americans.

A graduate of Yale Law School, Hussain once worked for U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit) on the House Judiciary Committee. He is a hafiz, meaning someone who has memorized the Quran.

He had breakfast Saturday morning at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn before his talk at the dinner by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. The Institute is a think tank founded primarily by South Asian Muslims who hope it one day becomes as noted as think tanks like the Brookings Institution. Other speakers during the dinner noted the importance of think tanks in forming policy in the U.S.

Saturday night's dinner raised about $226,000 for the Institute.