American-Muslim Leaders Say ISIS 'Has Declared War on All of Us'
Leaders from the US Council of Muslim Organizations meet, condemn ISIS.
— -- Muslim-American leaders today condemned the attacks in Paris that left at least 129 people dead and hundreds more injured, and called ISIS, which French leaders blamed for the attacks, "an extremist group that has declared war on us all."
"We are one. We are united," Imam Johari Abdul Malik of the Muslim Alliance in North America said today at at press conference organized by the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations. "This is an extremist group that has declared war on all of us."
Members of the council said that ISIS is not representative of the Muslim community.
French prosecutors said attackers in the Bataclan concert hall mentioned Syria and Iraq during their ambush. Officials have also said one of the suicide attackers at the national stadium had been identified by a Syrian passport found near his body.
Concerns were also raised by the Muslim leaders over the blaming of Syrian refugees for the attacks.
"We hear talks about closing the border ... let's not punish the victims twice," said Niwad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
French president Francois Hollande announced a state of emergency during the attacks Friday night and called for immediate closure of the borders.
Awad later touched upon the 2016 presidential race and without naming anyone specifically, said candidates "need to stop scapegoating" the Muslim community.
"This is a time for leadership," he said.
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said in September he would not support a Muslim person running for the Oval Office. Republican candidate Donald Trump also took some flack in September for not responding when a town hall heckler said, "We have a problem in this country, it's called Muslims."
Oussama Jammal, the Secretary General of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations said leaders in the Muslim community "are doing everything possible" to protect the young from radical ideology.
"We are in full force working with our community... This is a challenge for all of us," Jammal said.