New York, New York, November 11, 2009 -- Arab-American and Muslim nonprofit organizations supported in part by grants from Carnegie Corporation of New York have strongly condemned the tragic murders committed by a Muslim Arab-American soldier based at Ft. Hood, Texas. The nonprofit organizations have stated that the soldier's actions are not rooted in Islam or Arab culture.
The American Society of Muslim Advancement said in a statement, "We American Muslims are shocked and outraged by such an outburst of violence from a fellow Muslim. We are confident that our fellow Americans will exercise restraint by not linking this tragic action of a Muslim identified individual with the faith of Islam."
Eboo Patel, the executive director of Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, a Carnegie Corporation grantee, had just spoken at a Union of Reform Judaism conference in Toronto on Thursday, November 5 when a rabbi informed him that the soldier in Ft. Hood has a Muslim name. "I had just spoken from the tradition of Islam ... on the importance of interfaith cooperation and building Muslim-Jewish bridges," Patel told the Associated Press. Patel, who is a member of the White House faith-based advisory board, said he hoped that the public saw the shooter for what he was "a deranged lunatic," not someone whose act was "reflective of Islam."
Interfaith Youth Core, the American Society of Muslim Advancement and other nonprofit organizations are supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York as part of the foundation's efforts to build pathways to citizenship through immigrant civic integration; and foster U.S. relations with Muslim majority states and societies on the basis of knowledge and understanding.