Muslim extremists and disaffected non-Muslim youth are being sucked into joining the Islamic State (ISIS) and other jihadist organizations via the Internet, according to Nezar Hamze, regional operations director for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Hamze appeared Tuesday on
Newsmax TV's "America's Forum" to discuss efforts to dissuade American youth from falling for ISIS propaganda.
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"We definitely see from all the media reports and all the investigative reports by law enforcement, its' definitely
happening on the Internet," he said. "I travel quite a bit and I go to quite a few Islamic centers, we don't hear this violent rhetoric inside our mosques here in the United States, or at least in Florida."
He made reference to 22-year-old Florida man Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who traveled to Syria to join the al-Nusra Front and died in a suicide bomb attack earlier this year. Abusalha had an American mother and a Palestinian father.
Muslims in the United States are feeling ostracized for the acts of the extremists, something Hamze characterized as a "reality we face every day."
He encouraged non-Muslims to "establish relationships with their Muslim neighbors and build the relationship. That will curb a lot of it, but that's the reality," he said.
Hamze said he's not aware of any Imams in America spewing hateful rhetoric from their mosques, though he acknowledged it's happening abroad. He criticized the Muslim community for expelling extremists from their mosques — such as the Tsarnaev brothers, accused of masterminding the Boston Marathon bombing — instead of "curbing and catching" them.
"And obviously there's somebody there to accept them and say, well hey, if they're going to kick you out, come over here, and you can be part of our little gang," he said. "That's basically what's happening."
CAIR, Hamze said, has clearly denounced all forms of terrorism, but their statements seem to get buried in media accounts. He'd like to see Muslims and non-Muslims work together to combat the message.
"There needs to be a real partnership with the U.S. government and the Muslim community to really dissect and dive into and create a smart plan on how to deal with this issue together," he said. "If the government is just going to create a plan and hand it to the Muslim community, it's going to be rejected because the Muslim community is suspect of the government."
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