Muslim Americans foil terror threats

A new report on violent extremists in the United States finds that terrorism plots by non-Muslims greatly outnumber those attempted by Muslims, and that Muslim-American communities helped foil close to a third of al Qaeda-related terror plots threatening the country since Sept. 11, 2001. The report comes from the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a not-for-profit organization advocating for the civil rights of American Muslims. It consists largely of MPAC's "Post-9/11 Terrorism Incident Database". Reportedly the first of its kind by a Muslim-American organization, the database tracks plots by Muslim and non- Muslim violent extremists against the United States. The author of the report, Alejandro J. Beutel, MPAC researcher and government liaison, told IPS, "This report demonstrates the validity of two of our guiding principles." "The first of these is that the choice between our rights and liberties and national security is a false choice; we can have both," he said. "The second is that law enforcement will be much more successful if it treats the American Muslim community as partners, not as adversaries."