alisyn: after the attacks on september the 11th. many muslim americans feared anti-islamic backlash. so 10 years later how is life for muslims in america? joining us is the president and founder of the american islamic forum for democracy dr. zudi jasser. good to see you. thank you. nice to be with you. alisyn: how would you describe what has happened to the muslim community since september 11th. i think basically we have had a crash course in responding not only, you know, i look back at this pit of destruction and i say wow, you know, our country was attacked. i was attacked. not only as an american but i think of myself as a lt. commander in the navy and i wanted to fight back against those that attacked our nation. but also as a muslim i realize that the struggles that my family had escaping from syria and many of us muslims had and you see that in the middle east now so many muslims have taken responsibility for their own
welcome back. listen to this story, the obama administration wants all government officials on the same page this september 11th and to do so, they ve issued some guidelines. telling federal agencies exactly how to observe the anniversary and to down play the role of al-qaida. the memo says the death of bin laden was viewed as reasons for officials to minimize references to al-qaida while terrorists still have the ability to inflict harm. al-qaida and its adherence from become increasingly irrelevant. joining us now is the president and founder of the american islamic forum for democracy. nice to see you this morning. welcome. thank you. nice to be with you. what was your reaction to this memo? you know, i can t tell you how frustrating it is for those of us that have been focused on defeating the ideology that we re fighting, for those of us if you really want to honor the families that suffered on 9/11, they want to see us advance further. no longer just to have a wackamo
a head scarf ban sparking a brawl. more than a dozen people were arrested. at the time, it was packed with a tourist group with muslims celebrating ramadan. they tried to get on some rides but the park prohibits any head coverings on rides for safety reasons. should safety come first? let s ask the president and founder of the american islamic forum for democracy. good morning to you, doctor. good morning, gretchen. so this has caused quite a controversy at least here in new york because the playland park says this is a safety measure. we make everybody take off their hats including baseball caps. your thoughts? as a muslim, many of my family wear them and it s certainly a measure of many individuals doing what they have to do but the issue here is the perspective. the park does this equally to everybody. there s no evidence that they singled out muslims, you know, whether they re sikh or other religions they would have to
may be restart talks. he last visited 2002. we may be fighting a war against terror in iraq and afghanistan. new frontier for radical islam may be where we least expect it. inside the u.s. military. shedding lights on how american troops struggling with religious views and allegiance to our country at the same time. the president of the american islamic forum for democracy and a former united states navy lt. joins us live from phoenix this morning. doctor, nice to see you this morning. welcome back to the show. thank you, clayton, nice to be with you. the military becoming ground zero as you say for muslim americans in this ideological struggle. why is that? this is, many of us, the vast majority of muslims have served proudly. never had a conflict between my faith and being muslim and serving as are a though docks muslim in the military. at the end of the day, sings we re fighting walters in afghanistan and iraq and these
yearbook. she said my parents are very religious but only about some things. middle eastern have some rules to live by and we can t do some things. i have american ways but i still follow some of the traditional rules. how would you say that most arab girls mark the transition from a life in the middle east to a life in the united states? the parents especially are used to having complete control over their children for a lot longer time than we understand this in america and there was a clash. the immigrant tale is similar. in 1967 his parents left syria for ohio where jasseo was born. they settled in wisconsin where he attended medical school on a navy scholarship. after 9/11 he founded the american islamic forum for democracy and is now perhaps the most forceful muslim critic of radical islam in the united