WASHINGTON, 15 May 2004 — Alarmed by resurgent anti-Muslim rhetoric in the aftermath of the beheading of an American in Iraq, US Muslim leaders launched a new campaign Thursday to disassociate their faith from terrorism.

In Washington, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the nation’s Muslims to sign an online petition to declare that terrorism betrays Islam and that American Muslims abhor it.

CAIR said that its petition, titled “Not in the Name of Islam,” is “designed to disassociate the faith of Islam from the violent acts of a few Muslims.”

CAIR noted that its initiative was announced two days after Nicholas Berg’s violent death.

“I think it was so gruesome and it disgusted all of us as Muslims,” said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. “I just consider those who did it not human beings.”

The online petition, posted at CAIR’s website — www.cair-net.org — is a way for Muslims to demonstrate how they feel about Berg’s killing, Awad added.

The petition states that, “no injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam.”

Those who sign “repudiate and dissociate ourselves from any Muslim group or individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts,” the document reads. “We refuse to allow our faith to be held hostage by the criminal actions of a tiny minority acting outside the teachings of both the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad.”

Names of people who sign the petition will not be posted on the website, said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, citing technical problems and a desire to keep abusive messages from appearing. But he added that CAIR will say periodically how many people have signed.

Awad said the names of organizations that sign the petition will be posted after CAIR verifies the name of each and how many people it represents.

In Los Angeles, Muslim leaders said the beheading of American businessman Berg would be condemned in up to 50 mosques that are members of the Shura Council of Southern California. Berg was murdered by a man identified Thursday by the CIA as Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who is considered to be an ally of Osama Bin Laden.

The Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council said it is stepping up a months-long effort to gather Muslim leaders and members of Congress on the steps of the capital to jointly decry terrorism.

Salam Al-Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, on Thursday called Berg’s murder barbaric. He rejected any connection between Berg’s beheading and the brutal treatment and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad by US soldiers and others. Berg’s decapitation “was actually a stab in the heart of Islam,” Al-Marayati said.

A prayer vigil at the Los Angeles federal building is planned for May 22 for Berg and the Iraqi prisoners.