WASHINGTON, 4 September 2005 — The top US official in charge of improving America’s image abroad has sought assistance from the US Islamic community, despite growing criticism by American Muslims of some aspects of the war on terror.

But so far, Muslim leaders have not received a desired visit by President George W. Bush they said would be helpful to promote the spirit of cooperation with the US government.

Instead, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes arrived Friday in Rosemont, Illinois, where she met with top US Muslim leaders attending the 42nd annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America.

The society is an umbrella group for dozens of mosques and other associations in the United States and Canada. An estimated 40,000 people are attending its four-day convention.

“I found new allies to help me do my job,” Hughes declared after the talks.

Close to Bush, she assumed her new State Department job last month, after the president asked her to help restore the US public image badly shaken in the aftermath of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Solid majorities in key Muslim countries continue to view the United States unfavorably, according to an opinion poll made public in June by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, a non-partisan research initiative.

The survey showed that only 21 percent of people in Jordan, 23 percent in each Turkey and Pakistan and 38 percent in Indonesia held a favorable view of the United States.

US Muslims are also increasingly wary of the USA Patriot Act that grants the federal government increased surveillance and search powers that are often used against them.

Hughes said the US government and Muslims, no matter where they lived, were keenly interested in fighting terrorism and violence committed in the name of any religion.

She made a direct appeal to US Muslims to help her in the efforts to change negative attitudes toward the country abroad.

“Who better to do that than many of our American Muslims themselves who have friends and family and groups in countries across our world?” she asked.

The Bush administration took heart in the fact that 145 US Muslim organizations and mosques have endorsed a fatwa, or religious edict, issued by a group of North American scholars in late July that condemns all acts of terrorism and religious extremism as being un-Islamic in essence. “The Muslim world and the entire world need to hear this,” Hughes pointed out.

The society has also recently created an anti-extremism committee to combat violence around the world.