Religious respect and civility a 2-way street

Achieving mutual understanding in the shadow of 9/11 will, to be sure, require non-Muslims in America to learn about the good character and honorable aspirations of the vast majority of their Muslim fellow citizens; but at the same time it will require Muslim leaders to heed the voices of their still grieving fellow citizens who speak out of wounds deeper than most of us can even begin to fathom.

Muslims are a growing segment of our population today. The vast majority seek to live in peace as good Americans in a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." They are not terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, and they are as appalled as the rest of us by extremists who attack innocent people, execute apostates, engage in honor killings of allegedly wayward daughters, and the like. Most of them think like most of us: They believe in liberty, virtue, charity, self-discipline, personal responsibility, the sanctity of human life, and the importance of marriage and the family.

This is an important moment for Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslim Americans and for American Muslims. While fraught with dangers on all sides, it is also a time of opportunity. Non-Muslims can send to their Muslim fellow citizens the message that they are full participants in American democracy, enjoying on terms of equality the fundamental rights and liberties on which we pride ourselves as a nation. Muslims can send a message to their non-Muslim fellow citizens that they understand the sensitivities occasioned by the mass murder of Americans (including some Muslim Americans) committed by radicals in the name of the Islamic faith. On such a foundation, Americans of all faiths can build mutual respect.