Source: The Sacramento Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/5169747p-6178758c.html
On November 12, 2002 The Sacramento Bee reported that "exchanges like those between Congregation B'Nai Israel in Sacramento's Land Park neighborhood and SALAM (Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims), which sent a teen delegation of its own to B'Nai Israel a few weeks ago, are shattering barriers of ignorance and mistrust that have traditionally separated America's 7 million Muslims from the American mainstream. But, while the al-Qaida attacks have triggered a wave of Muslim activism here and across the nation, Sacramento's progressive Muslim leaders have been reaching out to their neighbors for years -- sometimes to the chagrin of their more conservative Muslim brethren... Indeed, 9/11 backlash against Muslims has been less virulent in Northern California than anyplace else in the country, said Omar Ahmad, chairman of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the largest Muslim organizations in the United States."