Source: MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11239054/
On February 9, 2006 MSNBC reported, "As Muslims in Europe and the Middle East have led violent protests against cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, American Muslims have responded to the furor with quiet diplomacy, condemning the violence accompanying those protests while explaining why the caricatures drew such an angry reaction.
'There’s outrage,' said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), 'but there’s just an appropriate response to the concerns that Muslims feel'... For Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, there were few surprises in the way U.S. Muslims have reacted.
'It was exactly what I expected,' said Bray, the public-policy arm of the Muslim American Society, based in Falls Church, Va. 'The Muslim community is appalled by the cartoons, but we’re experienced enough to deal with controversy. While we condemn the cartoons, we also condemn the violence connected to it'... The American press has garnered generally high marks for its handling of the controversy. 'The respectability of the journalists here has been sensitive enough,' said Eide al-Awan, interfaith outreach director of the Islamic Center of America, the Detroit-based Islamic resource center housing the largest mosque in the United States. 'I haven’t seen a low-brow attitude within the news media.'"