Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25782-2004May13.html

On May 14, 2004 The Washington Post reported, "A national Muslim advocacy group announced yesterday that it is asking Muslims around the world to sign an online petition condemning terrorism as 'un-Islamic' and a betrayal of their faith. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations 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 a videotape showing the decapitation of an American in Iraq 'shocked television viewers worldwide.'The tape showed Nicholas Berg's masked assailant shouting 'God is great.'

'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 Web site -- 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.'"