As president of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy, an eight-year-old group that twins conservative and Islamic values, Zuhdi Jasser is no fan of the more visible Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Washington-based CAIR and too many other U.S. Muslim groups, Jasser says, are soft on extremism and advocate a form of “political Islam.” The leadership of most U.S. groups is, as he puts it, “malignant.”

But there is one CAIR official Jasser can work with: Ahmed Banna, a CAIR chapter president in Cleveland, who happens to be his father-in-law. They just try not to talk about religion and politics at the dinner table.

“He calls me Dad,” said Banna, a cardiologist from Syria who came to the United States in 1980, and became Jasser’s father-in-law in 1998.

The Jasser/Banna family feud offers a window into a long-simmering debate over who gets to speak for American Muslims, who are more diverse — racially, ethnically, ideologically — than many people assume.

In addition, Islam is a decentralized religion with little to no hierarchy; in the United States, surveys indicate that about half or fewer of the estimated 3 million to 6 million Muslims attend mosques regularly.

Before 9/11, the best known Muslim-American groups were CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim American Society and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. In the years since, leading Muslim groups have been deemed by some as too orthodox, not orthodox enough, too sympathetic to terrorists or too closely linked to Washington.

For many Muslims, including Jasser, the answer was to form their own organizations. And now they are competing to be seen and heard as authentic voices for American Islam alongside CAIR and other established groups.

When the House Homeland Security Committee recently held hearings on the “radicalization” of American Muslims, Jasser was called to testify.

When the Senate convened hearings on Muslim civil rights, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) summoned Farhana Khera, president of the group Muslim Advocates. CAIR was not asked to attend either one.

Sept. 11, 2001, “was an awakening moment for all Muslims,” said Ani Zonneveld, a Los Angeles musician and co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values, an umbrella group of Muslim groups around the country.

“The reason for a progressive Muslims [group] was the people who were supposedly speaking on behalf of Muslims were not really representing our values,” Zonneveld said.

Because nearly everything about post-9/11 American Islam is viewed through a political lens, many groups advocate for specific causes, such as civil liberties, interfaith relations, security concerns or education.

The American Islamic Congress was founded in 2003 by an Iraqi immigrant as a “nonreligious civil rights organization.” The Washington-based AIC says its mission is to combat negative stereotypes by promoting Muslim civic participation through education talks for policymakers, educational materials on interfaith work, and even hosting Muslim film festivals.

Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/muslims-battle-to-be-official-voice-of-us-islam/2011/05/17/AFDZx07G_story.html

As president of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy, an eight-year-old group that twins conservative and Islamic values, Zuhdi Jasser is no fan of the more visible Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Washington-based CAIR and too many other U.S. Muslim groups, Jasser says, are soft on extremism and advocate a form of “political Islam.” The leadership of most U.S. groups is, as he puts it, “malignant.”