BOB ABERNETHY (anchor): RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY has learned that for the first time ever, the White House has hired a staff person specifically assigned to do outreach to the American Muslim community.

Suhail Khan is a Muslim American who worked for former California Congressman Tom Campbell. Khan will work in the Office of Public Liaison, along with staffers doing outreach to Christians and Jews. Muslim leaders are pleased, although they say there are still no Muslims in decision-making government positions.

Muslim Americans have been working hard to increase their political clout. Kim Lawton reports [on how] the events of September 11 are challenging those efforts.

KIM LAWTON: In the days since September 11, Abdulwahab Alkebsi has been a vocal advocate for Muslim participation in the war against terrorism. As executive director of the Washington-based Islamic Institute, he hosted a Capitol Hill luncheon to introduce members of Congress to the Emir of Qatar, a key U.S. coalition partner. Alkebsi also helped pull off several meetings with top Bush administration officials, among them, the president's high-profile visit to the Washington Islamic Center. Alkebsi sees it all as part of his duty as a Muslim American.

ABDULWAHAB ALKEBSI (Executive Director, Islamic Institute): I am American by choice, and I feel patriotic to this country more than any other place. I mean, this is home. I want it to be home, and I am scared for it. I feel the vulnerability, and I want to help it. And I assure you, my community as a whole feels that way.

LAWTON: The Muslim Public Affairs Council's Mahdi Bray, who hosts a radio program on Islam, has been in on some of the meetings with government officials. But he's also been protesting outside. In late October, Bray joined with several other Muslims to pray in front of the State Department and to denounce the U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan. Bray says he doesn't care if that costs him his entrée to official Washington.

MAHDI BRAY: It doesn't matter to me. Something about this in my gut, in my heart, tells me it is not the right thing to do, and I have to stand with my own moral conscience and I have to be accountable to that. And I have to stand before God.

LAWTON: In recent years, American Muslims have been trying to expand their political influence, both from the inside and the outside. The events of September 11 are posing new challenges to those efforts.

PROFESSOR JOHN GREEN: I think in the near term, the American Muslim community is going to be in a defensive mode. They are going to need to convince many Americans that in fact they are legitimate participants in the American political process. And 9-11 has certainly been a very major setback for them.

LAWTON: Professor John Green says one of the biggest challenges for Muslims is distancing themselves from the perpetrators of the attacks.

PROF. GREEN: I think it is quite difficult for politicians, whether it is the president or other elected officials, to have a more positive relationship with the Muslim community in the wake of these new suspicions.

LAWTON: Ironically, several Muslim leaders from across the country were in Washington on September 11 for a long-hoped-for White House meeting with the president. Instead, they found themselves at a news conference, condemning the terrorist attacks.

The White House meeting finally took place on September 26th. Instead of talking about Middle East policy or the president's faith-based initiative, the topic was terrorism.

MR. ALKEBSI: Of course, the agenda for the meeting changed, just like everything else changed in our country and everything else changed in our lives. So the agenda changed; most of what we talked about was terrorism and how we should be united in the fight against terrorism. Many of the projects we've been working on are right now on the back burner, like it is for most other Americans.

LAWTON: It's a frustrating situation for those Muslims who last year launched a new effort to begin flexing more political muscle. Prior to the 2000 elections, leaders of several Muslim groups put traditional differences aside and pledged to create a unified voting bloc. They endorsed George W. Bush as the candidate most open to their causes.

For many Muslims, those causes include questioning the strong U.S. support for Israel, lifting sanctions against Iraq, and strengthening U.S. ties to the Arab world. There are also domestic concerns, such as Muslim civil rights and the faith-based initiative. Bray and other Muslims have long been preaching the need for more political participation. It is sometimes a tough sell.

MAN IN AUDIENCE: Half of the audience here feels that democracy is incompatible with Islamic principles.

LAWTON: Creating a unified political bloc has also been difficult because of the great diversity within the American Muslim community. About a third of the community is South Asian, and almost as many are African-American converts who follow traditional Islam. About 25 percent are of Arab descent, and the rest are white converts, Africans and Europeans. In addition to cultural differences, there are deep theological divisions, with varying interpretations of the Koran.

PROF. GREEN: And so it's been quite difficult for American Muslims to craft a common approach to American politics. Now this is not unusual. The American Jewish community has often faced that problem, [as have] American Catholics, various Protestant groups, and so forth.