Excerpt:
Board members of the Muslim American Society recognize community concerns about their plans to buy a former convent in Midland Beach, but say they are good neighbors who are striving to meet the needs of the area's growing Muslim population.
Their comments came at a gathering with leaders of the Midland Beach Civic Association and Advance reporters and editors at the newspaper's Grasmere office, days before tomorrow's full civic association meeting with MAS members.
"The main issue is the issue of the fear," conceded MAS board member and South Beach resident Ayman Hammous, a married father of five and a physical therapist who works with disabled Staten Island children. He and three fellow MAS members said the organization denounces every aspect of terrorism, and Hammous decried allegations that have appeared on blogs and Web sites characterizing the group as a terror front, saying such stereotyping is the work of "Islamophobes."
Several members of the Midland Beach community and borough activist groups have accused Mahdi Bray, the director of MAS' advocacy arm, of having a criminal past and supporting terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, pointing to video clips in which Bray voices his support of the Palestinians.