Muslims’ acceptance in U.S. society still an issue, notes the outgoing Islamic Society of North America leader

Ingrid Mattson was first woman elected as president of ISNA

Ingrid Mattson made history four years ago by being elected the first female president of the Plainfield-based Islamic Society of North America.

But her groundbreaking didn’t stop there.

Mattson and other Islamic Society leaders forged new partnerships with major national Jewish and Christian organizations. And her prominence in interfaith circles landed her a role with other faith leaders in the inaugural festivities of President Barack Obama.

Yet the achievements of Mattson’s tenure as the organization’s president, which comes to an end this weekend, have been tempered somewhat by the realities of life right now for American Muslims -- many of whom feel less secure than at any time since shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

During the recently completed Muslim holy month of Ramadan, loud objections were raised to a plan to build an Islamic center in New York City because it was within a few blocks of Ground Zero. A Florida pastor threatened to burn Islam’s holy book. And Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and a potential presidential candidate, made an analogy between the New York mosque planners and Nazis who would plant their insignia near a Holocaust museum.

“There were a few days during that month,” Mattson said, “where I felt that I am coming to the end of nine years of constant service (including five as the society’s vice president) and, ‘This is where we are now?’ ”

Mattson has said her tenure as president has been, in many ways, one crisis after another -- from responding to a new wave of anti-Muslim commentary to responding to attacks by Muslim extremists, such as her denunciation of the murder of Christian civilian aid workers by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan as against the “foundation of Islam.”

“I think the biggest challenge,” she said, “was not to simply be reactionary.”

Mattson, 47, is leaving as president because of the society’s two-term limit, but she will remain on its executive council. Her successor hasn’t officially been named. The current vice president, All Dulles Area Muslim Society imam Mohamed Magid, was the only nominee on a presidential ballot that also had room for write-ins. His confirmation as the new president was expected today.

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