The effort was organized by Phoenix internist Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and Navy vet, and his nonprofit group, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, which opposes what Jasser refers to as "Islamism," or political Islam, as well as violence in the name of religion.
Jasser, whose parents fled repression in Syria, was raised in Appleton, Wisconsin, and fervently believes in Jeffersonian principles of democracy, including, as applied to Islam, "the separation of mosque and state." The good doctor is the subject of the recent Phoenix New Times cover story, "All-American Muslim."
