When it comes to terrorism, Muslim Americans aren't part of the problem, they're part of the solution, according to Ahmed Younis, national director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

According to Younis, the author of "American Muslims: Voir Dire," Muslim Americans face a twofold identity crisis. "The first thought that one gets is that Muslims are the threat within America, but many people throughout the world see America and American Muslims as a threat within Islam," said Younis, speaking at a Feb. 23 lecture, "Islam in America: An Enemy in Our Midst?" in Goldwin Smith Hall's Kaufmann Auditorium. His lecture was part of Cornell's annual Islam Awareness Week.

It is possible to be "both 100 percent Muslim and 100 percent American," he said of the 6 million to 8 million Muslims living in the United States, about 30 percent of them of Middle Eastern descent.

In fact, there is no "clash of civilizations" between Islamic and Western culture, said Younis, who noted that the founding principles of Islam are not fundamentally at odds with Western traditions, democratic traditions or freedom.

"This is a fallacy," he said. "A fallacy that is being manipulated by those who will gain the most from the disaffection of the mainstream, moderate Muslim."

Exposing this fallacy is key to reducing the influence of Islamic extremists in the Muslim world, he said. Ending terrorism also requires a better integration of Muslims into global society and a campaign to "delegitimize" the Islamic identity of extremists, whose violent actions are in direct conflict with the teachings of Islam. Mentioning three types of integration -- social, economic and political -- he said that European countries are struggling with the first two, while the United States has failed to accomplish the third one.

"At the national level, we are yet to have a full integration that will show us a Muslim president or a Muslim congressman," he said.

Making this community more politically active is important, Younis said, because, far from being enemies, Muslim Americans should be seen as "saviors." Because of their dual identity, they serve as one of America's best defenses against future acts of terrorism.

"No one will be able to secure America from a terrorism attack. ... No one will be able to lead global discourse in a direction that takes us away from extremists manipulating the debate within Islam ... more than American Muslims," he said. "They exist in a context, in a structure, that allows them to leverage what they have to make changes for this country and to make changes for this world."

In regard to the Danish newspaper cartoons portraying the Muslim prophet Muhammad, Younis condemned both the publishing of the cartoons and the violent manner in which some Muslims responded. He argued that such incidents could be avoided in the future if freedom of speech were accompanied by "a responsibility of speech."

As for the debate over allowing a United Arab Emirates-controlled company to manage some U.S. ports, Younis questioned how the government and media are handling the issue.

"There seems to be a consistent pattern in American public discourse," he said. "There seems to be an insistence on choosing lack of education and ignorance over choosing reconciliation and engaging with community. There are only two reasons why [as a politician] you would be against this move," he added. "One, you are a racist bigot ... or [two], you don't know how to explain this to your constituents."

Islam Awareness Week was co-sponsored by Cornell's Muslim Educational and Cultural Association (MECA), the Islamic Alliance for Justice and Cornell's Department of Near Eastern Studies.

Courtney Potts is a writer intern at the Cornell News Service.