The next audience member asked why don't more Muslims speak out against terrorism?

Mubarak said that's another misperception. She said Muslims everywhere are condemning terrorism. She said there's a fatwah against terrorism that says terrorism is absolutely forbidden. She said we need to look closer at problems in Islamic nations and realize "it has nothing to do with religion," but rather with political, economic and historical forces at work -- from colonialism to globalization.

The next question was about the influence of the fundamentalist Saudi form of Islam -- Wahhabism.

Mattson said it's not true that Saudi Muslims fund most mosques and Muslim organizations in America. It is true that in the 1980s many Muslims looked to wealthy donors to help them build mosques and schools here.

"I don't think that meant influence," she said. The views of American Muslims "are nothing like anti-women, anti-democratic Muslims" in other parts of the world.

Hendi, who is imam of the Islamic Society of Frederick, Md., said "local Muslims really try to depend on local funding."