U.S. Muslim Leaders Seek To Counteract Extremist Recruiters

U.S. Muslim Leaders Seek To Counteract Extremist Recruiters
Imam Mohamed Magid, Executive Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), speaks at a gathering of Washington-area Muslims at ADAMS, a suburban mosque in Sterling, Va., Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. A senior Pentagon official apologized multiple times for the âunknowingly and improperlyâ burned Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, and Magid called on Muslims to respond peacefully and with tolerance. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Imam Mohamed Magid, Executive Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), speaks at a gathering of Washington-area Muslims at ADAMS, a suburban mosque in Sterling, Va., Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. A senior Pentagon official apologized multiple times for the âunknowingly and improperlyâ burned Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, and Magid called on Muslims to respond peacefully and with tolerance. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

STERLING, Va. — Imam Mohamed Magid tries to stay in regular contact with the teenager who came to him a few months ago — at his family’s urging — to discuss how he was being wooed by online recruiters working for the Islamic State, the extremist group in Syria and Iraq.

But the imam, a scholar bursting with charm and authority, has struggled to compete. Though he has successfully intervened in the cases of five other young men, persuading them to abandon plans to fight overseas, the Islamic State’s recruiting efforts have become even more disturbing, he said, and nonstop.

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