( CNN ) -- My job as an imam and outreach director for the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center , located minutes from the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol , was created September 11 , 2001 , to convey a more accurate image of the American Muslim community and to create opportunities for interfaith cooperation and understanding distinct from the stereotypical image of Muslims as intolerant and violent religious anti-American extremists . On the morning of the 9/11 attack , while I was calling my patients from the waiting room at Howard University Hospital , I saw the plumes of smoke in the distance coming from the Pentagon , and on the TV monitor watched the twin towers of the World Trade Center being destroyed . I had been volunteering as the Muslim chaplain and imam at Howard University at that time , and the media began calling me for interviews . By 2002 , the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center asked me to be their first outreach director . I left my work as a biomedical researcher , working on my doctorate studying sickle cell disease , and took up this work . Much like the tradition of the black church , I believe I was `` called '' to this ministry to bring people back together , to try to heal a lot of the pain , fear and anger that persisted . The work I do in the greater Washington area is similar to what Daisy Khan and Imam Faisul [ Feisal Abdul Rauf ] want to do with the Cordoba Initiative at Park51 , which is being referred to as the `` Ground Zero mosque . '' I know how important this work is , since I do it every day , reaching out to Christian , Jewish and other faith groups as well as colleges , universities , government and the media in order to find common ground and understanding . In March of this year , a group protested my leading an opening prayer for the Virginia General Assembly . I called the delegate who was responsible for the official invitation -- Adam Ebbin , who is white , Jewish , male and gay . He said he looked at the work I had been doing for almost a decade , and said `` I will stand by you . '' That was a teachable moment . Later , members of the House of Delegates said this was one of the most impressive prayers they had heard , and that they were convinced they were hearing from the type of Muslim that we need in America . The struggle for equal access , for the right to build mosques in America -- not just in lower Manhattan -- is reminiscent of the pain and struggle of black Americans for churches , housing , employment and , actually , public acceptance . By the letter of the law , blacks had the right to live or work anywhere , but they were often segregated to certain areas and specific jobs . Similarly , American Muslims have the right to worship anywhere , but some Americans say we 're not ready yet for mosques being built in certain areas . Some years ago I preached in the Holy Land to 70,000 Palestinians at the `` Jerusalem Festival . '' I wondered why they invited me . As I saw their communities and felt a reminiscent pain of being a second-class citizen in my country , then I knew why God made me a black American at this time : to share my hope and faith . I told them the Quran teaches , '' O you who believe ! Stand out firmly as a witness before God ; and let not the enmity and hatred by others allow you to depart from justice . Be just : that is closer to piety ; and fear Allah . Indeed , Allah is Well-Acquainted with what you do . '' [ Al Maaidah 5 : 8 ] . I realized then that as an heir through the civil rights and black power movements , and now as a Muslim , I am building a bridge from one faith tradition and civil rights movement to another faith and new civil rights movement -- from the fight for civil rights for black Americans , to the fight to secure the right for American Muslims to overcome and live beyond the `` terrorist '' stigma in a post-9/11 world , to make a better America for everybody . The spiritual says , `` I come too far from where I started from , nobody told me the road would be easy . '' Establishing Park51 is another step on the road to equality for all people . It must succeed for all of us . These Muslims who respect America want to continue to pray , live and work in their community in lower Manhattan . While honoring our fallen citizens , we must continue to uphold the banner of freedom -- not guilt by association . Although I thrive off the passion of Malcolm X , I engage in struggle with the compassion of Dr. King . `` We shall overcome '' once again . America eventually gets it right . That America will once again choose the road toward freedom , justice and equality for all people , and that is the America that I believe in . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Imam Johari Abdul-Malik .
Imam Muhammad Abdul - Malik is director of communications for a national Islamic Center . He compares moderate Muslims ' struggles to the civil rights movement . U.S. Muslims have the right to live without the ` ` terrorist '' stigma , he says .