Since June, area Muslims have become increasingly uncomfortable and even fearful – – not because of overt attacks or threats against them, but because a sequence of incidents have built upon each other to form an intense, low – grade foreboding.

Beginning with the monthlong Israel – Hezbollah conflict through Pope Benedict XVI’s inflammatory lecture last month, American Muslims say they feel more uneasy in their own country.

Local incidents, including the August screening of a controversial anti – terrorism movie and an FBI raid on the home of a Muslim in Columbia, Mo., have heightened the anxiety, according to dozens of St. Louis Muslims interviewed over the last few weeks.

“Muslims are feeling like the world is closing in on them,” said Orvin T. Kimbrough, executive director of the Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis. “They feel like they’re being targeted.”

The specter of World War II Japanese – American internment camps makes its way into many conversations these days.

“We’re faced with same situation as anyone else in this country as we all move forward in this post – 9/11 world,” said Ishmael – Lateef Ahmad, a staff member in Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr.’s office. “Lumping us all together and treating us all as the enemy for many Muslims that’s a real possibility, and we’re trying to wrap our heads around that.”

Last month, the quarterly meeting of the eastern Missouri U.S. attorneys’ hate crimes task force focused on the concerns of St. Louis Muslims. The meeting was held at Central Reform Congregation in the Central West End.

At the meeting, Sheila Musaji, editor of the online magazine “The American Muslim,” decried the frequent transposition of the words “Islam” and “Muslim” in the public debate about terrorism in the U.S.

“When people consistently use ‘Islam’ instead of ‘Muslim,’ as in ‘Islamic fascist,’ it creates the notion that the religion itself is responsible for creating these criminals,” she said.

Waheed Rana, professor of anatomy at St. Louis University, saw things differently. Rana said American Muslims should stoically accept their current position in American society. “Instead of complain, complain, complain, we have to get used to it,” he said. “There’s a certain amount of this we have to take.”

These two views – – one angry at the seeming willful ignorance of a confused and frightened non – Muslim majority, the other a mixture of apprehension and surrender – – make up the cleft state of mind of American Muslims in St. Louis today. And they’re not sure their president is helping.

In August, President George W. Bush said that the United States “is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom.” Since then Bush has not publicly repeated the phrase, and at a late – September press conference with Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, Bush, challenged about the “Islamic fascists” statement, said that in United Nations, he “stood up and said loud and clear, ‘America respects Islam.’ And we do.”

But it’s a statement that, according to Muslims, is outweighed by other messages tied to the Bush administration that have hurt. At the hate crimes task force meeting, Rana suggested that a television ad by the Washington – based Progress for America was demeaning and frightening for American Muslims.

The ad, which ran on Fox News Channel, features a retired three – star general, who says – – over film of a plane flying into the World Trade Center, Saddam Hussein and al – Qaida training camps – – “these people want to kill us because we’re Americans.”

Along with another so – called 527 group – – a type of tax – exempt organization – – Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Progress for America gained fame in the months before the 2004 elections for its ties to the Bush – Cheney campaign.

Asked if her group was worried that American Muslims may be offended by its ads, Progress for America spokeswoman Nicole Philbin said that “the images on the ad are of terrorists committing terrorism.” Philbin said the ads were purely about the issue of terrorism and “had nothing to do with politics.”

And yet the ad suggests to some Muslims that election – year politics are at least partly to blame for Muslims’ increasing discomfort.

“It’s possible that those who want a tougher stance on terrorism and against Muslims have felt election campaigns might benefit from bringing this issue to the forefront,” said Khaled Hamid, a member of the St. Louis chapter of the Council on American – Islamic Relations.

It’s not just leaders of countries who have upset some Muslims of late. While giving a lecture in Germany in mid – September, the pope quoted a 14th – century emperor who said Islam’s influence was evil and was spread by violence. The pope repeatedly apologized over the hurt his remarks caused. Last week he met with Muslim leaders from around the world, but some Muslims have refused to let the issue die.

Reaction among St. Louis Muslims to the pope’s comments was more subdued, and Catholics and Muslims alike cited a history of dialogue as the reason. The Rev. Vincent A. Heir, director of the St. Louis Archdiocese’s office for ecumenical and interreligious affairs, said Archbishop Raymond Burke had sent a letter to local Muslim leaders, wishing them Ramadan greetings and enclosing a full text of Benedict’s lecture. Heir said plans were in the works for Burke to visit Daar – ul – Islam mosque in west St. Louis County soon.

Early last month, the Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis narrowly averted a communitywide Muslim boycott when it invited Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti – Defamation League, to speak at its 20th anniversary dinner.

In mid – September, the FBI raided the home in Columbia, Mo., of a former engineering professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia. The former professor, Shakir Abdul – Kaf Hamoodi, said the agents were interested in his connection to an Islamic charity in Michigan that was also raided the same day. The search of Hamoodi’s home came three days after a community meeting at which area Muslims raised concerns about racial profiling.

Also early last month, at a town – hall meeting at Daar – ul – Islam with four FBI agents from the bureau’s St. Louis division, about 100 members of the mosque conveyed a sense of wariness and weariness for more than 2 1/2 hours as they launched question after question – – about telephone wire taps, hate speech on local radio, airport harassment and computer surveillance – – at the FBI agents.

Sheikh Mohammad Nur Abdullah, the mosque’s former imam who opened its doors to the FBI in the weeks and months after Sept. 11, 2001, seemed to speak for many in the crowd when he told the agents that after five years of doing all they could as a community to be helpful to the government in its effort to combat terrorism, St. Louis Muslims were growing increasingly frustrated that they were still being treated as suspects in that same effort.

At the end of August, a thousand people – – about half of them Jewish and half Christian, according to organizers – – attended a screening of the movie “Obsession: What the War on Terror is Really About” at the Frontenac Hilton Hotel. The group’s sponsors promoted the movie with a provocative billboard featuring a dark – skinned man whose head was wrapped in a kuffiyeh and the words, “Confessions of a Terrorist.”

The terrorist in question was Walid Shoebat, who said he was a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Shoebat appeared in the hourlong movie and then spoke to the audience.

Muslims who were there said they were horrified by what they believed was the movie’s inference that Islam, terrorism and Nazism were one and the same, despite a disclaimer that ran at the beginning and end of the movie that said “most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror.”

Far more upsetting, they said, was the reaction of the audience.

Writing in “The American Muslim” two weeks after the screening, Manji said those Muslims who attended were “still experiencing physical and emotional distress primarily due to the positive reaction of the audience – – including applause and standing ovations – – and to some of the hateful comments we overheard from individuals sitting around us.”

Fatemeh Keshavarz, head of Washington University’s department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, who was at the screening, said: “This was hate speech, pure and simple. ... being in that room, I felt threatened.”

The movie was made by Honest Reporting, “a grass – roots movement dedicated to ensuring that Israel receives fair media coverage,” according to its website. Honest Reporting is an arm of Aish HaTorah, an orthodox Jewish education network based in Jerusalem.

Richard Senturia, executive director of Citizens for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Middle East, which co – sponsored the screening, said that the Muslims who attended “saw what they saw and heard what they heard. I’m not going to deny their feelings.”

Karen J. Aroesty, the Anti – Defamation League’s regional director for Missouri and Southern Illinois, was also in the “Obsession” audience and said she was disturbed by what she saw in the crowd’s reaction. She is now working with Muslims on an effort to re – screen “Obsession,” but this time to also provide a forum for people to discuss their feelings about the movie.

“Frankly, things are getting out of hand,” Aroesty said about the sequence of events that have frightened many St. Louis Muslims. “All these things happen, and they converge in different ways in a community like St. Louis.”

Many Muslims said they recognized that most of their fellow Americans wished them nothing but happiness and peace. Several told stories that clearly touched them about Jewish and Christian friends and neighbors who have gone out of their way to comfort them in the last few months.

“Americans must learn more about Islam so they can understand the differences and defuse the hate and misdirected anger,” said Ishmael – Lateef Ahmad. “Given an opportunity, Americans will investigate and learn and, as time goes on, that will help.”