It may seem like an unlikely metaphor: a �Muslim civil rights movement,� but the month of June saw American Muslim leaders step forward in a significant way to flex their political muscle, and when necessary to engage in old-fashioned protest demonstrations.

In early June, six Muslim activists staged a �sit-in� in front of the U.S. State Department, blocking a street in front of the diplomatic entrance to the building for 30 minutes to protest U.S. policies they say favor Israel against the indigenous Arab Muslim and Christian populations in Palestine.

�After 53 years of Israeli occupation and Palestinian dispossession, Americans must begin to draw a moral line in the sand and say this tragedy cannot continue with our U.S. tax dollars,� a leader of the Muslim Public Affairs Council said outside the State Department.

When Washington�s Metropolitan Police Department declined to arrest the protesters, they declared �victory,� boasting that U.S. officials did not want American Muslims to be photographed being arrested protesting U.S. Middle East policy.

In the succeeding three weeks: a parade of U.S. Senators and members of Congress attended the 10th annual convention of the American Muslim Council, decrying legislation which permits immigration officials to deport non-citizens based on secret evidence; the same six men who sat down in protest in front of the State Department, sat-in again in front of the White House to protest a meeting between President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon; and finally nearly two dozen Muslim leaders walked out of a White House briefing on the administration�s Faith-Based and Community Initiative, after one of the group members was asked to leave the meeting by the Secret Service.

The Muslim unity in the face of the White House insult, evoked an apology from President Bush.

During the protest against Prime Minister Sharon, more than 500�including several orthodox Jewish rabbis, members of Neturei Karta, an anti-Zionist organization�Muslims, Christians and Jews joined the demonstration, chanting slogans and waving signs.

�Today we sent a message to President Bush that he should not legitimize a world leader who has the blood of so many innocent Christians and Muslims on his hands,� said a leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations outside the White House.

Muslims contend that experts on international law have likened Mr. Sharon�s �bloody past and current brutal policies� to the behavior which has landed former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic before a war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

It is unlikely now that the �genie� of Muslim political activism can ever be coaxed back into its proverbial bottle. American Muslim leaders are vowing to increase their presence in every political theater, and they are armed with the tactics, strategies, methods, and even some of the allies that produced historic victories in the U.S. civil rights movement.

The new activism of immigrant Muslims can be enhanced by linking up with indigenous Muslims, who have long fought to make America respect their faith, and groups that have worked on behalf of oppressed people. In unity there is strength and there can never be too many fighters in the cause for freedom, justice and equality for all.