NEW YORK: Muslim organizations in the United States are of a consensus that Muslims face constant threats to the kind of everyday existence that other Americans take for granted.

At a breakfast meeting organized by Muslim organizations in New Jersey, which was also attended by US lawmakers, Waheed Khalid, chairman of the American Muslim Union, said three years after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Muslims are still feeling the aftershocks.

"The American Muslim community has never felt so insecure and apprehensive due to discrimination and intolerance," Mr Khalid said. "Our government's actions following 9/11 have impacted and continue to impact tens of thousands of individuals in ways which seriously violate our Constitution. They include ethnically and religiously based interrogations, detentions, raids and closures of Muslim charities."

Mr Khalid's remarks drew a warm reception from some 400 people - predominantly Muslims - gathered for the annual Islamic community breakfast. The event aims to fight discrimination and misinformation about Islam by reaching out to, and creating links with, other communities.

Among the speakers were US Senator Jon Corzine, Congressman Bill Pascrell, and Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg - all Democrats. Also present were Christian and Jewish leaders.

Speakers avoided mentioning the slaying of four members of a Coptic Orthodox family in Jersey City last month that fuelled tensions between Christians and Muslims. After the killings, a police said that one of several leads being pursued was the possibility that the deaths were carried out by religious extremists.

Muslim leaders decried the suggestion and condemned the killings, while calling for solidarity across all religions. Authorities have yet to arrest anyone or publicly offer a motive for the killings.

Speakers turned their attention to the way Muslims are treated differently from other groups. Their concerns included the arrest and incarceration of Muslims after 9/11, the extra scrutiny given to Muslims coming into the country and the way some parts of the Patriot Act, enforced in the wake of 9/11, have been used against the community.

Mr Khalid said one girl was told not to wear the headscarf to school. Elsewhere, he said, banks have "cancelled accounts of American Muslims and Islamic centres without cause or explanation".