“[The] article stating that there is a terrorist training camp in Dover could not be further from the truth,” said Dover resident, Muhammad Ahmad Qadri in an editorial response. In the years that the Muslim community has lived in Dover, they have maintained amicable relations with their neighbors, local government, law enforcement, and media. There are no fences, gates, or bars on their property, or on that of any of the other Muslim villages. Utility workers, postal workers, and Christian neighbors come and go with ease.

Also, the Dover Muslim community has been communally active in Nashville, where The Tennessean is based. Dover Muslims, along with faculty, students, and religious organizations at Vanderbilt and other universities, have worked together to organize enlightening events over the years, including one that brought the Bosnian ambassador to the region to give speeches on the genocide and ethnic cleansing in his country. A former Religion Editor of The Tennessean, Ray Waddle, was a frequent attendee of many of these such lectures during the early to mid 90’s.

Waddle also attended and wrote about the Islamic Cultural Awareness Week (ICAW), founded by M. Ahmad Qadri and continued by the late Ron Rasheed Wade, a social worker and probation officer. The ICAW was held for 12 years. The week long event which included Muslim/Christian dialogues, film festivals, television and radio programs, and Sufi poetry readings even graced the front page of The Tennessean.

“Whenever anything concerning Muslims or Islam would occur, Waddle made it his priority to contact the Muslim community for our perspective,” said Muhammad Ahmad Qadri. It is therefore ironic that a newspaper which had for so many years been a friend and assistant of the Muslim communities of Nashville and Dover would promote such unfounded lies, unless directly influenced by the CAN.