Then why don't they leave?

Muslim Group opposes violence and America.

The young Muslim men, with beards and bullhorns, work the streets of Jackson Heights on the weekends. They surface at parades and protests around the city, loudly declaring America the enemy and advocating for an Islamic state. Several weeks ago, they publicly tore up an American flag as payback for the reported desecration of the Koran at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Their own videos of violence against Muslims, one with the title "Muslim Massacres," have recently appeared on Queens Public Television.

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For such a public group, much about it remains a mystery. As a policy, its members do not give interviews and members' names are not listed on the group's Web site, www.IslamicThinkers.com. In recent days, the site has been devoted to the inquiries of several newspaper reporters, asserting that they intended to paint the group as militant extremists, with a motive to "demoralize Islam."

Yesterday evening, [the group's leader, Ariful] Islam made an exception and granted an interview, in which he said that the group, which has less than a dozen members, opposed participation in the American political system, and would only approve of an Islamic leader "guided by the Koran."

He dismissed criticism of the group by the city's Muslim leaders as fear of a "backlash."

"We have nothing to hide," he said. "We are always in the public."

"We're all just regular kids in New York City," he added. "We grew up here."