It will take generations before Muslims can clean their negative image of being radicals, says Duke University’s Muslim chaplain,  Imam Abdullah Antepli.

In a an interview with Rabbi Yair Hoffman for Five Towns Jewish Times, the imam said, “Every term and definition about Islam has been corrupted and distorted. There is a responsibility for Muslims to clear up their image. There is character assassination, dehumanization, and it is very, very unfortunate. It will take generations to clear up.”

He decried radical Islam, but claimed the same extremists exist in Christianity in Judaism.

America’s two Muslim Congressmen, Antepli and other leading Muslims were signatories to a letter sent last week to Hamas supreme leader Khaled Mashaal, asking him to free kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

Asked if he believed the letter would influence Hamas, the imam replied, “We are people of faith and we believe in miracles. If not in the heart and minds of Hamas, but in the heart of Muslims in Gaza, Israel/Palestine.”

He said he has received positive feedback from Gaza Arabs since the letter was published.

Co-signed by Congressmen Keith Ellison and Andre Carson, the letter stated, “We believe Hamas’ harsh treatment and five-year detention of Shalit is wrong.

The added that Muslims are “instructed to ‘repel the evil deed with one that is better’ [and that] the struggle for Palestinian human rights and self-determination must be based on this ethical and moral code.

“Hamas’ inhumane detention of Shalit undermines the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for human rights and a state of their own, existing in peace and security beside Israel.”

The Duke University imam also said he does not believe that Hamas is telling the truth concerning its lack of knowledge of the location of Shalit, who was kidnapped more than five years ago in a terrorist attack on the IDF at a Gaza crossing.  

Hamas often plays “a political game as if one has no control over the other,” he explained. “I don’t believe it when they say that they have no control over” other terrorist groups.