The few American members of the military-whatever their religious affiliation-who sexually abused the Iraqi prisoners, do not represent the overwhelming majority of the 250 million Americans, nor did they do these abhorrent acts because of their religious teachings. Similarly, the few 19 who caused the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America do not represent the overwhelming majority of the 1.2 billion Muslims of the world, 7 million of whom are Americans.

Having said this, we, and the Americans of conscience, call for immediate international and congressional investigations into the sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners by American military police at the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Baghdad, Iraq. We also call for a swift prosecution of the perpetrators and the military command staff that reportedly turned a blind eye to these acts of barbarity. Photographs released recently provide shocking evidence of some of our military's behavior in its occupation of Iraq. These acts by our soldiers must not go unpunished.

The fact these photographs were discovered by accident raises legitimate concerns as to whether such reprehensible acts are taking place in other parts of our military occupation.

Furthermore, our fellow citizens should realize that the depicted behavior has caused incalculable damage to our country in the Muslim world in particular and the world at large, and has significantly increased the risk to our soldiers on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. These photos are more than a public relations problem; anger in the Muslim world will take more than a few weeks to dissipate.

In addition to prosecution of the perpetrators, if the Bush administration is serious about damage control in this matter it should open this human rights violation to international investigation led by the United Nations. This would be a step toward genuine penance and may be recognized as such in the world community.

As we call upon our fellow Americans to demand an inquiry into the US military behavior at Abu Ghraib and similar prisons to root out any other such barbaric acts being committed while serving the US government, we also call upon the Department of Justice, media commentators, elected officials, fundamentalist religious leaders and some of our fellow Americans to stop hate speech against Muslim Americans, because the acts of the few do not represent the overwhelming majority.