Mich. Muslims condemn al-Qaida role in jet attack

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) - Nigerian-American and other Michigan Muslim leaders have condemned al-Qaida and its claim of responsibility for the Christmas attack on a Detroit-bound plane.

They spoke Tuesday at a news conference in the Detroit suburb of Southfield at the Michigan office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Chapter head Dawud Walid (dah-WEWD WAH-led) calls the attack part of a "war against the spirit of Islam itself."

Joining Walid was Imam Kazeem Agboola of The Muslim Community Center in Detroit, most of whose members are from Nigeria. The Yemeni-American Muslim community also was represented.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula says members coordinated the attack with Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He spent years in Yemen.