By Annmarie Fertoli : Assistant Producer, WNYC/WQXR News

A view of the electronic billboard – part of the Muslims for Peace campaign – in Times Square. (Courtesy Nusrat Qadir, Muslims for Peace Campaign)

“Holidays like July Fourth, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, these are all prime opportunities to remind fellow Muslim youth that, you know what? You should be proud and confident about being an American.”— Rizwan Alladin, leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community’s youth association,

As the nation celebrates its Independence, a Muslim group with hundreds of members in the tri-state area is honoring the values it believes all Americans share this Fourth of July weekend.

“One of the topics will be about promoting peace and liberty,” said Rizwan Alladin, a New Yorker. “And we know that is both an Islamic as well as an American ideal.”

Rizwan, who leads the Ahmadiyya Muslim community’s youth association, said he tries to help young people resolve conflicts about being both Muslim and American by discussing those common ideals. The group is holding its 63rd annual convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, this year.

“Holidays like July Fourth, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, these are all prime opportunities to remind fellow Muslim youth that, you know what? You should be proud and confident about being an American,” he said.

Alladin’s group also hopes to foster a continuing dialogue with other faiths and communities. Last year, the group launched the nationwide Muslims for Peace campaign, which included a billboard in Times Square. They’re also planning a blood drive at dozens of chapters nationwide in the week leading up to the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. read here