MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
Michigan Radio's Sarah Cwiek has the story.
SARAH CWIEK: Just hours before bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was scheduled to make his first appearance in a Detroit federal court, a group of local imams gathered to denounce those who practice terrorism in the name of Islam. Joining them was Hebba Aref, who was returning to Detroit on Northwest Flight 253 when Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to set off an explosive device on the plane. Aref says as a Muslim, she doesn't understand Islamic extremists.
NORRIS: I don't know how they can twist such a wonderful and peaceful religion, turn and do what they do.
CWIEK: Egerton Abulu is the secretary of the Nigerian Foundation of Michigan. He says religious extremism is anathema to Nigerian society.
NORRIS: What that guy did was just an isolated case, very isolated. Why he did it, we don't know. But it's isolated. It is not our nature.
CWIEK: The all-African market on Detroit's west side is a small store selling West African food staples along with a selection of CDs and DVDs. On a recent evening, Ameeka Sarnati and Ezenua Uwazrike sat behind the counter, watching a Nigerian TV show on a laptop computer. Uwazrike is a teenager who goes by the initials E.Z. He was born and raised in the U.S., but says his Nigerian family was horrified when they found out the alleged terrorist was a fellow countryman.
NORRIS: They was all in shock. Like, we was all together on Christmas. And that, like, everybody just sat down in the living room, was watching the news, because nobody would expect a Nigerian person to do that.
CWIEK: Ameeka Sarnati grew up in Nigeria and says he has no sympathy for Abdulmutallab. Sarnati calls him a young man of privilege, and says he's ruining his country's name.
NORRIS: He was in a better position as a young, you know, African man, you know, to help out his community. You know, use all that efforts and, you know, passion that he had for extremism, he could've channeled into other, better things.
CWIEK: For NPR News, I'm Sarah Cwiek in Ann Arbor.