American Muslims still face high levels of hatred and suspicion nearly five years after the September 11 attacks and political leaders and the news media are mostly to blame, Muslim leaders said on Friday.

"During the last five years the Muslim community has been scrutinized by almost all branches of the government and the media to the extent that more than half a million Muslims have been directly touched by this process," said Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago.

"They continue to face dehumanization and a great trend of Islamophobia," he added, speaking to reporters at the start of the annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest yearly gathering of U.S. and Canadian Muslims.

"The trends of Islamophobia unfortunately are worsening," he added, blaming "television driven by media makers" and political leaders for the situation.

The September 11 attacks, planned by the al Qaeda group of Osama bin Laden, were carried out by Islamic men flying hijacked planes into the World Trade center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.

Mujahid cited President George W. Bush's recent remark that if terrorism is not beaten in Baghdad then Americans will have to fight it in their own streets as a remark that casts suspicions on Muslims in their own country.

Ingrid Mattson, newly elected president of ISNA and the first woman to head the group, agreed about the continuing level of problems faced by Muslims but said there was also a growing level of education and understanding across "civil society" that finds Muslim leaders sometimes hard pressed to keep up with demands for speeches and other outreach opportunities. Hollywood and popular culture in general, she added, seem to have done a better job of putting a human face on Muslim adherents than the news media.