The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 46

The Nation Flooding recedes along upper Mississippi 1 V. 1 1 Page 4a Friday, April 27, 2001 The Sun 1 A KEMA director surveys '-'damage, offers support il'l. ASSOCIATED PRESS I L.f quite frankly, to the Quad Cities area and folks up and down the Mississippi," Joe AUbaugh, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said In Davenport. "They have learned their lessons from the '93 flood. They were prepared, as the mayor and governor have said, to handle this In a much better fashion." Not that the region Is out of the woods: Heavy rain last weekend Is expected to send another Mississippi River crest through Minnesota early next week.

DAVENPORT, Iowa As floodwaters finally receded along I of the Mississippi River, the top federal emergency official sodden towns In Iowa and Illinois yesterday to survey damage and offer support. "I'd like to say congratulations, a -j Lawmakers seek stiff penalty for Calif, energy price gouging 1 Bill would set high fines, put guilty officials in jail Flooding this month has swamped parts of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. Hundreds of people remain out of their homes in Wisconsin. Damage Is still being tallied, but the estimate so far in Iowa and Minnesota alone has reached nearly $10 million, with another $3 million In Grand Forks, N.D. More than 3,500 homes, mostly In Wisconsin and Iowa, have water damage, and more than 30 counties are under state disaster declarations.

Hundreds of businesses have been closed or disrupted, and the Army Corps of Engineers said locks on the Mississippi from Minneapolis to Guttenberg, Iowa, will be closed to navigation through at least the second week of May. The river crested here Tuesday at 22.3 feet, its third-highest level on record. The crest was expected to reach Quincy, 111., 130 miles north of St. Louis, by today, but flooding in the lower reaches of the river is not expected to be severe. Officials said many communities are seeing the benefits of buyouts and flood-control efforts, some put in place after devastating damage in 1993.

One place that hasn't put In permanent flood protection is Davenport. The city of 98,300 is the largest urban area on the upper Mississippi without it, a fact Allbaugh noted this week. "The question Is: How many times will the American taxpayer have to step in and take care of this flooding, which could be easily prevented by building levees and dikes?" Allbaugh said Monday. Mayor Phil Yerington called the criticism an Insult to families trying to save their homes. Yesterday, Allbaugh made a display of draping his arm around the mayor as the two boarded a bus to tour flood damage.

Allbaugh, who also toured parts of Illinois, refused to talk about the controversy or whether there should be changes in the way federal funds are given to communities in flood plains. STEVE RUARKlBUN STAFF Prayers: Members of the Al-Ramah mosque in Catonsvillepray after breaking their Ramadan fasts. From right, Zubatr Burmi, Zuhair Burmi, their father, Syed Qasim Burmi; and Muhammad Ilyas Shaikh, Growth of Islamic community in U.S. explored in new survey bills and triggered the bankruptcy of the state's largest utility. The proposal, which would require a two-thirds vote for passage In the Democratic-majority Assembly, would also slap a fine of up to 10 percent of gross corporate assets on any company found guilty.

But the measure, which would also grant Immunity to individuals who provide Information on the manipulation of energy prices, Is unlikely to find much support from Assembly Republicans, according to legislative sources. "I think there would be some Republicans who would support fines if, in fact, there Is gouging going on, but throwing people In jail seems overboard," said James Fis-fis, a spokesman for Assembly Republican leader David Cox. "The bill may be well Mentioned but I think many Republicans will be apt to roll their eyes at this proposal," he said. A spokesman for Cardoza said he did not believe at this time there was any chance the felony provision would be dropped to secure passage of the bill. fcEVTERS SAN FRANCISCO A group of state lawmakers, saying out-of-state energy firms are soaking California consumers for billions of dollars, Introduced a bill yesterday that seeks to imprison anyone convicted of price gouging in the state's volatile energy market.

"Today we are making sure that generators, suppliers and pipeline owners who exercise market power and rob millions of Cali-fornians of billions of dollars will be guaranteed significant jail time," Dennis Cardoza, the principal author of the bill, told a news conference in Sacramento. The emergency bill also contains a $1 million "bounty" for in- formation leading to the convic-tiqn of anyone caught manipulat-ing power and natural gas prices in crisis that has socked nearly all "r.Californians with skyrocketing American Muslims becoming more active in political process fueled by Immigration, conversion and a higher than average birthrate, according to a national survey released yesterday, "The Mosque in America: A National Portrait," which its authors called the largest and most comprehensive look at Islam in the United States, also found that four-fifths of mosques are in metropolitan areas, most are decidedly nonfundamentalist in outlook and three-quarters reported increased attendance over the past five years. By John Rivera SUN STAFF WASHINGTON The number of American mosques increased by 25 percent over the past seven years, a response to the rapid growth of the Muslim community Fosbirepedic STE4RNS FOSTER A f'-VI RPS1 BONUS 2 BONUS 3 3 Tn n. HOTEL DELUXE 1 1 1 1 I Silf vmat I 1 I I 7 7 UJ I 1 LIVXl II I ALL HEADBOARDS, FOOTBOARDS DAYBEDS ARE 1 0 OFF Sro" MMM Twin EA. PC- Postureperfic BEDFRAME or DELIVERY plus set UP and DISPOSAL See Below for details DANIA And Muslims say they are increasingly inclined to be Involved in the political process.

Last year, for the first time the nation's major Islamic groups organized themselves into a bloc that endorsed George W. Bush for president and worked hard to register voters and increase Muslim turnout at the polls. "Muslim involvement in the political process is relatively new," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on american-Is-lamlc Relations, at a news conference to release the survey. "Muslims are uniting themselves to vote together on issues, not on candidates. It happened to be George Bush last year.

It may be another person in four years." lMac membership grows The study was coordinated by the Hartford (Conn.) Seminary Institute for Religious Research as part of an interreligious study of 14,300 U.S. congregations. It highlighted the increasing embrace of Islam by african-ameri-cans. It found that blacks form the second-largest Muslim group in this country, accounting for 30 percent of the total, while South Asians represent 33 percent and Arabs make up 25 percent. "Any one of the three groups are represented in nearly every mosque in America," said Ihsan Bagby, a professor of international relations at Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., and the survey's primary researcher.

But African-Americans represent 63 percent of all converts to Islam, with whites accounting for 27 percent and Hispanlcs 6 percent of the total. The survey counted only those most Muslims would recognize as practicing orthodox Islam and therefore did not count members of the Nation of Islam. Muslims are fairly evenly spread over the country, with 30 percent of mosques in New England and the East, 29 percent in the Midwest, 26 percent in the South and 15 percent in the West. John L. Esposito, director of Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, said the study "shows not Just the growth of Islam, but the fact that Muslims can be found throughout the landscape of the United States." The survey also attempts to answer the thorny question of how many Muslims there are in the United States.

Estimates have ranged from about 4 million, based on telephone surveys, to as many as 12 million. 50,000 in Mar) hind The new report estimated that about 2 million Muslims are associated with about 1,200 mosques and Muslim Student Associations in the country, meaning they customarily attend prayers on the major Muslim holidays. About a quarter of that number attend with regularity. Extrapolating from that figure, Bagby estimates a Muslim population of between 6 million and 7 million, a figure that will undoubtedly be challenged by other researchers. There are an estimated 50,000 Muslims in Maryland.

Islamic leaders say they hope the results of the survey will convince the public that Muslims have Joined the mainstream. "Muslims are beginning to be seen as people in this society and no longer just these foreign, exotic people overseas that are easy to stereotype," said Ibrahim Hooper, the communications of the Islamic Relations council director and himself a convert. "Therefore it's harder to stereotype people maybe your child's doctor is a Muslim, the bus driver is a Muslim, the checkout person at Wal-Mnft might be a Muslirjp." 5( 3 Sealu POSTUREPEDIC HILLBOURNE PLUSH sale price it st T-eaPc'179 Xs JK Fullea.pc. '259 AJ 4.J tmturepedic King set 799 I VAIUE Twin 6a. pc.

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