Americans don't always properly identify exactly who is responsible for terrorism in the world, an anti-terrorism specialist told the Downtown Kiwanis Club on Wednesday.

The misidentification of terrorists is just one of many points Douglas Frey, who works at Ellsworth Air Force Base as an anti-terrorism educator, presented to Kiwanis members at their weekly luncheon.

Frey said he came to the Kiwanis meeting on his own personal time to talk about his area of expertise, he said, and not as a representative of Ellsworth.

He also discussed numerous other topics, including how citizens can and should watch out for terrorist threats on their own.

Frey said one of the biggest misconceptions is that al-Qaida is solely responsible for the terrorism Americans hear about.

"There are a number of terrorist groups out there, and not everything can or should be attributed to al-Qaida," Frey said.

Frey also said that Muslims in general get blamed for many terrorist-related issues, but only a certain percentage of radical Islamists are responsible.

"Radical Islamists are merely a fractional component of the Muslim world," he said. "Islam is a very peaceful religion."

He also described some tactics of radicals, who tend to put their own spin on the Quran, the Muslim holy book, he said.

Frey said that most radical Islamists believe violence is the only way to get their point across about their beliefs and that the radicals want to return to how things were in the past.

In contrast, moderate Muslims believe that the Islamic culture can co-exist with everyone else. The U.S. must keep communication open with modern Muslims to show that the different religions can co-exist, he said.

Frey said that Americans can identify terroristic threats, citing the example of the Fort Dix Six, which was a famous case where a shopkeeper shared an Islamst video with disturbing images to the police, who later arrested six Islamist militants.

Contact Ryan Woodard at 394-8412 or ryan.woodard@rapidcityjournal.com