Alexandria, Va. ? Before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Islamic immigrants generally felt so safe in the United States that they focused much of their political activism on helping Muslims back home.

A meeting this weekend of the spiritual leaders of U.S. mosques indicates an abrupt shift. With some of their civil rights restricted by the war on terror, they’re now lobbying to protect themselves.

“There is fatigue among some Muslims about these foreign issues. They realize the American Muslim community can be victims, too,” said Muqtedar Khan, a political scientist at Adrian College in Michigan and author of “American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom.” “The American government itself has become a threat to our civil rights.”

Khan was a speaker at the conference, which aimed to enlist mosque leaders, called imams, in the fight to roll back some of the broad new enforcement powers that authorities are using in the domestic hunt for terrorists.

Speakers decried the government’s shutdown of some Muslim charities in the United States, lengthy detention of terrorism suspects and immigrants and the surveillance of mosques.

The event was organized by the Washington-based American Muslim Council, among several Islamic advocacy groups searching for candidates in the 2004 elections who will give importance to Muslim civil rights problems in their campaigns.

Of the dozen panel discussions at the meeting, only one dealt with an international issue: Iraq. Israel and the Palestinians were mentioned only fleetingly, while complaints about Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft were plentiful in the speeches and comments from participants.

Imam Shamsud-Din Ali of Philadelphia listens to a panel discussion at the Third Leadership Conference for Imams in Alexandria, Va. Muslims plan to make 2004 the first year that domestic, rather than foreign, issues determine their vote.

This new priority is not just a sign of anger at the government’s domestic reaction to Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim leaders say. It also indicates that many Muslims are letting go the idea that they will someday return to their native countries.

“The vast majority of people have decided to settle here. That is a major change,” said Souheil Ghannouchi, president of the Muslim American Society, a Washington-area organization.

Raeed Tayeh, public affairs director for the Muslim American Society, gave a basic civics lesson on the Constitution and American government to about 60 mosque leaders at the conference, several of whom are from other countries.

In their speeches at prayers on Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, some foreign-born imams who preside in American mosques often speak of injustices overseas rather than in their communities. Tayeh told them that as they begin to deal with injustices in the United States, learning how to navigate the American political system is “a matter of survival” for U.S Muslims.

“When you say John Ashcroft is violating our civil rights, you have to be able to say what rights are being violated,” Tayeh said.