He says when it was reported that Army Major Nidal Hasan was a Muslim, an old fear returned.

"We just started getting those feelings again, like what happened September 11," he says.

"Always when something happens, from an Arab Muslim American, it gives the idea or the picture that that's how everybody are.... It's like if a black American does something in the area or in Detroit, that's the picture they get for all the black people. And same thing is happening with us."

Cheaito says he expects the uneasiness in the community will fade once the Fort Hood incident is out of the headlines.

But leaders in the Muslim community are not taking any chances that their faith be misunderstood.

"Islam is a faith of peace," Imam Steve Elturk of the Islamic Organization of North America said at a press conference Friday.

"Muslims, the adherents to this faith, are supposed to live in peace within themselves and also without, among the community," he said. "So you can't call a Muslim a true Muslim if he acts heinous sin - atrocities like the one just committed by Major Hasan."