Norwich — Several local Muslims told the City Council Monday they were dissatisfied with the city’s response to last summer’s controversy over the Connecticut Tigers’ owner’s ties to a right-wing Washington, D.C. thinktank and invited city leaders to visit a local mosque and meet with the community.

Speakers during the council’s public comment portion stressed that they are Americans, some of them military veterans and businesspeople and want to feel safe in their community.

Tark Richard Aouadi, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the group was thankful to Mayor Peter Nystrom for arranging a meeting between Tigers team owner E. Miles Prentice and representatives of the local Muslim community — Aouadi was not invited. But he said the mayor’s comments afterward that Prentice’s views on Muslims and his affiliation as board chairman of the Center for Security Policy, identified by some as a Muslim hate group, were not relevant to the minor league baseball team.

Aouadi quoted several anti-Muslim comments made by Frank Gaffney, founder of the center, including saying that American Muslims are “subversive termites eating away at our nation from the inside out,” and that they are hostile to the U.S. Constitution.

He said those comments would mean that the 12 American citizens who attended Monday’s meeting are “somehow not like every one of you all, that we have some kind of ulterior motives.” Aouadi said that position is very bigoted, pointing out that it is not racist, because Muslim is a religion rather than a race.

Halim Jones of North Stonington, who works in Norwich, invited Nystrom and the City Council to visit the Muslim mosque in Norwich. He said the members were “very sad” that the city is doing business with a representative from the Center for Security Policy.

“We don’t want this issue to go away,” Jones said. “We’re human beings and we still have these feelings and we want our grievances and concerns to be addressed.”

Nystrom said after the council meeting that he would be willing to meet with anyone individually or as a group and would accept the invitation to visit the Norwich mosque.

Nystrom added that Prentice is very much a hands-off team owner and rarely comes to Norwich. Nystrom said the Connecticut Tigers are run by local management, General Manager Dave Schermerhorn and CJ Knudsen, and the operation in no way is unwelcoming to people from any religion or race.

Rafid Chudhury of Norwich said the city’s stance against anti-Muslim sentiment is “a huge issue” and impacts local Muslims. He said city officials should not be lackadaisical about anti-Muslim ideology spread throughout the United States and should take it seriously.

“At the end of the day, we’re all Americans,” Chudhury said. “It doesn’t matter where we’re coming from. I was born in Bangladesh, but I’m way more American than I am a Bengali. I’m a Muslim, but I’m also an American. And I think everyone needs to be aware of that, that we’re people and we live in your community. And it’s a big issue that we should all focus on.”

Several people in the audience applauded his remarks.

c.bessette@theday.com