SYRACUSE, N.Y. - A federal judge today threw out a libel suit filed by a national Muslim organization headquartered in the Southern Tier against the authors of a book that calls the group a terrorist organization.

U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy dismissed the lawsuit filed last year by The Muslims of America Inc. against authors Martin Mawyer and Patti Pierucci and their group, the Christian Action Network.

Martin Mawyer

The lawsuit sought $3 million and to halt the continued publication of the book, "Twilight in America: the Untold Story of Islamic Training Camps in America."

McAvoy agreed with the defendants' lawyers that The Muslims of America Inc. lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. The claims were over allegations in the book, published in 2012, about a different organization, Muslims of the Americas Inc., which dissolved in March 2013, the judge ruled.

The Muslims of America Inc. was formed in January 2013 -- after the book was published.

"You can't be defamed if you do not exist," said David W.T. Carroll, an Ohio lawyer representing the authors and the Christian Action Network.

If the lawsuit hadn't been dismissed on those grounds, the defendants had enough evidence to prove the truth of the allegations in the book, Carroll said.

He submitted to the court a 2003 FBI report that identified Muslims of the Americas as a terrorist organization. He also submitted documents from the U.S. Secretary of State and the Justice Department that identify the group and its affiliates as terrorist organizations engaged at one time in guerilla warfare training in the U.S., Carroll said.

The Anti-Defamation League has called Muslims of the Americas "a virulently anti-Semitic, Islamic extremist group with ties to Al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization that has carried out firebombings and murders in the United States."

Muslims of America owns 60 acres in Hancock, Delaware County, that the group bought "for the purpose of providing safe houses for American Muslims to raise families while establishing a peaceful community free from harmful elements such as those occurring in the inner cities in the 1980s," the lawsuit said.

In addition to the book, the lawsuit accused Mawyer and his organization, based in Lynchburg, Va., of harassing actions that included dropping 2,500 leaflets from a plane over a property owned by Muslims of America, protesting the naming of a private road leading onto the property.

A lawyer for Muslims of America, Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, could not be reached for comment.

Mawyer founded the Christian Action Network in 1990. He has appeared on NBC's Today Show, Fox TV's O'Reilly Factor and Larry King Live.

Contact John O'Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 315-470-2187.

