WASHINGTON – A group of veteran Muslim runners will participate in the 2017 Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in Washington, DC, on March 11, with a simple message: “We are Americans and we love America too.”

“We love America as much as any other American. Nobody should doubt our love for our homeland,” Agha Hasnain, a 50-state finisher, told USA Today on Wednesday, March 1.

The six runners plan to carry an American flag the entire length of the race. They will also wear jerseys proclaiming their love for America.

Mudasar Haidat, who won the National Tennessee half-marathon in 2005, hopes that participation in the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon will also send a message to American-Muslims.

“We want the American Muslim community to feel that the overwhelming majority in this country reciprocate their love,” said Haidat.

The six runners, who include Zafar Shahbaz, Agha Adeel, Zain Azam, Nasir Baluch and Yaseen Bajwa, are not novice runners.

Some have been running marathons since the 1990s. Hasnain has completed marathons in all the 50 states and another runner, Shahbaz has run full marathons on all seven continents.

The marathon comes as America witnesses a 40 per cent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes since the presidential elections, according to Corey Saylor, the Director of the Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a key Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.

But this time, they are not running the course that races just two blocks from the White House for their passion alone.

As American-Muslims, they need to reassure the larger American community that like all other citizens, they too are proud of America.

“Its very hard to hold a flag during the entire marathon but we are going to bear the pain to send a loud message,” said Hasnain, who came to US from Pakistan in 1992.

“This is our oath of loyalty towards this country.”