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The Day (Connecticut) – July 8, 2007
Hartford event seeks to dispel ideas
that lead to 'Islamophobia'
By David A. Brensilver
East Lyme resident Imran Ahmed recently received an e-mail in response to comments he posted on the Internet about terrorism and the war in Iraq. The e-mail, Ahmed said, came from a former U.S. serviceman who opined that Islam was a bankrupt religion and that Muslims subscribe to terror and violence.
The prevalence of such attitudes was among the reasons Ahmed gave for attending the 32nd annual convention organized by the Islamic Circle of North America in conjunction with the Muslim American Society and support from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The three-day convention, which concludes today, was held for the third consecutive year at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, (Connecticut).
Organizers supplemented the event with a daylong symposium Saturday called “Window to Islam,” which addressed Islamophobia and its perpetuation at the hands of the media.
Unlike Ahmed, who sits on the board of the Islamic Center of New London and is operations manager for Council on American-Islamic Relations' Connecticut chapter, North Stonington resident Saeed Shaikh said he has not experienced stereotyping firsthand. Shaikh said he attended the symposium to hear the first two speakers of the day, Yusuf Estes, a Texas native and former member of a fundamentalist Christian sect who converted to Islam in 1991 and now lives in Washington, D.C., and Dr. Jamal Badawi, professor emeritus at St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Both speakers used etymology — the study of the origin and development of words — in interpreting language in the Koran, Estes in explaining Islam in the context of other religions, particularly Judeo-Christian denominations, and Badawi in defining “jihad.”
An audience of more than 100 people, the vast majority of whom were not Muslims but did, by a show of hands, identify themselves as believing in God, listened and asked questions most had written on index cards.
“What's the source of evil according to Islam?” one audience member asked, to which Estes replied, “The evil is, in this life, a test for all of us.”
Another audience member asked why people kill in the name of Allah. After indicating that Muslims do kill animals for consumption in the name of Allah, Estes said the Koran forbids taking the lives of innocent people, an area that Badawi's presentation addressed specifically.
Badawi said there is no correlation between jihad and holy war, and that “holy war” is an English term that does not appear in the Koran, even in translation. “Jihad,” he said, is derived from a term that means “to exert maximum effort” — “to strive for something” in modern terms.
While Badawi said jihad could be combative in nature, he said the Koran limits that type of effort to defense against “unprovoked aggression” and overcoming severe oppression.
During Badawi's presentation, an audience member passed forward an index card to ask what kind of Muslim is a terrorist. Badawi, making reference to Timothy McVeigh, asked rhetorically why Christians attacked the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 in order to make his point that the Muslim community has experienced some level of guilt by association following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Another audience member asked why a Muslim population that preaches peace doesn't stop terrorism. Badawi asked how a doctor or an engineer could do so when governments and their assets cannot, and said, “All communities, if they're honest, they should engage in interfaith dialogue.”…..
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=962732ab-ef4c-41d6-b333-a65c84f475fe
Washington Times – July 16, 2007
Slandering Islam
The column "The path to ...?" (Commentary, July 3) by Frank Gaffney Jr. contained a message full of hate against Muslims and Islam. He called Shariah a fascist legal code, the Islamic Center/Mosque in Washington a place for disseminating intolerant Islamofascist ideology and the Organization of the Islamic Conference an organization sympathetic to jihadists.
Apparently, President Bush's visit to the mosque on the occasion of its 50th anniversary infuriated Mr. Gaffney and led him to write such distortions and misinformation. He overlooked the facts of history and fairness. It was under the Islamic Shariah that European Jews lived their golden age of freedom and prosperity in Spain and the Ottoman Empire. Shariah code is essentially based upon the Koranic rules "no compulsion in religion" and "you have your religion and I have mine."
Mr. Bush was not the first American president to visit the Islamic Center/Mosque in Washington. Fifty years ago, President Eisenhower dedicated the Islamic Center and reminded the world that civilization owes to the Islamic world some of its most important achievements. The Washington mosque is a place of worship to the one God that the Muslims worship and they call him the God of the world, not of Muslims alone. The message of universality and equality is central in the Islamic doctrine.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference is a regional organization of governments, exactly like the Organization of American States (OAS) or the African Union (AU) or the Arab League (LAS) or the European Union (EU). The only difference is that the OIC is not based on ethnicity, nationalism or geography, but on shared common values. That is why you find among its member countries from four continents, such as Albania and Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia, Malaysia and Indonesia, Senegal, Mozambique and Guyana. Through its Islamic Development Bank, the organization has undertaken a great number of projects.
Contrary to Mr. Gaffney's column, the OIC is a governmental organization with a membership of 57 countries, almost all of which have cordial and cooperative relations with the United States. By visiting the Islamic Center/Mosque Washington and announcing his intention to appoint a permanent envoy to the OIC, Mr. Bush has taken a good step in the right direction. It is a good investment to gain the hearts and minds of the Muslim world through dialogue and mutual understanding.
MAHA AKEEL
Managing editor
Journal Information Department
Organization of the Islamic Conference
Saudi Arabia
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070716/EDITORIAL/107160007/1013/editorial&template=nextpage
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