Source/Credit: National Public Radio | Futuro Media
By Yasmin Qureshi | September 10, 2010
The deaths in 2001 in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania seem at once to have been just yesterday and in a sense, a generation ago. Families and communities still grieve but this weekend much has been written about a pastor in Florida and for more than a month, there has been a debate about the development of a piece of property few blocks away from where the twin towers once stood. The emotions are raw. The words are sometimes unthinking. The wounds of 911 have not healed. Over the last 9 years, America has continued to come to terms with its diversity including its religious diversity. Human beings often go in search of answers and many find those answers in religion. On today’s program we meet a man who is on a spiritual journey. One that has lead him on a sense of personal peace and morality through Islam. Futuro Media Groups, Yasmin Qureshi has his story.
Yasmin Qureshi: David Gonzalez has traveled thousands of miles to Washington DC just so he can meet and mingle with Muslims in his community. He is at a conference for a community called the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
David stands out from the rest of the community because unlike the rest, he is not wearing the shalwar kameez, a traditional outfit worn by an Ahmadiyya Muslim and he is not South Asian, he is Guatemalan.
David Gonzalez: One time someone told me that I am condemned to fire because I don’t believe that Jesus is God.
Yasmin Qureshi: Guatemala is a country that is 98 percent Christian and like most of his friends, David was baptized a Catholic and attended a strict religious school in Guatemala City. So, when he decided to convert to Islam 8 years ago, his family was shocked.
David Gonzalez: In the beginning my grandmother and my family, they told me many times about the baptism, that you are Catholic because of baptism. I said well you never asked me, but now, by the grace of God, they are happy with me. It is challenging of course, but it is not hard when your faith is strong.
Yasmin Qureshi: David says that he always had questions about his religion and his doubts grew even stronger as he saw the horrifying violence during the civil war in Guatemala and couldn’t understand the hatred between Protestants and Catholics in his country. So, he began a journey of discovery.
David Gonzalez: I decided to study Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism to see who has the truth and the last religion I studied was Islam and I found all the answers to my questions.
Yasmin Qureshi: He says in Islam, he found what he was looking for: acceptance and tolerance. He believes that is the real essence of a religion.
David Gonzalez: Islam is not terrorism. Islam is not violence and our job is to teach the people what is the real Islam. Islam is peace and after those attacks, people believe that Muslims are fighters or terrorists. Our community teaches us that it is not true and real Muslims are a peaceful people.
Yasmin Qureshi: There are not a lot of Mosques in Guatemala but he did find one in the outskirts of Guatemala City, an Ahmadiyya Mosque which is home to a small community of about 50 people. Islam is not known as a religion that proselytizes but many years ago, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad decided to send missionaries to Latin America to spread the religious message.
Waseem Sayed: I have been visiting Guatemala since 1988.
Yasmin Qureshi: Waseem Sayed was one of the first people to go to Guatemala from his community. He learned to speak Spanish. He traveled back and forth enthusiastically from his home in Canada. He was surprised by the Guatemalan people’s openness and he says even in 1989, during the civil war the people welcomed him and his religion.
Waseem Sayed: The Vice President of the country came to the inauguration of our Mosque. This shows in my opinion that the people of the Guatemala and their administration are very open and very much accepting of the fact that in this day and age you have to have freedom of religion.
Yasmin Qureshi: In the United States, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community wants to grow and they want people to know that Islam is a religion that does not stand for violence. This summer, the community started an advertising campaign called ‘Muslims for Peace.’ They are handing out fliers in the US cities and put up ads on the sides of New York buses.
Waseem Sayed: If, we don’t as Muslims, who believe that our faith has been hijacked stand up and start reacting in the way a person would whose son had been kidnapped does. If we don’t start reacting like that then something is wrong. Either we don’t love Islam or we don’t value having lost it. So, we in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the US are shouting at the top of our voice that Islam is not this and we are calling all Muslims in the US to stand up and say this and tell this to the our Children, as well. Otherwise those people who are propagating violence and sensationalism will get a lot of press with very little effort. They are going to win over the children who are our greatest assets.
Yasmin qureshi: Waseem and David have become good friends and David like Waseem is hoping we can use this message of Islam to create change in Guatemala. This is a country where 200,000 people were killed in the civil war. Drugs and corruption are rampant. Everyday another body turns up as part of the country’s out of control murder rate.
David Gonzalez: In Guatemala and the rest of the world, we can see that people do not have spiritual and moral values and that produces problems in society and we hope that through Islam people can find a right way to do things in life. Inshallah, ‘Primero Dios,’ god willing in Guatemala, we will break this bad image about Islam.
In the background: Poem by Lajna members, ‘Love for All Hatred for None.’
--Transcribed from audio by Saima Sheikh
Archive: http://ahmadiyyatimes.blogspot.com/2010/09/meet-david-gonzalez-uncommon-guatemalan.html
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