Source/Credit: Victorville Daily Press
By Tomoya Shimura | May 3, 2011
CHINO • As the media report mixed reactions from Muslims in the Middle East, a local Muslim cleric hailed the death of Osama bin Laden, saying terrorism has no place in Islam.
“I know for sure that Osama bin Laden did not represent the teachings of Islam because Islam doesn’t teach any terrorism at all,” said Imam Shamshad Nasir, minister of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Chino.
Shamshad said he agrees with President Barack Obama’s remark that “our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims.”
Obama also said in his speech Sunday night that “al-Qaida has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own.”
Shamshad said no country wanted to take bin Laden’s body because no one wanted to appear to be supporting the al-Qaida leader’s ideology and beliefs.
He said the U.S. government made the right decision by burying bin Laden’s body at sea. It was a normal Islamic procedure, Shamshad said.
Shamshad, who moved to the United States from Pakistan in 1987 as a missionary, stated in his press release it was time for the U.S. government to do more to eradicate the root causes of terrorism.
“What needs to be dealt with head-on is the ignorance, intolerance and violence directed against non-Muslims and persecuted groups within Islam ... which is the result of decades of indoctrination in extremist, radical thinking among poor and uneducated Muslims in places like Pakistan and Indonesia.”
Mainstream Islam such as Shia and Sunni considers Ahmadis, followers of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, as non-Muslims.
Ahamdis are facing strong opposition especially in Pakistan, where they can be imprisoned for referring to themselves as Muslims.
Tomoya Shimura may be reached at (760) 955-5368 or tshimura@VVDailyPress.com.
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