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| File photo: Credit ABC-27 News |
Source/Credit: The Patriot-News
By Ivey DeJesus | May 2, 2011
For 10 years, in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks, American Muslims have had to negotiate intolerance and discrimination — at times fever-pitch anti-Islamic discourse that has spilled onto violence.
On Monday, the region’s Muslim community, known widely for its peaceful activism and involvement in local communities, united behind a reaction reverberating throughout much of the Islamic world in the wake of the killing of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden: approval, relief and a call for American unity.
“We are relieved and pleased that justice has been served,” said Dr. Mubashir Mumtaz, a spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. “This was a guy who was a mass murderer, who not only killed innocent people, but hijacked and manipulated a very peaceful religion. We are relieved as Americans and as Muslims that he has been brought to justice.”
An elite American counter-terrorism unit on Sunday shot Bin Laden in the head after it mounted a helicopter-borne raid on the al-Qaida leader’s compound in Pakistan, U.S. officials confirmed. President Barack Obama delivered the news of the death to the world Sunday night, followed by confirmation of DNA evidence.
“It will allow people to breathe a sigh of relief, allow them to get on with their lives,” said Michael D. Williams, head of the Peace Center, a Muslim community center in Carlisle. “It’s been a dark cloud hanging over us.”
Muslim leaders like Mumtaz and Williams have joined others throughout the years in answering calls about negative backlash against their faith and communities, the vitriol reaching fever pitch amid debates over a proposed Islamic cultural center in New York, a Florida church’s threats to burn Qurans and a wave of arson fires at mosques across the country.
News about Saudi-born Bin Laden offered an opportunity to join in a largely jubilant public reflection.
Mumtaz said bin Laden had brought pain to people all around the world — the victims of 9/11 and their families, all of whom represented faiths and races from all walks of life. The pain, he said, was particularly poignant to people of his faith.
“The hinious act he carried out has no place in Islam,” said Mumtaz, chief of cardio vascular and thoracic surgery at Harrisburg Hospital. “He tried to portray himself as the face of Islam, but Islam is an extremely tolerant religion. He caused a significant amount of pain to all Muslims across the world.”
Followers of the Ahmadiyya community, which was founded in India, believe in a messiah, who they say brought a message of morality, justice and peace. The Ahmadiyya community has been a staunch critic of the Taliban, rejecting terrorism of any form.
“We are relieved and pleased with the end result,” said Mumtaz, who fled persecution in his native Pakistan. “Hopefully, God will carry the message of peace further and bring us together as Americans, whether we are Muslim, Christian or Jew.”
Muslim scholar Mehdi Noorbaksh, assistant professor of international affairs at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, echoed the sentiment.
“Osama bin Laden was a violent face,” he said. “He was not helping the image of Islam and, of course of Muslims in this country. Many Muslims of course have wanted Americans to see the other face.”
Muslims across the world, Noorbaksh said, had grown critical or staunchly opposed bin Laden’s principals of a violent Jihad and the atrocities carried out in the name of Islam.
“The majority of Muslims they were absolutely disgusted by type of violent act that bin Landen was pursuing in different parts of the world,” Noorbaksh said. “To a lot of Muslims that was totally alien. That level of brutality is alien to Muslim teaching. In that sense, a lot of Muslims are relieved today.”
Dr. Aysha Ahmad, president of the women’s auxiliary for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, had a straightforward reaction: “We condemn terrorism and terrorists,” she said. “Osama Bin Laden met a fitting end. Terrorism has nothing to do with Christianity, Islam or Judaism.”
Ahmad, a local physician, said she hoped the news would bring comfort to some, a warning to others.
“I hope and pray the families of 9/11 get some sense of closure and our hope is it sends a clear message to terrorists all over the world,” she said.
Williams, of the Carlisle Peace Center, said he hoped it signal a transition of sorts.
“I’m sure lots of people are glad this chapter is over,” he said. “Now we have a good reason not to be in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Williams said tolerance for Muslims has improved over the past few years, largely because understanding about the faith has replaced ignorance.
“There is a lot more knowledge about Islam now,” he said. “It’s become easier for people.”
Mumtaz called this a time for unity for all Americans regardless of race or faith.
“We promote loyalty to one’s country,” he said. “We encourage our fellow Americans to exhibit restraint and engage in prayer and dialogue to show the rest of the world that America truly is one nation, bound by common values and pursuing justice for all.”
Read original post here: Central Pennsylvania Muslims share in jubilant reflection over Osama bin Laden's death
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