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| Photo: Kingston This Week / Martha Tanner |
Source/Credit: Kingston This Week
By Martha Tanner | February 8, 2012
When Awais Mehmood hears people equate Islam with honour killings, it cuts him to the core.
“This hurts,” says the young man, a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association of Canada. “When people think this is Islam or what the Koran is teaching, it hurts me! This is not the true teaching.”
Mehmood, a team leader of the Ottawa chapter, and a dozen other members of the youth association, were in Kingston Saturday, Feb. 4, holding open houses at four libraries to promote their message of peace and to dispel misconceptions about Islam.
The open houses have been held in small towns and cities across Canada for over a year and were started as a peaceful response to the burning of the Koran by Florida pastor Terry Jones last March.
One of the most common misconceptions, said Attaul Awal Hamid, a local faith outreach representative from Ottawa, is the concept of honour killings, which have made headlines around the world as a result of the recent Shafia trial in Kingston. Last month, Mohammad Shafia, along with his second wife and son, was found guilty of murdering his three teenaged daughters and his first wife.
Hamid and Mehmood were in Kingston on the day the verdict was announced, passing out leaflets titled, “Invitation to Peace”.
“I believe my faith has been hijacked, the name of Islam misrepresented,” said Hamid. “People think that because his daughters were not following Islam, their father has a right to pass judgment. That is not true!”
“We educate our children; we tell them what is important and we leave it to them to make their own decisions,” added Mehmood. “There is no compulsion in religion — you can’t force someone to follow the teachings.
“If you look at the teaching of Islam, the status of women is so high. The Koran enforces respect for the mother, respect for sisters. The Holy Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, ‘The best among you are those best to their families’.”
Similarly, he continued, the concept of ‘jihad’ correctly refers to an inner struggle to do what is right, to be the best person possible.
“If a person is doing true jihad, it is within himself. If he (Mohammad Shafia) was doing true jihad, he never would have done this. I don’t think he understood Islam.
“Islam teaches equality for women and men. The problem is when you have a different standard for sons and daughters.”
Hamid said that the youth association members were well received “in general” last month, when they distributed flyers to almost 1,000 homes. “People are happy when they see the word ‘peace’,” he said.
Mehmood said the goal of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, whose motto is ‘love for all, hatred for none’, is to present “the real face of Islam, which is beautiful and which promotes love.”
“We are definitely making a difference,” believes Hamid. “We have held about 100 open houses in the past year and a half. We won’t stop until we are successful — until the whole world is in peace.”
Read original post here: Muslim youth promote world peace
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