USA: In Ahmadiyya Muslim example, California should be leading the world in accepting refugees

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“Extremism will not scare us into locking our mosques. Rather, we will open the doors wider to educate all.”

Ahmadiyya Muslims hold Open House in Baitus Salam Mosque in Los Angeles

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Sacramento Bee
By Joe Mathews | December 23, 2015

[Excerpt]

On a Saturday night after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, a plastic replica hand grenade was left in the driveway of Baitus Salaam Mosque near Los Angeles International Airport. Someone spray-painted “Jesus” on the mosque’s front gate and crosses on the windows.

The Ahmadiyya mosque community could have erected new walls or added security. Instead, it held an open house.

“Extremism will not scare us into locking our mosques,” community president Jalaluddin Ahmad said in the invitation. “Rather, we will open the doors wider to educate all.”

If only the rest of California were responding in the same spirit.

So far, Californians – from everyday citizens to top leaders – have shown too much ignorance and cowardice. Since the attack, there has been a surge in vandalism and threats against mosques. We’ve seen officials spread fear by overreacting; the Los Angeles Unified School District closed all its schools because of an implausible threat.

We’re also seeing political opportunists of both parties use the attacks to advance law enforcement agendas, such as weakening the data encryption that protects all of us from hacking, or demanding onerous new requirements for foreign visitors that will hurt California’s tourism industry. And we see some California congressional Democrats joining Republicans in linking the attacks to concerns about Muslim refugees – an especially cruel and thoughtless response during the largest worldwide refugee crisis in decades.

Stop the madness, California. Our state needs a hard U-turn, which starts with recognizing how the attacks connect California to the rest of the world. While we have always been connected by who we are – 27 percent of us are foreign-born – San Bernardino now connects us to people around the world as fellow victims of terrorism.

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