"It's unfortunate that anyone to gain political or personal goal would use religion as a tool, not only in the visable and radical activities we seen in terror attacks, but in bombings of Planned Parenthood clinics."
Source/Credit: Penn Live
By Ivey DeJesus | December 17, 2015
Ayesha Ahmad was in her car, driving with her 15-year-old son, to a community meeting at her mosque when her son broke the news to her: A man in Harrisburg had been arrested Thursday afternoon and charged with terroristic activities.
For Ahmad, a native of Pakistan, the news came as another hard blow to a community trying to distinguish and distance itself from radical Muslims at the center of criminal and terroristic acts and the wholesale hijacking of her faith.
"I was completely shocked and dismayed," said Ahmad, who on Thursday joined about a hundred people gathered at Haadee Mosque in Harrisburg, where the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Harrisburg worship.
Ahmad, like others of her mosque community, were in dismay by yet another event that portrays their faith in a negative light.
"Part of me is thinking, 'Oh my God, another possible attack of terror for which Muslims must speak on one more time," Ahmad said.
Just hours earlier on Thursday, FBI agents arrested a Harrisburg man arrested and accused him of aiding the ISIS terrorist group, PennLive first reported based on federal court filings.
Authorities charged 19-year-old Jalil Ibn Ameer Aziz with spreading propaganda for the terrorist organization via the internet. Agents also reported finding a tactical backpack, high-capacity gun magazines, ammunition and a "modified kitchen knife" among his belongings, agents said.
He was arrested when heavily-armed federal agents swept down on the 1700 block of Fulton Street in the city's Midtown section around 2 p.m.
"We are obviously disappointed and saddened that anyone would use the name of any religion to incite violence," said Dr. Mubashir Mumtaz, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community.
Mumtaz, chief of cardio vascular and thoracic surgery at Harrisburg Hospital, said Islam demands the faithful to be loyal and have allegiance to the country in which they live.
"It's unfortunate that anyone to gain political or personal goal would use religion as a tool, not only in the visable and radical activities we seen in terror attacks, but in bombings of Planned Parenthood clinics."
Mumtaz stressed that Islam does not teach or advocate violence or hate, adding that anyone who says the faith does, is "totally wrong."
"It's saddening and upsetting to see someone take a peaceful faith and incite violence," he said.
Ahmad added that the troubling news further increased what she called a burden for her community.
"It doesn't feel good. It's not a good feeling that these criminals think they represent Muslims," she said. "It's a great sense of violation."
Read original post here: USA: Muslim community denounces terror and violence hours after suspected ISIS terrorist arrested in Harrisburg
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