The Islamic State is seeing increasingly higher numbers of recruits from the western world, including Canada, though no members of Edmonton's Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have been lured.
Source/Credit: The Edmonton Sun
By Kevin Maimann | September 29, 2014
A local Muslim community held a mini-symposium Sunday to ensure youth are not "tricked" by violent Islamic State ideology.
Mohyuddin Mirza, outreach director with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, led a team of scholars at Hadi Mosque who reinforced peaceful ideals while discussing the history of Islam, misinterpretations of the Qur'an and negative stereotypes in the media.
"They are being tricked that they will be glorified," Mirza said.
"What kind of glory is it if your whole family is in trouble and you're killing other people? That is totally against Islamic teachings."
The Islamic State is seeing increasingly higher numbers of recruits from the western world, including Canada, though no members of Edmonton's Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have been lured.
Mirza aims to keep it that way by reinforcing a belief in a logical God that respects every human, animal and organism.
He attributes the increasing recruits from the western world to a "spiritual gap" in the lives of young adults consumed by routine and materialism.
"Helping others, for example, gives you a lot of satisfaction. Volunteer work gives you a lot of satisfaction, contributing to causes for the welfare of other people," he said.
"Unfortunately, we are getting so busy. Young people are so focused on getting a job, that economic stability, that they forget that there is a spiritual gap that is developing."
That gap, he believes, makes it easier for youth to be lured by the promise of glory offered by groups like the Islamic State.
Mirza believes in all religious and non-religious people co-existing peacefully - a local Ahmadiyya Muslim group has hosted interfaith symposiums to share ideas with Christians, Jews, Hindus and atheists - and advocates a jihad of the pen, not the sword.
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community missionary Taha Syed highlighted specific verses of the Qur'an that are often taken out of context to advocate violence.
Syed said he understands how youth can be fooled by groups that use Qu'ran to justify violence, especially if they live in countries ridden with poverty and corruption where people do not have the means for better education.
In the western world, he said youth can be overwhelmed by negative misrepresentations of Islam from the media and the Internet.
"Even in entertainment, it's always the controversial issues that the media picks up - who's breaking up with who, things like that - and other, more important, more intellectual aspects are just ignored.
"The juicy stories that are always being shown on TV and the Internet, how do we as a small community get the same kind of voice (to compete with that)? That's the biggest challenge," he said.
"It frustrates you sometimes, but not to the point where I would say I give up."
kevin.maimann@sunmedia.ca
@SunKevinM
Read original post here: Canada: Edmonton Muslim community holds symposium to keep youth from being tricked into violent ideology
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