“I want to speak rationally, intelligently and historically about the teachings of Islam. Not just as a zealot who is trying to convert people, but as an intellectual, to say what is happening.”
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By Geoff Pursinger | 8 January 2015
Muslim spokesman answers call
Tigard's Harris Zafar puts his faith center stage as national face of Islam
News junkies have probably seen Harris Zafar before.
With his short-cropped beard and slicked back hair, Zafar is a regular sight on television, appearing on countless news shows from KGW to Fox News.
Zafar is the national spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a denomination of Islam with millions of followers across the globe.
Zafar spends his free time giving lectures across the country, appearing on talk shows or contributing articles to newspapers and blogs.
Representing an entire religious community isn’t easy.
“It does come with a fair bit of pressure,” Zafar said. “I’m providing the Islamic viewpoint on different matters. Whether it’s international stories like ISIS, or local events like blood drives at the mosque or interfaith events, it’s the ability to provide a commentary.”
Zafar said he does his job so others don’t have to.
“There is a frustration among some Muslims. They wonder why they should have to answer for every act of insanity done by someone who purports to be a Muslim. They don’t want to have to explain the theology or scripture and just live their lives as Americans who happen to be Muslim.”
Zafar volunteers for the position. His day job is in the computer software industry in Portland.
“Often, the voice of the moderate Muslim group is lost. It’s hit or miss that it is given a platform to speak, especially on the national stage,” Zafar said.
It’s an important job, Zafar said, because too often, Americans associate Islam with violence.
“If you don’t condemn or don’t speak out, then people allege that you are OK with this,” he said. “I see it as my responsibility to my fellow Oregonians, and my fellow Americans, to say that it’s not really what Islam calls for, and explain to them what Islam is.”
Zafar has taught classes on Islam at Portland Community College and Clark College in Vancouver, Wash. Earlier this year he published his first book about his faith, titled “Demystifying Islam.”
“I want to speak rationally, intelligently and historically about the teachings of Islam,” he said. “Not just as a zealot who is trying to convert people, but as an intellectual, to say what is happening.”
Thirst for knowledge
Zafar and the rest of Portland’s Ahmadi community worship at the Portland Rizwan Mosque on Southwest 35th Avenue near Taylors Ferry Road.
In the U.S., Ahmadi Muslims make up less than 1 percent of the Muslim community, with an estimated 20,000 Ahmadis worshipping in 70 mosques across the country.
Portland is one of the community’s smaller chapters, with about 90 members scattered across the area.
When Zafar’s family moved to Oregon from California in 1985, his family was one of only four Ahmadi Muslim families living in Portland.
“I was 5 or 6 when we came here, this is home for me,” Zafar said, sitting in the mosque’s community room. “I remember when this was all land, before this was built.”
It’s the only mosque of its type in Oregon. Most Ahmadi Muslims in the U.S. are located along the East Coast and in major cities such as Chicago and Houston.
Zafar’s first foray into the national spotlight came on an interview on Fox News in 2010 after the attempted bombing of the Portland Christmas tree lighting at Pioneer Courthouse Square.
“If you have pressing questions, even if they are provocative, let’s talk about it,” Zafar said. “If they have this angst in their mind that they think is taboo or perhaps insulting to ask a Muslim, I’d rather address it than have them carry on with perhaps a misconception.”
Zafar said most of his job is about dispelling rumors. Too often, he said, Americans see the violent actions of terrorists and assume they represent all of Islam.
“I was giving a talk in a junior high in Hillsboro and one kid raised his hand and asked, ‘OK, why do Muslims have to beat their wives?’” he said. “I was surprised, but I was happy he asked it because he had clearly heard it from someone and had harbored this view that Muslims were violent toward women. Rather than be offended by it, I was happy he gave me the chance to set the record straight.”
But Zafar said that while the country seems more politically polarized than ever, it has also seen more and more people want to learn about his faith.
“After 9/11, it sparked this thirst for people wanting to know more about Islam. In the first four months after, our mosque had given so many lectures we had spoken to somewhere around 10,000 people. There was an outpouring of people wanting us to come speak to them.”
In the next three months, Zafar will give lectures about Islam in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and California, as well as several local lectures.
“There is a thirst for wanting to know what Islam is,” he said. “Knowing that I would have to answer those questions is what really propelled me down this path. I think I’m that much better for it, although I have a lot more gray hairs.”
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