The group is working to spread awareness about the peaceful teachings of Islam and that terrorist groups such as ISIS have no connection to the Islam faith.
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| Moose Jaw resident Munib Waqas Ahmad (Photo: Lisa Goudy/Times-Herald) |
Source/Credit: The Moose Jaw Times Herald
By Lisa Goudy | September 11, 2015
Moose Jaw resident Munib Waqas Ahmad has heard of discrimination of the Islam community in Saskatchewan.
"Not within Moose Jaw, but I have heard of some incidents. I know we have a community in Saskatoon and in Regina as well," he said. "We have a mosque in Saskatoon and some people have made negative comments on the walls of the mosque that, 'Muslims are not welcome here. Go home' et cetera and some people in public have also made negative comments about Muslims."
As a member of the national Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at community, this is exactly the type of discrimination the group is trying to break in regards to the Islam faith.
"Our purpose is to show fellow Canadians that we are not what the media portrays," said Ahmad. "Extremism and terrorism and violence have nothing to do with the religion of Islam."
The group is working to spread awareness about the peaceful teachings of Islam and that terrorist groups such as ISIS have no connection to the Islam faith.
"We are doing a Canadian-wide campaign to repel these ideas and this notion that Islam is a religion of terror. In fact, the Holy Quar'an, which is the sacred book of Muslims, has no instructions regarding violence or extremism, none whatsoever," said Ahmad.
"In fact, on the contrary, it says that if someone kills an innocent person, that same man has killed entire humanity."
Terrorist organizations use fear and religion for political gain to capture territories. So-called Muslim clerics are misguiding anyone under their influence, said Ahmad.
"I belong to a community that categorically condemns terrorism," he added.
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada has also started a new campaign called Stop the CrISIS symposium.
"That's another way to express that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam," said Ahmad. "When we talk about ISIS, there are two things. One is the general view that people hold is that Islam is a negative religion. It teaches violence and the other thing is the concept of leadership. ISIS claims that they have established a system of leadership, which is called caliphate."
In the symposium, members of the Muslim community speak to the teachings of the Holy Quar'an and the Prophet Muhammad, the "two sources of the religion of Islam," he said.
"We want to teach the public that from these two sources what the true leadership means and what are the teachings of Islam, which are of peace and harmony. So people can come and listen to those lectures."
These symposiums have been held in other parts of the country such as Toronto and Calgary. The group is planning to hold a symposium in Regina and Moose Jaw in the near future as well, likely the end of October for Moose Jaw.
"We also invite Christians and other faith groups to come and represent their faith and also talk about how to achieve peace in society," said Ahmad. "Religion makes us unite and it creates peace."
Follow Lisa Goudy on Twitter @lisagoudy
Read original post here: Canada: Ahmadiyya Muslim community seeks to break misconceptions | 'ISIS has nothing to do with Islam'
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