USA: Muslims must look inward, the media must look beyond terrorism to make a difference

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Muslims must be able to decisively refute, with evidence from the Koran, why ISIS ideology is the exact opposite of Islam.

Photo: Teresa Duhl /  Press & Guide

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Press & Guide
By Teresa Duhl | November 20, 2015

At Thursday’s second annual “What Is the Pathway to Peace” symposium at Henry Ford College, guests filled the conference room tables. At the center of each table sat small signs with the message “Love for All, Hatred for None.” Next to each sign was an orange votive candle and a bowl of cellophane-wrapped, white Lifesaver candies symbolizing tiny life preservers, not unlike the individuals assembled in the room. These individuals gathered to understand how they could save a life. The life of a stranded refugee, a loner teenager, a passer-by, or the Muslim religion itself. The guests at the symposium were there as life preservers, getting battered in the ISIS storm.

Hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community-Metro Detroit, the peace symposium’s message was simple: Muslim-Americans need to know their own religion, so they can speak out decisively against the actions and words of ISIS. Each Muslim needs to serve as a neighbor-ambassador in a grassroots, person-to-person dialogue to counteract the images and actions of ISIS.

Mansoor Qureshi, president of AMC-MD, asked the attendees to respond to two scenarios. The first, if you could speak with an ISIS member, how would you convince him he is wrong, he asked. No hands went up. After some prodding, a handful of people volunteered. The first response was long and winding. Qureshi thanked the guest for his thoughts, but he suggested such an answer was too long. The few volunteers who responded next kept their answers short. The answers included asking the ISIS member if he had ever read the Quran. Another person said he would remind the ISIS member that Islam teaches that killing even one human being is the same as killing all of mankind. Another guest said he would ask “would you kill your own mother?” because, eventually, you will be killing someone’s family.

For the second scenario, Qureshi asked the guests how they would prevent youth from radicalizing. Most of the answers were the same as those one might give when asking how to keep kids off drugs. Make sure they feel appreciated; give them a stake in society; stop marginalizing them. Again, not many volunteered an answer.

For Qureshi, the lack of responses proved the point he had come to make. The American-Muslim community is not yet strong enough to fight ISIS ideology. The community needs to speak confidently about the peaceful teachings of its own religion, warned Qureshi. Muslims must be able to decisively refute, with evidence from the Koran, why ISIS ideology is the exact opposite of Islam, Qureshi said.

Rather than protest or march as a symbol of solidarity against ISIS, Qureshi called for a grassroots marketing campaign. Talk to people one-on-one about your faith, he said. “Meet with other faiths. Get out of your comfort zones,” said Qureshi.

Yet, as Qureshi’s discussion demonstrated, before the Muslim community can talk with its neighbors, it must be able to talk fluently about its religion. That call to action was picked up by Imam Yahya Luqman of the AMC-USA. “We need to have an introspect,” he said. “The world is gripped by fear,” said Luqman. Muslims feel that same fear, even in predominantly Muslim nations, he said. That fear is created by ISIS, a group that claims to be Muslim, said Qureshi. “This is an internal problem first and foremost,” said Luqman.

There are “proofs” within Islam that contradict the violent interpretation of the religion, said Luqman. But many Muslims do not know them, he said. It is a question of awareness versus ignorance within the Muslim community, said Luqman.

As the AMC-Metro Detroit’s public affairs secretary, Mahir Osman is a Muslim who can speak against ISIS ideology. He mentioned a popular Koranic verse used in the media which talks of killing non-believers where they lie. But, he said, if you look at the verses preceding that one, you find that the verse allows for killing only in self-defense, he said.

HFC student Mona Makki said she thinks the problem is that ISIS takes everything in the Koran literally. When asked how to stop ISIS, Makki simply said that “protests won’t change their tactics.”

Ali Awadi called on Muslims to do more than be neighbor-ambassadors and learn their religion. He called on them to report suspicious behavior. If you see something happening that will hurt your community, Islam directs you to act, he said. Awadi, who works with local and federal law enforcement, urged all Muslims to report suspicious activities.

He mentioned the recent police raids in Paris and Belgium where officials were rooting out the Paris terrorist ring. He asked, rhetorically, were there no Muslims who suspected anything going on? Muslims may not report on others out of fear of those people, said Awadi. However, he said, they may also not report because they do not want to do more damage to Islam’s reputation. However, Awadi believes, more reporting would have the opposite effect. It would be another example of how Muslims are engaged in the well-being of their communities.

On the other hand, when Muslims do report, police need to act, Awadi said. Such action is not always taken. Moreover, when Muslims do report, that fact is not always mentioned in press briefings, he said. Publicizing Muslims’ role in catching terrorists is important, said Awadi.

Osman echoed this sentiment. While Muslims must play the largest role in fighting for the peaceful reputation of Islam, the media also plays a role, he said. The media does not give equal breadth to images of Muslims doing good works as it does to that of terrorists claiming to be Muslim, said Osman. Osman mentioned a nationwide blood drive organized by AMC. In four years, the campaign has collected over 39,000 pints of blood, according to the Muslims for Life website. Awadi mentioned the ring of peace that Muslims initiated around an Oslo synagogue in Norway earlier this year. More than 1,000 people joined the initiative to protect the synagogue from acts of terror, according to The Telegraph.

The morning after the AMC peace symposium, terrorists took 170 people hostage at a Mali hotel. According to the New York Times, the terrorists made hostages recite an Islamic declaration of faith to separate Muslims from non-Muslims. They allowed the Muslims to leave.

Can a ring of peace or a blood drive ever grab headlines the way terrorism does? Will the tiny life preservers hold steadfast through the storm?

The AMC is an international Muslim organization that claims to be the “leading” Muslim group “to categorically reject terrorism in any form” and “to endorse a separation of mosque and state,” according to the group’s brochure. AMC-USA was founded in 1920 and claims to be the oldest Muslim-American organization. For more information, visit www.ahmadiyya.us/chapters/detroit or contact Osman, the secretary of public affairs, at 586-703-1068.


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Teresa Duhl is a Dearborn-based freelance writer. You can reach her on Twitter @TeresaDuhl.


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