"Extremists recruit by distorting Islam, but we can stop them and you can help," Tariq Sharif said, echoing a slogan that was projected on a screen and posted on a banner at the entrance.
Source/Credit: MyCentralJersey.com
By Pamela MacKenzie | April 20, 2016
The Ahmadiyya Muslim community shares 11 points that dispute the militant jihadism of Al Qaeda and ISIS
NEW BRUNSWICK - On Tuesday evening, The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community invited the public to a seminar about its TrueIslam initiative, a global campaign to counter the extreme jihadism of Al Qaeda and ISIS, which the non-Muslim world tends to equate with all of Islam.
For two hours, the public was treated to an array of speakers at the Cook Student Center on the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus. Some speakers were Muslim, some not, but all shared from the heart their support of the rights of all, their respect for Islam and their love of this country.
The moderator, Tariq Sharif, spoke about his own angry feelings after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He vowed at that time to find a way to define the difference between the terrorists and Islam. He explained how it is time for peace-loving, American-loving Muslims to take back the name of Islam and expose what he called the false ideology of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) and Al Qaeda.
"Extremists recruit by distorting Islam, but we can stop them and you can help," he said, echoing a slogan that was projected on a screen and posted on a banner at the entrance.
To take back the name of Islam, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has launched an 11-point information campaign to revive what they believe is True Islam, based on the teachings of the founder of their community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, an Imam from India who founded the community in the late 19th century. Ahmadiyya Muslims believe he was the Messiah. As a reformer, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad went back to the Holy Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad's "exemplary model" as the only basis for defining Islam.
The 11 points are:
1. True Islam wholly rejects all forms of terrorism.
2. True Islam believes in nonviolent jihad (struggle) of the self and the pen, not the violence we are seeing from Al Qaeda, ISIS and Boko Haram.
3. True Islam believes in the equality, education and empowerment of women.
4. True Islam advocates freedom of conscience, religion and speech.
5. True Islam advocates for the separation of religion and state.
6. True Islam believes in loyalty to your country of residence.
7. True Islam encompasses the universal declaration of human rights.
8. True Islam believes in all verses of the Qu'ran and forbids lying.
9. True Islam recognizes no religion can monopolize salvation.
10. True Islam believes in the need for unified Muslim leadership.
11. True Islam wholly rejects the concept of a bloody Messiah. This is not a reference to Jesus shedding blood on the cross, but rather it is a rejection of the radical jihadist teaching that a Muslim Messiah will come bringing violent destruction to those who oppose him.
Following Sharif's introductory remarks, many speakers spoke in support of some or all of these points. There even was a short video in which different community leaders, including several law-enforcement officials from Morris County, endorsed the 11 points.
Some of the most eloquent speakers were university and high school students who spoke about how these points mattered in their lives. But just as eloquent were the non-Muslim speakers such as state Sens. Samuel Thompson and Raymond Lesniak, two politicians from opposite parties who united in their support for the Muslim community.
Lesniak, who is from Elizabeth, said, "We have many arrests in our city, but none of them are from the Muslim community."
Later, Bernards Township Mayor Carol Bianchi, and Police Chief Brian Bobowicz, spoke. Bianchi spoke about how, as a child, she had been discriminated against for being Italian, and she decided to oppose discrimination when she became an adult. She also said how she had spoken at a similar gathering in Mountain Lakes and was very moved by what she heard and the people she met there. As a result, she had insisted that Bobowicz accompany her to the event at Rutgers. Their appearance was especially symbolic because the Bernards planning board had rejected an application to build a mosque in the township.
Bobowicz said he had not prepared a talk because he likes to speak off the cuff. He was glad he did not have a written speech because, "I learned something tonight. We have a Muslim community in Bernards, too. And you know, I don't think we've ever made an arrest in that community. So I thank Sen. Lesniak for pointing that out."
All of the officials who spoke said they supported the 11 points and were glad to endorse them. Everyone is invited to go to www.trueislam.com/eleven-points. As you read the 11 points there, you can click on each point for a fuller explanation of what it means. When you have finished reading them, you are invited to endorse them, too, as points all people of conscience can agree upon to help establish universal peace.
The evening ended with questions from the audience and answers from a panel of three speakers: Tariq, high school biology teacher Henna Sharif — who had spoken on the rights and equality of women in Islam — and Imam Azhar Haneef, vice president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA.
One of Tariq Sharif's closing points was this definition of jihad: "It's the inner struggle about how do we have a better relationship with God? How do I have a better relationship with myself?
The Ahmadiyya Muslim community has mosques in 207 countries around the world, including several in New Jersey. The main one that organized the Tuesday evening event is at 27 South St., Old Bridge.
At the Tuesday event, another Muslim group invited everyone to a United Jumu'ah from 10 a.m to 1:15 p.m. May 20 at Oak Ridge Park, 136 Oak Ridge Road in Clark. The event is billed as "building community with spirituality and solidarity" with prayers to counter Islamophobic politics. Islamic communities from Essex, Union, Morris and Hudson counties are listed as participants. For more information or to register, visit www.njmuslimvotes.org. For renting vendor space, contact Sister Sameera Diaab at 908-531-9141.
Read original post here: USA: Defining 'True Islam' in the face of terrorism
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