Australia: Ahmadiyya Muslim leader tells radio station there is NO link between Islam and terrorism

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'It's the people that are using this religion and trying to twist it, use it for their own benefit and then try to claim it is the religion that motivated them to do it.' 

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | UK desk
Source/Credit: Daily Mail Australia
By Stephen Johnson | June 15, 2017

A Muslim leader insists there is no link between terrorism and Islam because he hasn't committed any violent acts or killed anyone.

Weeks after terrorist atrocities in Manchester, London and Melbourne, the spokesman for Adelaide's Ahmadiyya Muslim Association rejected a suggestion the Koran was to blame for terrorist atrocities.

The host of Adelaide radio station 5AA's breakfast show David Penberthy had asked him if the Islamic scriptures had inspired people 'to rise up and use violence against non-Muslims'.

But his guest contradicted calls from secular Muslims for Islam to be reformed so it is compatible with Western values, after Ahmadiyyas stood in the city mall and invited questions from the public.

Waleed Shah said terrorism had nothing to do with Islam.

'In terms of terrorism relating to Islam, I completely disagree with that,' he said.

'I, myself, have been a follower of Islam since birth and it never got in me to do or commit any such acts so how can how I believe that this religion is the problem?

'It's the people that are using this religion and trying to twist it, use it for their own benefit and then try to claim it is the religion that motivated them to do it.'

Fellow South Australian Sheikh Mohammad Tawhidi, an Adelaide-based Shia imam, has faced death threats for calling for Islam to be reformed so it fits within Western society.

Adelaide's Ahmadiyya Muslims this week held signs in the city's Rundle Mall inviting the public to ask them questions about their faith as part of a national campaign.

Mr Shah said people had commonly asked if the Koran was responsible for acts of terror.

'We've been following the same religion and most Muslims around the world are actually peaceful yet they follow the same teachings,' he said.

'It's practising Muslims that are speaking out against terrorism now and you're going to be seeing a lot more of us out there from now on.'

The Ahmadiyyas have publicly condemned terrorism around with world.

In March, Muslim women from this denomination wore blue and stood on the London Bridge to condemn terrorist Khalid Masood, who sped along the bridge before storming the grounds of parliament and stabbing to death a police officer.

The Ahmadiyya Muslims are often hated by Islamist extremists and religiously-conservative Sunnis around the world.

Last year, an Ahmadiyya shopkeeper in the Scottish city of Glasgow was stabbed 30 times by a religiously-motivated killer for wishing Christian friends a peaceful Easter on social media.

In Australia, Islamist extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir last year accused Tasmanian Ahmadiyyas of 'grovelling' for declaring their love of Australia in mailbox leaflets.

Indonesia's Ulema Council, the peak body for the nation's Islamic clerics, doesn't recognise Ahmadiyyas, who are more secular than Islamist Sunnis.




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