Don’t Conflate Violent Acts as Representative of Islam
At the end of a horrific week, Muslims at the mosque expressed bafflement and sorrow over the gruesome attacks committed by those who also call themselves Muslims — first in Paris and now in San Bernardino.
"We are really not able to comprehend this because it doesn’t jibe with the religion we practice,” says Mahmood Khadeer, president of the association’s board of directors and a senior manager at Microsoft.
Some will refuse to see a distinction between those who committed evil crimes and mainstream American Muslims. But as a nation, we must practice tolerance and understanding, now more than ever.
It will be easy to allow fear to replace reason as the investigation in Southern California by the FBI continues to expose disturbing links to extremists in the Middle East. It’s understandable for Americans to recoil at the thought of a terrorist attack from within.
But Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington (CAIR-WA), said the American Muslim community, too, is reeling from the senseless bloodshed, here and across the Middle East.
Fear is leaking into their community as well. In recent weeks, local Muslim women have expressed concerns they might be targeted because they cover their heads with hijabs. Their children are afraid their names will lead to bullying in school.
CAIR-WA recently alerted law enforcement to a social-media post by someone threatening to target 18 area mosques.
The uncertainty has prompted some Muslim parents to keep their children home from secular and religious classes.
At Friday’s weekly service at the Muslim Association of Puget Sound, hundreds of worshippers representing 49 countries listened to visiting Imam John Ederer condemn ISIL’s brutality. He called its members "misguided deviants” wreaking havoc against anyone who disagrees with their fanaticism, including a vast majority of Muslims.
Ederer urged those in attendance and beyond to be compassionate, empathetic and inquisitive when it comes to understanding Islam’s true message of peace.
Source: The Seattle Times
