Duane Hicks
“Love for all. Hatred for none.”
They don’t sound like the words terrorists would use—and that’s the point. They’re not.
The reality is extremists represent less than one percent of world’s entire Muslim population. The true teachings of Islam promote peace, love, and understanding.
And that’s why the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is conducting Islam open houses across Canada to remove misconceptions regarding Islam, with Fort Frances being one of its more recent stops last week.
Tariq Azeem spoke to about two dozen men and women who gathered last Thursday at the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre to shed light on true teachings of Islam and the Qur’an.
“The word ‘Islam’ means two things: peace and submission,” Azeem noted.
“What that means is peace and kindness and service towards humanity; having a peaceful society,” he explained.
“And submission means we all pray to God, worship God.
“They are the two primary meanings of Islam.”
Azeem noted there have been incidents around the globe caused by some extremist terrorist groups that have used the name of Islam.
“We want you to know that if someone is practising Islam, the word Islam means peace, and if he or she is doing anything against this meaning, they’re already not following the very basic teachings of Islam,” he stressed.
“The first is worship God, and the second is serve humanity and have a peaceful society.”
The Qur’an, the holy book which Muslims believe was revealed verbally by Allah to Muhammad through the angel Jibril (Gabriel), is central to Islam. One of its basic teachings includes loyalty to the country of one’s residence.
“You have to love the country where you are living,” Azeem noted. “If you are not loyal to your country, you automatically fall out of the code of Islam.
“Recently, with the rise of ISIS, there have been incidents of home-grown terrorism in Canada and many other countries, as well,” he added, saying certain people have been radicalized by extremist ideologies to commit harm to their own countries, which is against the very basic teachings of Islam.
The Qur’an also teaches there must be interfaith dialogue.
There are more similarities than differences between faiths, noted Azeem, adding dialogue promotes tolerance.
For example, Muslims believe Allah is the same God worshipped in other faiths, like Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism—the only difference is God has a different name in each faith.
Allah, as revealed to the prophet Muhammed, is the same God as the one revealed to other prophets such as Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus.
“Islam as a religion is not something new,” Azeem said.
“The name may not have been given to it before, but it was the same teachings given to the people before: pray to God Almighty in whatever way they were taught and have a peaceful society, where you are kind to one another and serve humanity.”
Another basic teaching of Islam is community service.
“You should love the community you are in,” Azeem reiterated. “You should try to give something back always.”
Azeem cited examples in Lloydminster, Alta., where he lives, that included highway clean-ups and community-wide clean-ups on New Year’s Day.
Canadian Muslim youth have endeavoured to collect one
million pounds of food for the needy. And anywhere there has been natural disasters, such as floods, Muslims have helped victims.
Azeem said extremists have tried to use the words of the Qur’an to sow confusion amongst some Muslims and instill fear in the hearts of people everywhere when, in fact, the Qur’an is meant to “provide guidance for the righteous.”
“This book over here, when you go through it, you will understand what the teachings are and they have nothing to do with extremism, terrorism, or violence,” he stressed.
“The religion is absolute love and peace.
One of the most often misinterpreted terms in the Qur’an is “Jihad,” a word that has been misused by terrorists “in such an ugly manner,” Azeem said.
“The true meaning of Jihad is such a beautiful concept,” he remarked, explaining it means “to strive” or “to struggle.”
The struggle can be against anything—from a visible enemy to a spiritual enemy within one’s self.
The highest form of Jihad is when you face yourself and do what is right, explained Azeem, citing a good example would be if you were hungry and only had $5, and had to make the tough decision whether to spend $5 to buy yourself food when you know another person is hungry or to share your money to buy food for yourself and the other hungry person.
While the Qur’an does permit Muslims to defend themselves and their loved ones, it does not permit aggression the likes of which is perpetrated by extremists.
Azeem pointed out there are 1.6 billion Muslims around the globe while estimating extremists in the world only might number 100,000.
While that’s a large number, it also shows extremists are in the minority.
Nonetheless, they are a problem that needs to be stopped, Azeem stressed, lamenting that the overwhelming majority of people killed by Muslim extremists are other Muslims.
“[The extremists] have no regard for religion,” he charged, noting that if anyone is even slightly against them, “they’re ready to kill that person—and that’s not the teaching of Islam.”
To clear up other misconceptions about Islam, Azeem outlined that the Qur’an:
•promotes equality between men and women;
•claims no monopoly on salvation and respects and loves all religions;
•does not believe people should be forced to believe in something they don’t want to; and
•promotes education and scientific thought, including the “Big Bang Theory” and evolution guided by the hand of God.
The Qur’an also is believed to be a source of many prophecies that have come to pass.
It predicted, for instance, innovations such as air travel and biometrics (the use of fingerprints and retinal scans for crime investigation), as well as crises such as global pollution, which man now must find a way to fix.
