Nicholas C. Stern
Extremists, terrorists and their supporters sometimes use religion to legitimize their actions, according to Imam Yahya Hendi.
Yet lumping a vocal minority in with moderates, or conflating violent tactics with religious tenets, as has been done relentlessly to Muslims and Islam in the American media and elsewhere since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is an error made in part from ignorance, he said.
Hendi said moderation is a core conviction of Muslims according to the Quran, as is honoring the religious traditions Muslims share with Christians and Jews.
Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University and president of Clergy Beyond Borders, spoke in a panel Monday evening to more than 70 students, residents and professors at Hood College.
The idea for the "Islam Q and A" came about when some women in the local Muslim community saw the need to better explain their beliefs and dispel some of the misinformation about them, said Syed Haque, president of the Frederick County Muslim Council.
"Moderate Muslims believe in dialogue, and that is what we're here for," Haque said.
In the U.S., the Muslim community is composed of people from 80 different countries -- likely the most diverse Muslim community in the world, according to Zahid Bukhari.
Bukhari is director of the American Muslim Studies Program at Georgetown and executive director of the Center for Islam and Public Policy in Washington. He also spoke on the Hood panel.
Most of the members of that broad community arrived in the country within the last 50 years, leaving them far less time to assimilate than other immigrant communities, he said.
Muslims have served in the U.S. government since at least 1883.
Muslims are soldiers in the U.S. Army, husbands and wives, doctors and businessmen striving for a better future for their families, as do other Americans, Hendi and Bukhari said.
Moreover, many Muslims cherish religious and other freedoms the United States provides them, Hendi said.
"America is the sole model I believe we have to protect," he said. "We do not want America to become Saudi Arabia or Iran."
Despite confusion among some, about 83 percent of Muslims are not Arab, and not all Arabs are Muslim, Hendi said.
Muslim women attend college, become professionals and serve as legislators in Muslim nations, he said.
Suicide is forbidden in Islam, as is killing civilians in war, Hendi said. Peace is an attribute of God and even the subject of a common greeting among Muslims, he said.
When asked, Hendi speculated that one reason some U.S. media tend to portray or focus their attention predominantly on Muslims who are violent or extremist is to sell sensational stories.
Addressing the controversy in the media surrounding the construction of a mosque near the ground zero site, Bukhari said Muslim leaders across the country debated the pros and cons.
In the end, Bukhari said not following through with construction of the site seemed an unwarranted admission of guilt, as if all Muslims were responsible for 9/11.
Further, the leaders were concerned that giving in to calls to stop the construction would not stop only at that site, he said.
Hendi and Bukhari also explained how politics and religion in Muslim nations mix and are kept at a distance, to varying degrees, in more democratic Muslim nations such as Malaysia and Jordan.
After almost two hours, the organizers had to cut short participants' questions, though Hendi and Haque proposed carrying on the conversation in the future.
November 10, 2010, Free
