A Large Crowd Turns out to Learn About Islam and Celebrate Diversity
What started as a controversial face book post turned into a great learning opportunity and celebrating diversity in our communities. Irmo town hall was packed to capacity last Thursday during the ‘Demystifying Islam’ program that drew people from various faiths and all walks of life.
The program commenced with a mini exhibition on Islam that included books on Islam as well as posters depicting Muslims contributions to the world civilization, especially during the Islam’s Golden Age. Visitors showed keen interest in the exhibition and some picked up copies of the Quran and a mini-magazine on ‘Islam and Peace.’ While the event was hosted by Mayor Hardy King, it was jointly sponsored by PICNA and IPSC (Interfaith Partners of SC).
Adrian Bird, Chairman of IPSC, who served as the moderator, presented an excellent introduction and a preview of the evening’s proceedings:
- A presentation entitled ‘Understanding Islam and Muslims’ by Chaudhry Sadiq, President of PICNA
- A panel discussion by four panelists followed by a Q&A session.
Chaudhry Sadiq’s well illustrated presentation covered essentials of Islamic faith including deeper meaning of Islam and Muslims, an understanding of Allah, Prophet Muhammad and Quran. Chaudhry also dealt with the sensitive subject of terrorism and how Muslims had suffered from terrorism and war on terrorism. Quoting from the Quran and Prophetic traditions, He emphatically declared that Islam had nothing to do with terrorism. He went on to say that terrorists were terrorists and extremists were extremists, who had no faith and hence must not be linked or connected with any faith. Chaudhry further said that American Muslims were affluent, educated, intelligent and successful and that they were as loyal and patriotic as any other American national.
In the next segment, the panelists presented their views on the theme of the evening. Mayor Hardy King recounted his experiences when, after the controversial face book posting, he had visited a local prominent mosque and was warmly greeted by their community leaders and Muslims from all walks of life. He explained how that experience had opened his mind and motivated him to host the current program to afford an opportunity to Irmo residents to learn more about their Muslim neighbors.
Mary Kennerly, a retired educator, then recounted her experiences as she recollected how her students and their parents from different faiths including Islam had come together in the aftermath of 9/11. Chery Nail, Vice Chair of IPSC and Community Relations Director of Columbia Jewish Federation, declared that religion was not the problem but extremism was the problem. She emotionally recollected the strong support their community had received from all other faiths when the Jewish community had received multiple bomb threats recently.
Chaudhry, in his panel discussion segment, explained how he had been reported for ‘suspicious activity’ on more than one occasion when he was offering his prayers at open spaces in his early years in Columbia. He invited the audience to imagine how Muslims would feel when they needed to offer prayers at airports or on an aircraft in the current socio-political environment.
The last segment of the program, the Q&A session, was equally exciting when the audience posed tough questions to the panelists on a variety of subjects including terrorism. The moderator showed extra ordinary patience and organizational skills while the panelists kept their cool that helped maintain a pleasant and healthy environment in the town hall.
In the Q&A session, a Muslim convert emphasized that a Muslim cannot be a terrorist and follow Islam and similarly, a Christian cannot be a terrorist and follow Christianity just as a Jew cannot be a terrorist and follow Judaism simultaneously. In response to someone’s question on terrorism, a Jewish Professor said he taught terrorism classes and his study showed that of all terrorist incidents in America, those perpetrated by ‘so-called’ Muslims were only a fraction of the total number of such incidents.
The climax of the program was the moment when a Christian lady picked up a book from the display table and read out a prayer of Prophet Muhammad in an emotional and spiritually charged voice. It seemed that all participants shared the feeling that they had learnt a lot through this awareness program that had helped bring together people of different faiths and ethnicities. That confirms the notion that God Almighty has mysterious ways of bringing people together for a good cause!
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