Question 1
Are attacks on
Civilians, justified due to the Government they have elected into power? Such
as what happens in the
Answer
Attacks on civilians
(Muslims or non Muslims) at any time, peace time or war time, is forbidden in
Islam. Any Muslim who attacks the children, women, sick and ordinary civilians
of a community, regardless of their religious orientation, commits a serious
sin and crime. Killing or hurting
civilians because the American army kills indiscriminately at times cannot be
justified. Muslims never react to an evil act by committing evil
themselves. We Muslims strongly condemn
the American aggression and cruelty in
Question 2
Mr. Soharwardy,
what is your take on the separation of church and state in the
Answer
Separation of
church and state was required in the west because the church was abusing
ordinary citizens in the name of Christian faith. By the 1500s the Catholic
Church was the most wealthy and powerful institution in
Presently the
concept of separation of church and state is being abused and misused by the
secular and atheist individuals, organizations and governments. They want to takeaway the religious freedom
of an individual or community. Some of them are fundamentalist and extremist in
their secular and atheistic beliefs. They are now doing the same thing that the
Christian clergy did four centuries ago. They are imposing themselves and their
atheistic / secular beliefs on everyone.
Freedom of
religion for an individual or a community is one of their most important rights
and must be protected, not only in private but, in public affairs as well. A
Muslim student in the
I assure you, if a
Muslim is allowed to practice Islam openly and freely and the society does not
discriminate against him/her for being openly Muslim, then this Muslim will
love that society and will help in protecting the religious rights of the
followers of other religions. A true practice of Islam develops a kind and
loving person, not a hatemonger.
Question 3
The media seems to
emphasise the negative aspects of Islam, why do you think this is?
Answer
Let me begin with
some background to this problem. From the start, the unity of American society
was established on xenophobia or an irrational fear of foreigners or strangers.. They had to have a fear of something in order to unite
against that fear. If the fear is gone,
the reason of unity would be gone too. American xenophobia operates in the
service of American nationalism. Initially,
the settlers feared from the aboriginal people and they united against
them. They killed millions of aboriginal
people in order to remove their fear. When these settlers found their identity
as Americans they feared the British monarchy and fought against it. They
fought against
The American media
always played a very significant role in keeping this “foreign fear” against
other cultures and nations alive. During
the last forty years the unprecedented expansion of Islam and the growth of
Muslim community in Europe and North America frightened the Christian
fundamentalists in the
On one side, the
Christian ministries especially the evangelical church has significant
influence on the media. The TV evangelists bring millions of dollars to TV
corporations every week by buying time for their ministries. On the other side, coincidently at the time
of 9/11 tragedy, the White House was occupied by the most fundamentalist
Christian government in American history.
Therefore, the propaganda of TV evangelists and the pressure from the
fundamentalist government in the White House encouraged the media to create
greater fear against a religion that was foreign to the ordinary Americans.
Moreover, we should realize what makes for interesting news. If a Muslim person gives her neighbour a
bouquet of flowers, it does not make the news but when a person kills the other
person it makes news.
Looking to American history once more, at one
point the Americans financed and trained Muslim warlords in
One of the
greatest misconceptions is that the American media is free from censorship and
bias. Various interest groups and the
owners of network stations, newspapers and other media forms exert significant
influence on what is reported in the media. Moreover, concentrated ownership
of media results in less diversity in the views represented. Thus, mainstream media do not want to
run stories that will offend their advertisers and owners. In this way, the
media end up censoring themselves and not reporting on many important issues.
In his article on media monopoly, Michael Parenti, a political scientist
and author writes about further problems with the media in the
In
Question 4
What is Jihad?
Answer
The word jihad
literally means to "struggle or strive." The Arabic root of the word
is jahada "to strive for." This is a struggle against evil and
wrong. This struggle (Jihad) is the most
integral part of Islam. In the holy Qur’an, the most frequently occurring
orders from Allah are those for the establishment of prayer (Salat) and those
for the struggle in His path (Jihad Fi Sabilillah). There are three levels of struggles in Islam.
First Level: The struggle to acquire, sustain and foster the
righteousness within ourselves. In other words, the struggle
within a person to keep him/her away from sins and evil beliefs or actions.
Second Level: A struggle by using one’s speaking or writing power to
acquire, sustain and cultivate righteousness within a community. In other words, if a person sees or hears any
wrong doing in the community, the righteous person stops that wrong by creating
awareness about it through his/her speeches or writings.
Third Level: The struggle against evil by using force. In other words, fighting a war against evil. A further
explanation of this level of Jihad follows.
Jihad – The Holy War
The difference
between Islam and other religions is that the Islam provides complete and
specific guidance to its followers in all possible aspects of life, while the
other religions provide guidelines only in a few aspects of life. Islam tells
its followers how to run a government, how to run a community, how to run one’s
own house and how to run one’s own life. From world affairs to the affairs
concerning one’s neighbours and family members, Islam tells its followers what
to do in nearly all human situations.
Just like any
sovereign nation, Muslims are required to defend the sovereignty of their
country. In other words, a Muslim
country should not initiate any aggression against any other country but should
defend itself against the aggression of the other country. Similarly, Muslims are also required to help
the needy and the oppressed and bring freedom to the people. Therefore, the
defence against the aggression and arrogance is called Jihad.
Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) has given very clear guidelines to
Muslims regarding wars. A Muslim must not do the following at any time
including war time (Jihad);
1.
Kill
or hurt women and children even if they are from the enemy
2.
Kill
the sick and elderly people even if they are from the enemy
3.
Do not
destroy hospitals
4.
Do not
cut down green tress
5.
Do not
contaminate water sources
6.
Do not
destroy the places of worship of other religions
Where else do we
find these great ethics during war time except in a religion founded over 1400
years ago - that of peace loving Islam.
Question 5
What are the
requirements and conditions for proclaiming Jihad?
Answer
If Jihad (War) is
needed then the head of an Islamic government can proclaim jihad. The head must
consult with the appropriate advisors / military experts (in today’s time
parliament or cabinet) before announcing Jihad. An individual or an organization
of few individuals can not declare Jihad (war).
Moreover, when Jihad is declared by the head of an Islamic government,
the war must be fought with strict enforcement of the above mentioned
guidelines. Biological, chemical, or nuclear warfare, hijacking of planes,
indiscriminate killings of civilians is NOT allowed in Islam.
Question 6
What is martyrdom
in Islam?
Answer
When a Muslim dies
while defending his or her religion, country, life, honour or property he or
she is called martyr. Just like a US soldier, when he/she dies while defending
USA or US interests abroad, the soldier is recognized as a hero by Americans,
similarly, when a Muslim dies while fighting for his country, that fighter is
acknowledged as a martyr and honoured as a hero by Muslims.
Question 7
What is the future
of the
Answer
The outlook looks
very bright and promising for a future
Yes, two sovereign independent states of
Question 8
Can Islam and
Christianity truly co-exist peacefully?
Answer
The holy book of
Islam, Qur’an recognizes Christianity and Judaism as religions and calls them the
people of the book. Qur’an asks Muslims to establish dialogue with Christians
and Jews on common ground; the monotheistic belief in one common God (Allah).
In holy Qur’an,
chapter 30, Allah favoured Christians over pagans and gave them victory over their
enemies.
In 637,
when the second caliph of Islam, Omar Ibn Al Khattab (May Allah be pleased with
him) entered
Saladin's lasting
reputation among Christians during the crusades, as a man of chivalry and
honour, derives above all from his treatment of the Christian inhabitants of
In the history of
Father George
Qanawati in his book, Christianity and
Arab Civilisation, has stated that “in order to understand how Christians
could live within Arab Islamic civilisation and feel part and parcel of it
...constituting an active element in its development and helping their Muslim
brethren to safeguard their beliefs and views in scientific fields and in the
requirements of civilisation, we must refer to ...Common grounds and meeting
points between the two religions, for instance; ‘One God’ , the One Living
Self-Subsisting Eternal’, ‘God who loves human beings’ and ‘God the Forgiver
and Compassionate’…”
Islam and
Christianity did coexist peacefully in the past and these two great religions
can coexist in peace today provided that the Muslims follow the teachings of
Islam and the Christians follow the teachings of Christ (peace be upon him).
Question 9
Why are there
sectarian differences in Islam? Is this good or bad?
Answer
During the first
century of Islamic history, Muslims were divided into two sects. The division was purely political, not
religious or theological. The minority
group called Shi’a believed that the
Caliph-hood should remain within the family of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), while the majority of Muslims called Sunni believed that the Caliph must be
elected by the community. However, this political
division never created a widespread animosity among Muslims. The differences
remained very strong at the level of intellectuals / scholars but ordinary
citizens were never affected by it.
During the last
days of
The sectarian
extremism was planted among Muslims by a small number of fanatics funded and
trained by the European imperialists and colonialists during the fall of
Question 10
How is a terrorist
defined according to Islam?
Answer
A
government, a military, an organization or an individual that employs terror as
a political, economical, social or religious weapon is called terrorist in
Islam. An individual or a group of individuals are
considered to be terrorists if the individual or group of individuals;
§
Indiscriminately
destroy properties and /or kills civilians
§
Kidnap
or hijack civilians for ransom or hurt them or kill them
§
Attacks
a country in order to occupy the country with the intent of controlling its
resources and institutions to further their own purposes
A terrorist is a
terrorist regardless whether the terrorist is an ally or a foe of
When the American
government wants to use someone to fight against American enemies, then that
individual is an honourable “freedom fighter.” When the individual refuses to
fight for the American cause OR fights back against
Yet another
example is that of the Talibans in
When Osama Bin
Laden and his army were fighting for
For a Muslim, one
of the conditions of faith is that a Muslim should like for others what he/she
likes for himself/herself. Repentance of a Murderer is not accepted unless the
Murderer receives punishment for his/her crime OR unless the immediate
relatives (parents, children, spouse, etc.) of the victim forgive the murderer.
Therefore, a terrorist must be punished for his/her crime.
Question 11
Has Islam been
hijacked by the likes of Osama Bin Laden, Al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda, Hamas,
Hezbollah, Al-Jihad, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, etc?
Answer
Islam cannot be
hijacked by any individual, government or an organization. In order to hijack
Islam 1.5 billion Muslims need to be hijacked. However, the increased aggression
against the Islamic faith by a few followers and the enemies of Islam has put
increased pressure on the faithful Muslims to be responsible citizens and
safeguard the “true” way of Islamic life.
The worldwide
Muslims and particularly Canadian Muslims condemn the recent kidnapping of two
Canadians in
I also urge
Question 12
How much support
does Islam give to those named above?
Answer
Islam does not
support these individuals or organizations. Islam only supports those who follow
it and condones actions in line with its teachings. Any individual or organization that supports
terrorism has no support from Muslims and Islam. Any individual or organization
that kills innocent children has no support from Muslims and no place in Islam.
In fact, Islam condemns and rejects them.
Question 13
What is your
opinion of the growing anti-Muslim sentiments in the
Answer
Indeed this is an
unfortunate and a very disturbing situation created by anti-Islam and anti peace
agencies (Note: If a person claims that he/she is a Muslim but does every thing
against the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the holy
Qur’an, I consider that person anti-Islam).
The
All over the
world, all major Islamic scholars and organizations have condemned those so-
called Muslims who are creating terrorism in the name of Islam but media gives
more coverage to the terrorists, not the peace preaching and practicing Muslim
scholars.
However, Muslims
do have a responsibility of educating the people. It is the duty of each
individual Muslim living in the western countries to be faithful to his/her
country and must reach out to his /her neighbours, classmates, coworkers and
share with them the blessing of Allah. Muslims need to start their own TV and
radio stations and newspapers and they need to make this as a priority. If the
world is to see the true face of Islam; then we cannot depend on the sham that
is the western media.
Question 14
What is your a thought
or opinions on the War on/against Terrorism?
Answer
I have written an
article on this War on/against terrorism. Please visit http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.com/psychopaths.htm
I consider this
war as a “War of Psychopaths”. This is a war of warlords and religious fanatics
that is producing more terrorists and killing more innocent civilians
everyday.
Question 15
What are the
aspects that are beneficial to
Answer
No doubt that the
tragedy of 9/11 has brought sadness and destruction, however, this tragedy also
provided an opportunity to ordinary citizens, Muslims and non Muslims, to unite
together as peace loving humans. Although,
religious fanatics -Muslims, Christians and Jews do not want this union of
peace loving humans to succeed but we must try our best to defeat the
terrorists and the fanatics.
Although, there
have been cases of racism and hate crimes against Muslims in
The media in
What I am doing to help?
I travel across
this huge country of ours on a weekly basis and educate the young and old, boys
and girls about the true peaceful and loving nature of Islam. I have founded two organizations called;
Muslims Against Terrorism (www.m-a-t.org) and Islamic Supreme Council of
Canada (www.islamicsupremecouncil.com).
By the way, MAT was founded long before 9/11 in 1999.
We produce two TV
programs on a weekly basis. We have established an Islamic centre in
Islam 101 – designed for non
Muslims to learn basics of Islam
Islam 201 – designed for non
Muslims to study the Qur’an and its interpretations.
Islam 301 – designed for
Muslim youth
Islam 501 – Presentation and
Communication skills
For details on our programs, please visit www.islamicsupremecouncil.com
I am also writing
two books, one regarding Islamic beliefs and other on the topic of issues faced by
Muslims. These books will be published within the next few months.
I will be more
than happy to present Islam 101
course to your group or anyone interested free of charge.
Thank you for
asking these questions. I am looking forward to meeting with you soon.
(Acknowledgement:
I am very thankful to Nadia Ahmed for proof reading this document. May Allah
reward her with the best of the both worlds.)