Muslim American Society Campaign to Combat Terrorism
Faith Over Fear and Justice for All
In the wake of the second series of blasts that hit London, just 2
weeks after the July 7
bombing, the Muslim American Society (MAS) renew its condemnation to
such evil acts
and its commitment to exonerate Islam from terrorism, deny terrorists
any religious,
ideological or political legitimacy. W e categorically denounce all
terrorism regardless of
affiliation or national origin.
Given the intricacies of such phenomenon, we believes that beefing up
intelligence and
security measures, while vital and crucial, are insufficient alone to
solve the problem,
especially considering that we are dealing with people who are
religiously misguided
and socio-politically desperate.
Thus we are committed to the intensification of our effort in
proactively combating
terrorism.
As America's largest grassroot religious, educational and civic
organization consisting
nationwide of 50-chapters, religious schools, youth centers, Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts
of America programs, civic departments and members who provide
leadership for
hundreds of mosques across America, we at The Muslim American Society
are uniquely
equipped to provide a comprehensive multifaceted approach in
proactively combating
terrorism. Recognizing this reality we are compelled to intensify our
effort to thwart
violence and extremism. Thus we are implementing the following action
items within
the American Muslim community:
1. MAS will intensify its youth and scouts work and step up its
campaign of building
youth centers to inculcate in our youth the proper understanding of
Islam, help them
fulfill all their potential, and keep them out of range of extremism
and moral vices,
together with expanding its training programs to train our youth on
civics, civic
engagement, volunteerism, community services, and nurture our youth
to be exemplary
active citizens.
2. MAS will work with Imams and Islamic Centers to consolidate and
solidify the
prevailing moderate and mainstream orientation of our community and
to do whatever it
takes to leave no chance for terrorists and their views to creep into
our community, and
leave no ambiguity when it comes to the Islamic position on terrorism
and the killing of
innocent civilians. Indeed, for us terrorism is not only a mass
murder crime that
threatens our safety, but also a blow to our image, and a disruption
to our daily normal
lives as it fuels bigotry, racism, Islamophobia, and all kinds of
extremism. So, while we
long for the eradication of the scourge of terrorism, we need to
exonerate our religion
and our community from such curse.
3. MAS will step up its outreach efforts to speed up the integration
of our community,
demystify Islam and Muslims, and deny the terrorists the opportunity
to highjack our
religion or speak on behalf of the one and a half billion Muslims
worldwide.
1050 17th St., NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 Tel:
202.496.1288 Fax: 202.463.0686
[EMAIL PROTECTED] www.masnet.org
4. MAS will continue its relentless efforts to advocate justice as
the precursor for
social harmony and world peace. We are aware of the rampant injustice
in the world
that is causing real, legitimate grievances. However, in Islam, ends
don't justify the
means, and just causes have to be advocated through legitimate means.
The
senseless killing of innocent people in New York, Madrid, London,
Baghdad,
Casablanca, and Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, are a scourge to the very
causes they claim
to champion.
5. MAS will continue to boldly advocate for a positive, constructive
role for the
American Muslim Community in the national discourse concerning war
and peace,
social and economic justice and human rights.
6. MAS will continue to resist backing corrupt and oppressive regimes
in the Muslim
world, alienation of mainstream Islamic groups and curtailing the
civil liberties of
Muslims at home and abroad; all of these measures play in the hands
of terrorists.
Engaging moderate mainstream Islam here and abroad, promoting human
rights and
democracy in the Muslim world is instrumental in defeating terrorism.
7. MAS will facilitate a national summit on combating terrorism to
include major
Muslim organizations and national Muslim leaders for the purpose of
assessing the
progress we are making in combating terrorism, hate and violence, in
addition to
pursuing a well coordinated strategy towards addressing these issues.
The summit will
also be used to plan an international conference on global terrorism,
which will include
Muslim organizations and leaders from the United States, Canada, and
Europe.
In conclusion, we believes that nations and groups should maintain
relationships on the
basis of universal brotherhood, fairness, mutual understanding,
respect, and that people
should pursue their interests through civic engagement within the
boundaries of national
and international laws. We reject the dualistic concept of `us'
and `them', and the
simplistic diagnosis of "they hate us because of our freedom or envy
us because of our
prosperity". We refuse to be trapped/boxed between extreme
ideologies, who are
combating each other, one is providing the justifications the other
desperately needs,
thus creating a vicious, self-feeding cycle of destruction (or one is
fulfilling the other's
prophecy). We all should seek commonalities (common denominators) and
shun what
tears and divides. We draw upon our faith to combat the dark forces
of division hatred
and violence. Thus we continue to embrace Faith Over Fear and Justice
for All.
For more info Contact MAS FF:
1050 17th St., NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 Tel:
202.496.1288 Fax: 202.463.0686
[EMAIL PROTECTED] www.masnet.org
***************************************************************************
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in
His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites
(men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I
am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if
Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of
camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever
calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who
follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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