ICPIC Symposium “Our Legacy and Future Destiny”
ICPIC’s symposium last Saturday was a major success! Both our Executive Director, Moein Khawaja, and Outreach and Communications Director, Rugiatu Conteh, were on the Our Future Destiny panel. Moein explained how Islamophobia not only negatively affects Muslims, but it now influences politics, community relations with law enforcement, etc. Rugiatu discussed the role of women in mosques, and how their increased leadership would help to create more sustainable communities.
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Inside Islam: A Window Into the Hearts & Minds of Ordinary Muslims Across the World
By: Rugiatu Conteh, Outreach & Communications Director (CAIR-Philadelphia)
Taken from the Spring Newsletter of New Sanctuary Movement Philadelphia
On February 9th, nearly forty-five people of all faiths came together to watch and discuss the documentary film, Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia.
Inside Islam seeks to debunk common stereotypes of Islam and Muslims based on hard facts. Experts in the film discuss controversial issues highlighted by the world- wide Muslim public opinion poll conducted by the Gallup organization. Respondents from more than thirty-five Muslim majority countries as well as American Muslims reveal how they feel about terrorism, democracy and women’s rights. The results were shocking to some.
Respondents of the poll spoke highly of freedom of speech and women’s rights. The majority categorically condemned terrorism and terrorist acts. Many respondents quoted verses directly from the Koran to denounce the killing of innocent civilians.
According to MediaTenor, fundamentalists and militant groups account for 66% of the media coverage on Islam. In other words, more than half of the news coverage of Islam is focused on violence. This creates the illusion that most Muslims are radicals, when in fact the “radical fringes,” such as Al-Qaeda, are a tiny speck of the entire global Muslim population.
The screening was not only educational, but timely. As the series of revolutions in the Middle East unravels, it is clear to see that Gallup’s research is very accurate. People are hungry for change, and it is not Islam which suppresses them, but corrupt governments and leaders. (Read more in New Sanctuary Movement newsletter [PDF])
