Downingtown Friends offers course on Muslim religion, culture
Daily Local News (Chester County, PA)
Teaching the class is Bangladesh native Iftekhar Hussain. He has been conducting this class for about six years, he said. He will discuss topics such as the religious text, the Koran, theology, religious beliefs and Muslims’ relationship with Christians and Jews.
“It is really to help the individual person understand the sources and the traditions that form the Muslim world and help them understand who Muslims are,” Hussain said. “When there is familiarity, it removes doubt, removes uncertainty, removes hate. It provides a level of comfort. I continuously compare the Christian and Jewish religions with how Muslims have the same traditions and values.”
Hussain said when he teaches the course, he strongly encourages his students to ask any kind of question they want, regardless of the subject. “Our goal is to create a level of familiarity that begins to remove the many stereotypes that exist in people’s minds. It also allows people to really ask questions. It’s a really interactive course. They want information but then they want to ask questions from their context.”
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Focus Article: Muslim Americans and US law enforcement: not enemies, but vital partners
by Alejandro J. Beutel (Christian Science Monitor)
The stigma on Muslim Americans worsened in 2009. The latest events, including arrests of the Newburgh Four in New York, Michael Finton in Illinois, and Hossam Smadi in Texas; then the Fort Hood, Texas, massacre by Nidal Malik Hasan; and most recently the arrest in Pakistan of five young Muslim men from Virginia attempting to join a militant group there have only added to difficulties.
Each of these events was unique. The first three involved the questionable use of FBI informants, one case involved a man going on a violent rampage, and another involved youth seeking violent adventures abroad.
Yet, at a time when terrorism remains a challenge to US national security, these events feed into the false and dangerous fear that Muslim Americans cannot be trusted.
America can’t afford that.
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World Commentary
- The Degrading Effects of Terrorism Fears by Glenn Greenwald
- Failed Air Security is But One of Several Fiascos by Haroon Siddiqui
- The Pictures of War You Aren’t Supposed to See by Chris Hedges
