Download At Issue #2720 "Understanding Islam"

At Issue #2720 "Understanding Islam"
A production of WTVP, Peoria ,Illinois
Original Transcription: Kathy Smith & edited by Mark Lasswell
Date produced: 2/19/2015
Original Air Date: 2/19/2015
Guest(s):
Imam Kamil Mufti, Islamic Foundation of Peoria
[intro music]
>>>H: And welcome to "At Issue." I am H. Wayne Wilson. Thank you so much for joining us. And yesterday President
Barack Obama said we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with those who have perverted Islam. Then, today,
Thursday, as you are watching this on Thursday, he also said to say we are at war with Islam is a lie. He has a summit of
leaders trying to decide how to handle the current ISIS crisis. And it is appropriate that we discuss the religion of Islam in
the situation in the Middle East with the leader of the Islam faith here in Central Illinois. He is Imam Kamil Mufti, and he
is the Islamic -- with the Islamic Foundation of Peoria. Thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.
>>Mufti: Thank you very much.
>>H: Appreciate it.
>>Mufti: Thanks.
>>H: Before we talk about the religion itself, we need to address the situation with ISIS. And -- we sometimes I think we
have a tendency to say in our private conversations and even sometimes on air, we have a tendency to say Islamic
terrorists or some phrase similar to that. But we never hear anybody say Christian terrorists or Judaic terrorists or Hindu
terrorists. Why is it that we are doing that here in America?
>>Mufti: That’s an excellent observation and a very good question. Sadly, I am not quite sure if I have the answer why
we are doing this over here. What I will be saying is speculation.
Sad reality when there is a Muslim behind the gun or a person behind the gun who happens to be of the Muslin faith, his
faith becomes very important. His faith becomes somehow mentioned and attached with his action, with his criminal
activity. But when there is a Muslim who is a victim in front of the gun, their faith usually doesn't matter. It is just a
victim.
And we see this what happened in Chapel Hill with three innocent Muslims young students, with great services to the
humanitarian to the cause, feeding the homeless, serving the refugees. When they were shot. And the coverage did not
really do justice to them. They were more or less victims. And the person behind the gun, his lack of faith, in this is case
not faith but lack of faith, he was a self-proclaimed Atheist. Was not really mentioned even though there has been a lot
of hate rhetoric coming from some of the atheists quite recently where they have said Islam is the enemy, and we are at
war with Islam, they are violent, they threaten us, kill them all, by some of the famous names in the Atheist circle.
>>H: So the leaders Al Baghdadi is leader of ISIS or ISIL as the president will refer to them. They say they are doing this
out of religious reasons. Is that -- do you take that to be true?
>>Mufti: That's absolutely false. That is absolutely false.
The claim that the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant are the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS and ISIL they are both
synonymous. It is false claim. As a matter of fact they are not even referred to with this name by the rest of the Arabs -At Issue #2720 " Understanding Islam"
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all the Arab nations, they refer to them as "Daesh" and that is the name which Kerry used to refer to them recently as
well, because the name is actually quite insulting and very misleading.
Another which is equivalent of the Vatican for Muslim word, they came out and said it is a very bad idea to refer to them
as Islamic State because it sends the completely wrong message to people. And comparing them or associating the "I" in
their name, the Islamic with them, to somehow represent or reflect Islam is as true as the Klu Klux Klan by burning the
cross were representative of Christianity or Joseph Konys' Lord's Resistance Army the LRA, working in Africa is
representative of the work of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him.
Obviously these parallels are just drawing these parallels to highlight the fact that the "I" in that name should not
mislead us. This is what they are claiming. It is not true. It is a false claim. And it is false claim according to the majority
mainstream of the Muslim who have spoken very clearly. I myself wrote a letter last year and we shared it with our
friends and community leaders, religious leaders of different faiths where I documented and I mentioned Muslim
religious leaders both in the United States as well as the Muslim international community like the General Secretary of
the OIC, the Organization of Islamic Countries, consist of 57 countries.
The Government of the United Nations for the Muslim World, spoken against them at the Vatican, at the highest level,
the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia the most conservative Muslim countries right now that we have, the highest religious
authority of Jordan and Turkey, just to name a few, they have clearly distanced themselves and said these people don't
represent Islam. Al-Azhar, the high seat of Sunni learning. And of course the Shiites as well, they have said same thing
like Grand Al-Sistani, the highest religious authority among the Shiites who resides in Iraq, they have all spoken against
it, and they have distanced themselves and clarified this, just like mainstream Christianity has done in the case of, for
example, the Mexican Cartels.
We talked about that previously. The Mexican Cartels is very good comparison between -- I don't -- It's even -- it is
offensive to use a Christian group. The group which is -- which has committed similar atrocities, 16,000 killings last year.
60,000 in about six or seven years, 57 journalists that they killed. Thousands of Mexican women sold into sex slavery.
They make graphic videos and post them on the social media. So a lot of things which we -- decapitating people,
removing their heads from their bodies, a lot of these things which we associate with ISIL, the Mexican Cartels have
done, including the 40 plus students who were killed recently in Mexico as well and their bodies found.
A lot of people will say these people are doing it for drugs, for the sake of profit. ISIL is doing it for the sake of ideology.
That's not entirely true. The Catholic Church came out and denounced their worship because these people get their, for
lack of better word, inspiration, from the Catholic Church where they build churches, they build mausoleums for the
religious -- cartel leaders. They distribute the Bible. One of the leaders actually even wrote a collection his favorite
verses from the Bible which is widely distributed. And they worship the saint of death. And the Catholic Church
distanced themselves and clarified that they do not represent Catholic teachings. So not even this connection in the
minds of a lot of people does not exists that these cartels have anything to do with religion. But all these parallels point
to us that religion can be abused and is being abused by different groups for the wrong purposes.
>>H: I get the sense, and correct me if I'm wrong here, I get the sense that you feel that maybe Americans in general
may not have the -- a complete enough view of ISIS versus Islam, versus any of those disputes based upon maybe either
viewing only one source or not complete enough sources from we the media?
>>Mufti: sure. Obviously a person limits them to one source, one news outlet; they will be influenced by their world
view. That's very true. So obviously if a person is getting their news from investigative reporters, or from British sources,
Japanese sources and Russian sources as well as American local sources or public television, and public radio, there will
have a different view of things. Because obviously, we know all news is not unbiased. There is bias in the news. That's
the reason why we have several organizations that report on the bias in the media and fear reporting practices of
different media outlets. And it's well known among the circle of journalists.
>>H: So you are recommending that people broaden their scope of knowledge through watching various television,
reading various newspapers, etcetera.
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>>Mufti: Absolutely. I mean the best shot we have, from based on my limited knowledge, at finding the truth is to go
with the investigative reporters, they are the ones who do all the digging. That's what they specialize in. And short of
that, diversifying the source of our news and getting them from different sources like RT, like Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera Plus,
BCC, Independent, The Guardian, Japan News, and of course, NPR and other local media outlets. I think, I think the
person will get different perspective. We don't have to follow all of them. What I suggest people can do is follow -rotate them.
>>H: A Sampling.
>>Mufti: Yes, Sample them.
>>H: So that brings us to the discussion of what is Islam. I mean I think I am safe in saying that many Americans, and this
may include me, but I don't have a very good knowledge. I was raised a Christian. But this is the Quran. I think we are
familiar at least with the book ->>Mufti: Sure.
>>H: -- not with what is in it. But can you give us a primer on the origins of Islam.
>>Mufti: Islam is a very simple faith. There are about 1.6 million Muslims divided in 56 Muslim majority countries. As the
minority in almost every other country in the world. It started -- the Islam that we practice and that when call Islam, with
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in the seventh century Arabia. But the real beginnings of Islam, according to
Muslim theology actually go before that. So Muslims consider that Adam, the mainstream Muslims, consider that Adam
so the first human being and believe in the traditional story of the Bible of the creation of the first human being, and the
fall of Adam. Obviously important differences between the story of the fall as it is depicted in the Bible and as it is
depicted in the Quran it's in the beginning Sura, Sura Al-Baqara, The Cow. Followed by other prophets of God like Noah,
like Abraham, a central figure in Islam, a central figure in the Quran.
>>H: So you have the same base of the Christian faith?
>>Mufti: Very close, and very similar, there are a lot of similarities between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. So I would
say that Islam is actualy an extension and a completion Theological level of Judaism and Christianity. That's how Muslims
view Islam, as a completion and continuation of the same message. Now of course, Judaism would look at it in a
different -- Jews will look at that message in a different way. Christians look at that message in a different way. They will
say that world was being prepared for the appearance of Son of God. The way Muslims look at the tradition of the
Prophets starting from Adam and including Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Aaron and a lot of the Biblical Prophets like
John the Baptist, and others, ending with Muhammad teh Arabian Prophet. They all represent the same message, the
message to worship one god and to believe and follow his prophets.
>>H: But Muhammad was a Prophets whereas, Jesus is considered the Son of God.
>>Mufti: In mainstream Christianity, yes, Jesus is, but there are other sects of Christianity which has a different view of
Jesus as well, especially in early Christianity. But Muhammad, peace be upon him, is considered a Prophet like the
Biblical Prophets before him, like Abraham and Moses and others. He is not considered as a God. He is not considered
as the Son of God. He is not considered to possession any special divine qualities at all. He was a human being, and that's
how Muslims believe in him.
>>H: We've discussed the little difference between Jesus and Muhammad. Can we discuss the difference between the
origins of the Quran and the origins of the Bible?
>>Mufti: Sure. Um, there are some important differences. The Bible, you see, when we talk about the Bible, we're
talking about primarily Old Testament. We are talking about New Testament. To the Christians there is an Old
Testament, but to the Jews there is no old testament, there is only the Torah, and there is the Books of the Kings and the
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other Books of the Prophets. That's what constitutes what the Christian world would call the Old Testament. And then
we have the New Testament, which again there is a difference between Catholic and the Protestant Bible, there are a
different number of books in there. But takien all those books together constitutes the Bible. Quran, on other hand, is
more uniform text. The way it was revealed was different. Prophet Gabriel -- I am sorry -- Angel Gabriel is the one who is
believed to have brought revelation from God to Prophet Muhammad; who could neither read or write, but he would
recite the message which he received from God through the Angel Gabriel to his companions, and they memorized it
and Arabs have this tradition of memorization, and we actually have inherited, this is our legacy of memorization, till
today when the Quran in its entirety, in it's original language in Arabic is memorized. An it was written down by scribes
in his lifetime as well. So it was not a text which was canonized, unlike the Bible, after his death. And when he passed
away, his political -- the political leadership of Muslims like Abu Bakr and Omar and Othman, they are the ones who
collected and codified the text into one book which was left in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad. This is very briefly
the origin of the Quran. In length it is similar to the Old Testament, the language differs it's considered to be literary
medical. The Bible generally is not considered literary medical because it didn't exist in original languages. The Quran
does. It is spoken, and the Quran is meant to be recited and enjoyed in the Arabic language. The word means recitation.
So while it is a book, and it is a book which has been translated, the true power and true majesty of the Quran lies in it's
-- as spoken word as recital.
>>H: As I previously mentioned, the Quran, I think most Christians -- most Americans, are familiar with the book. Not
necessarily with the reading of the book. But they may also -- the year 622 might be familiar with them. Two cities in
Arabia, for instance, are very familiar. But can you explain to me The Hajj and difference between Medina and -- how's
that all work? What ->>Mufti: Okay, well there are -- in Lawrence of Arabia there are two cities. There is Mecca and there is Medina. Mecca
is the city where Prophet Muhammad was born some 1400 plus years ago. Very close to where the Black Cube sits
today. This is considered to be the holiest place in Islam.
>>H: The Black ->>Mufti: The Black Cube, the Kaaba.
>>H: Okay.
>>Mufti: I'm referring to is as The Cube is case somebody doesn't know that it's known as the Kaaba. He was born over
there. And when his initial message was very simple. It was a message of worshiping one god and equality between
people -- and justice and fairness between people. It was a social message. It was a message which was addressed to the
slaves as well as the women. And so a message of social equality and economic quality between different classes. It
didn't sit very well with the the power structure at that time. Including the message to give up their idols and to worship
the one God, the God of Abraham.
>>H: Forgive me, I am sorry for interrupting, but giving up idols sounds oh, so familiar!
>>Mufti: [laughing] Yes! He was persecuted in the City of Mecca. And he was forced to leave that city with his close
companion Abu Bakr, and he migrated. He fleed to Medina. Which at that time was an agricultural society. Where as
Mecca used to be a merchant center known more for it's business and trade. The people of Medina gave him sanctuary,
they gave him protection. And it is while here he established the Mosque. And it is in this Mosque, and site of this
Mosque is where he was buried. And we still have his grave which is marked over there under the Green Tomb. When
he came and settled in Medina, the Pagan Arabs who lived in Mecca, The Quraysh, his own tribe, they are not very
happy. So within the first few years they attacked Medina. And they were repelled. They were not able to destroy
Medina. They came back the next year, and they came back after a another few years, and eventually by this time, the
Muslims in Medina they had became quite strong and even though they were able to repelled these military attacks
which were forced on them; they were all defensive wars. And in the end, they were able to sign a truce. The Prophet
was always a man who went on side of peace wherever he could. Peace was preferable over war. And that's what he
chose. He chose to sign a peace treaty in Hudaybiyyah with the Pagans of Quraish. And this is when the greatest
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expansion of Islam took place. During the times of peace when he was able to propagate and show the peaceful true
teachings of this faith to other people, and this message is an extension of the message of earlier prophets. Message
being really simple; worship the one true God, creator of Heaven and Earth, serve him in your life. Follow, believe and
follow the Prophets and serve humanity. This was the essence of his message.
>>H: UM -- There is a pilgrimage that takes place.
>>Mufti: Yes.
>>H: Can you explain the pilgrimage? And while we are at it. There are five pillars of practice in Islamic faith.
>>Mufti: yes.
>>H: That's one of them, the pilgrimage.
>>Mufti: Yes. So the Islamic belief, there are six articles, there is belief in God, God of compassion, God of mercy, and
also God of judgement. Who sends down his revelations through the angels. That's the second article of faith. The third
being, Prophets. There are certain individuals God chooses to deliver his message to people. This is God's way of
communicating his message instead of talking to individual people, he gives his message through the Prophets of that's
the third article of faith. Fourth is that some Prophets were given scriptures of heavenly books, like the Torah which was
given to Moses, or the Gospel which was given to Jesus, or the Quorn which was given the the Prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon them all. The fifth article of faith is there is a last day. After this life ends, there is another life to come.
And our behavior in this life will determine where we go after death and how we will be judged after death. And the last
is destiny, which is a source of great comfort to a believer to a person who believes that God is in charge and everything
is happening according to his plan. These are the articles of belief. Things we believe in. There are five articles of Islamic
practice, the first is testimony, to testify that only God is the one who deserves worship, God should be the greatest
influence in my life. And I should model my life and my live in belief, and in harmony with the teachings of the Prophets
of God. The second is prayer, to connect with God, to actually talk and communicate to God and beseech God for ones
needs. Third is fasting, which done in the month of Ramadan, a month of sharing, a month of giving, and a month of
intense spiritual devotion. The fourth is charity. It is not just worship, but it is also about social equality, and taking care
of those whom may have less then us. That's the fourth pillar of Islamic practice. And the fifth is the Hajj of the
Pilgrimage. Malcom X who -- who -- who is part of civil rights movement along with MLK, he was -- his life was
transformed when he went to The Hajj Pilgrimage in the 60s. And he wrote about his experiences in his auto biography
with Alex Haley, the book is called "The Autobiography of Malcom X." And in it he talks about the racial sense of equality
which he saw, where the darkest of the dark, and the whitest of white, prayed and ate their food together shared their
meals together, something which in separated America of that time he had never experienced. And that's what greatly
moved him. So it is a very intense spiritual experience, there are some two to three million people every year who
perform it. And the idea while there is to remove those racial barriers, those economic barriers; everybody is dressed in
the same clothes, and to bring mankind at equal an footing in front of their creator. So all these false gods which we
have created their removed. And people can feel the sense of equality in front of their creator.
>>H: You mentioned autobiography of Malcom X. Are there some books that you might recommend for those of us who
are not -- in addition to the Quran, of course.
>>Mufti: Here is a small book which I brought. It's the "Sayings of Muhammad" compiled by Sir Abdullah Al-Suhrawardy
and forwarded by Gandhi. This was a book of which Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer and novelist had in his
pocket when he walked out into the wilderness and never came back. So this was a book which he was reading and it
was recommended to him by Gandhi. Gandhi writes in the forward of this book, it contains the sayings of Prophet
Muhammad on different chapters. I have read Sir Abdullah Al-Suhrawardy's collections of the Sayings of the Prophet
with much interest and profit. They are among the treasures of mankind, not merely Muslims. So I think this is a good
book to read. Another book which I think is quite useful and there are so many out there, it's called "Islam, the
Alternative" by Murad Hofmann. Murad Hofmann was a German diplomat. He is still alive. He served in the NATO. He
has a Ph.D. in law from Munich University, and he has also served as ambassador on behalf of Germany in many
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different countries. And he became a Muslim some, some years ago. So I was quite enthralled by what made him
change his mind. So this is a book -- he has written several books. I have almost all of them. This is one of the books
which he has written. I would suggest this book as well. "Islam Alternative"
>>H: "Islam Alternative".
Murad Hofmann. [spells name]
>>Mufti: Yes.
>>H: You mentioned peace quite often in the conversation. It must be disheartening to see what is happening in the
Middle East with a peaceful religion like Islam and ISIS taking the name and doing the atrocities that they are
performing. How does that sit with you? Inside how does it make you feel?
>>Mufti: Maybe frustrated that, you know, a religion of peace and a religion of love and compassion is associated with
such unbelievable brutality and savagery. That it requires an explanation just to say that's not what Islam is. And you
know even when famous people like Mohammed Ali, Mike Tyson, Dr. Oz, you know, other well-known people, when
they have also spoken and said that these people and their atrocities do not represent Islam, they have nothing to do
with Islam. One parallel I can give of what these people are doing, or how maybe viewers or listeners can think of it, is
just like somebody sitting outside of America cannot judge America based on people who break the law and are
imprisoned and found guilty. For example, rapists, serial killers, child molesters, we cannot say America is a country of
child molesters or America is country of rapists. It's an unfair statement based on -- the crimes which are committed in
the country. It is unfair to judge religion by the people who break and violate its teachings instead of uphold them.
>>H: So don't judge religion by those who break its tenants?
>>Mufti: Absolutely.
>>H: Well, we certainly have a lot of information that you have provided us so we better understand the religion of Islam
and the situation that exists in the Middle East. Imam Kami Mufti, thank you so much for joining us on "At Issue."
>>Mufti: Thank you
>>H: I appreciate your insight.
>>Mufti: Thank you very much for inviting me and having me over. I appreciate it.
>>H: And we will be back next week with another edition of "At Issue." This time we will be talking with the project
manager of the new CAT Global Headquarters. Those Global Headquarters have been announced, and we are going to
talk for a full half hour about the details of the new Caterpillar Global Headquarters next time on "At Issue." Please join
us then.
[closing music]
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