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PESHAWAR, Aug 13: An American scholar has claimed that the Muslim world doesn’t exist as the modern European world expresses its existence through the collective socio-political and economic might and a shared-culture reflecting its spiritual unity.
Speaking at the Peshawar Press Club’s Guest Hour programme on Monday, Dr Mohammad Shafique, a scholar at the Rochester Islamic Centre New York, said there were a host of Muslim countries which lacked political and economic unity and even had different mode of governments, but they could not be called as Muslim world.
He said this while speaking on Islam & America after Sept 11. The Muslim community in America had undergone a double pain after the Sept 11 tragedy, the one as American citizen and the other as Muslim, because the terrorists involved in the incidents were no other than Muslim, he added.
The Muslim community fully identified itself with the American nation and termed it their own tragedy and loss and endorsed the policies of the US administration, he explained.” We are Americans we support all decisions of the government”, he added.
He said it was the duty of American Muslims to support American people and the government, because they were citizens of America. The Muslim elders initiated inter-faith dialogue and got united Jews, Christians and Muslim on one platform against terrorism, he added.
Dr Shafique said the US government had arrested some Muslims, but those had a criminal record. This all happened soon after the Sept 11 incident, but later on things became normal, he added.
HE SAID: “The image of Islam, painted as dark by some of the African American leaders, is a historical problem in America that needs to be repainted as religion of humanity, justice and peace. We must tell them Islam does not preaches violence”.
The American foreign policy, he said, towards Muslim countries was based on many misunderstandings, which was also created by the Muslim countries. But, this misunderstandings could be removed only through democratic approach towards it, he added.
He said it was a democratic process rather than empty threats which did a role in getting changed perception of decision-makers at the state forums. The anti-US slogans had made reversed effects on Muslim societies, he added.
He complained that Muslim took everything in sentimental terms which was equally wrong for themselves. “They don’t know how to present their just problem. They had been in a habit of creating fuss and spoiling their future”, he added.
Islam, he said, had been a religion of peace and piety, but it was being promoted wrongly.
