Islamic center leader speaks in area
With the growing threat of a U.S. war with Iraq on the minds of many local residents, a local Islamic leader says that understanding other religions is imperative for peace. Following that belief, Farooq Hussaini, director of interfaith relations at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, addressed an audience at Waynesburg College on Thursday as part of a lecture series meant to help people better understand the prevailing religion in the Middle East: Islam.
Hussaini, who was born a Muslim in India, said he had an early understanding of other religions, having been exposed to Jews, Christians and Buddhists. He came to the United States in 1985 after living in Saudi Arabia for five years, and he has been lecturing about Islam for more than 10 years.
“My father always told me that the best way to make this world a better place is to know each other,” Hussaini said. “The stranger you are, the stranger you become. The closer you come to each other, the family you become.”
Hussaini, who works at the Carnegie Museum, said that since Sept. 11, 2001, the demand for understanding is high.
“Now people want to know. They demand to know, ‘Who are you?'” he said.
He said that the community’s reactions have been mixed, ranging from angry to inquisitive, but overall he said that since the terrorist attacks, most people been very supportive. Hussaini noted that Christians and Jews even came to the mosque in Pittsburgh and said, “We will guard the mosque.”
According to Hussaini, the basic principles of Islam do not include the prevailing understanding of terms like “jihad,” or “holy war,” and the actions of terrorists cannot be justified in the Islamic faith.
“What really happens is that they try to justify their actions politically and emotionally, but can they justify their actions by God? It is just emotional justification,” he said.
While Hussaini said that he supports the Bush administration’s hard stance against Iraq, he said he is fearful of going to war without a coalition.
“I don’t like Saddam Hussein. He does not value the life of others,” he said.
“But I don’t want us to go all alone over there. It is not that we cannot fight. We can easily win. I’m an American. I know we can walk right through Iraq, but how will the world look at us if we do it,” he said.
The road to peace Hussaini told the audience, is a better understanding of people, because without it, people cannot accept one another as human beings and agree to disagree in some cases.
“We have to learn about each other, and we have to create a dialogue,” he said. “That only comes when you desire to do good. I don’t have to worry about judging you, and you don’t have to worry about judging me. We leave the judging to God,”
The Rev. Thomas Ribar, Waynesburg College chaplain, agrees: “We realize that it is only coming to a firm understanding of our distinctives that we are then able to then work out where we have common ground with those who are different,” he said.
Jennifer Highberger, a junior at Waynesburg College, said the lecture changed her views in some cases and helped her to understand Islam more thoroughly.
“The things we have heard in the news recently about things like jihad, you find certain terms culturally here have different meanings than they did originally, and learning what they really do mean is so different,” Highberger said. “A lot of opinions changed here.”
Hussaini’s speech was the first in a three-part lecture series entitled “Understanding Islam,” co-sponsored by the college chaplain’s office and the Women’s Association. The college will hold the next two lectures in the coming months.
“I wanted to do this program because people in Greene County and probably in Fayette County don’t have the opportunity to interact with Muslims or many people of other faiths besides Muslims,” said Nancy Ferrari, advisor for the Women’s Association.
“I think it is important to get to know one another, because we all live on this earth. It is very important to have the opportunity to have your questions answered.”