opinion

For Muslims, progress against hate can be elusive

For Muslims, it is often one step forward followed by several steps backward in the fight against Islamophobia.

On the morning of the attack on Paris' Charlie Hebdo, the Michigan Muslim Community Council and the Islamic Relief USA announced a major gift to the City of Detroit, providing $100,000 to help pay water bills of residents in need.

Taking attention away from everyday acts of helping neighbors, that usually receives little limelight, the Muslim community instead faces the task of responding to Islamophobia — generated in the aftermath of terrorist acts making national and international news.

The fact is, Muslims die and suffer at the hands of perverted individuals who claim to be "defending Islam", too, whether that be in France, Nigeria, Syria or Pakistan.

In the Paris massacre, a brave French Muslim patrolman, Ahmed Merabet, gave his life attempting to save the victims murdered by men wanting to "avenge the Prophet." Ahmed, ironically, happens to be one of the names of Prophet Muhammad.

A Muslim employee, Lassana Bathily, risked his life to save Jewish lives in a kosher grocery store when they came under attack in Paris.

Parisians symbolically raised pens while demonstrating against the carnage, in support of the journalists who died in the attack and of freedom of speech. Muslims who joined in those demonstrations may have also remembered a saying of Prophet Muhammad, "The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr." The fact is, the prophet Muhammad's life is full of examples in which his response to insults and abuse, was kindness, forgiveness and mercy.

Islamic civilization cherishes scholarship as a gift from the creator. The very first words revealed in the Quran to prophet Muhammad are, "Read in the name of thy Lord. … Thy Lord is most bountiful, who has taught the use of the pen" (96:1-4).

It should be recognized that extremists who engage in actions in the name of religion are simply ignorant, twisting scant knowledge of the faith they profess to pursue a political agenda, or as a desperate response to social conditions.

Unless there is a solution to the political mess in the Middle East, unfortunately the violence may continue. In the case of the latest occurrence in France, the act was perpetrated by men returning from fighting in Syria and Yemen.

Lone wolves with criminal histories, living disaffected lives in the West with little to lose, as is the case with these perpetrators, will continue to be lured by violent groups operating in war zones.

Muslims, globally, are tired of the perpetual violence and want to see the cycle of war, terrorism and consequent Islamophobia end.

As Muslims around the world continue to denounce all acts of terror and loss of innocent lives, Muslims here in metro Detroit will continue to fight Islamophobia while working to improve our community and to uphold our shared ideals as Americans.

Victor Ghalib Begg is senior adviser to the Michigan Muslim Community Council.