Confronting Extreme Fanaticism in Islam

"Islam literally means peace and promotes peace. Jihad is misrepresented. It means to fight against your inner self -- your evil inclinations and the striving to become a better person. In the wake of recent events [in Canada with the terrorist murder of two Canadian soldiers] we felt we needed to go out and denounce and reject the nefarious acts of ISIS and all terrorist groups. We must teach our youth why ISIS runs counter to the teachings of Islam. ISIS does not represent Islam."
"Many Muslims, especially the youth, don't know their religion, the scriptures or life of the Prophet. So it's important they read and understand. They will find out immediately that ISIS runs counter to Islam."
Imam Imtiaz Ahmed, Muslim community leader of Stop the CrISIS, Ottawa

Imtiaz Ahmed is the Imam at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosque, which recently opened in a former public school to serve the growing Muslim population in Cumberland.  David Kawai / Ottawa Citizen

The movement to oppose, reject and inform young Muslims' attraction to the inspiring exploits on behalf of Islam of the Sunni Muslim jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham is one initiated by the Ahmidiyya Muslims in Canada. This initiative is hardly surprising. The Ahmidiyya Muslims, an offshoot of mainstream Islamic sects such as Sunnis and Shiites, espouses an entirely different set of values and principles motivating their brand of Islam.

They speak loudly and often of those values. In the Ahmiddiyya version of Islamic values, peace and goodwill stand foremost and forefront. They completely condemn violence and incitement to violence, commit themselves to good citizenship, place great value on their position within Canada and prize the freedoms and entitlements to be gained therein, prepared to render unto Canada and its values their complete devotion and loyalties.

These are people of great integrity and clarity of vision who represent a boon to Canada, as do many other people from various ethnic, heritage and religious origins. They reject with abhorrence the agenda of the self-anointed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Iraq and Syria: "This 'caliph' of ISIS has a barbaric agenda. He says he wants to take over the world and establish Sharia law and all that. It's absurd. Look at the life of the Prophet -- Muslims, Jews and Pagan Arabs lived in harmony in Medina. And everyone was judged by their own laws", stated Imam Imtiaz.

Um, well, not quite in actual fact, did Muslims, Jews and Pagan Arabs live in sweet harmony in Medina. That Jews lived in Medina pre-Islam is indisputable, in fact there were many Hebrew tribes living there; the area represented a stronghold for them. Until Prophet Mohammed came along informing them that Judaism was now passe with the advent of Islam, which completed what Judaism began. The Hebrews, however, resisted Mohammed's invitation to convert.

And the result was the enraged proselytizer bade his troops to slaughter them. Conquest for Islam became slaughter for Islam. And ISIS is simply following Prophet Mohammed's example, for Muslims are exhorted to do their utmost to convince non-Muslims that their future lies with Islam, and jihad permits them when those they attempt to convert resist, to send them directly to their Maker. ISIS is busy sending Christians, Jews and meek Muslims to the martyrdom their stubbornness deserves.

It's not possible, however, to fault Imam Imtiaz for attempting to justify Islam, his version of its sacredness to him and his community. He is extending himself to make an effort to persuade those among other Muslim sect communities that impressionable young people should be armed with knowledge of Islam that his sect treasures, to prevent them from succumbing to the strange allure that violent jihad adhering to the purity of the original Islam reflects.

His interlocutor in an interview published in a local newspaper asked: There are different Muslim groups in Ottawa and they don't all speak to one another. What interaction have you had with other groups? His response was an acknowledgement: They don't talk to us. We aren't all om the same page but I won't be judgemental.

Another question: So it's inter-community rivalry? Is that the right term? And the Imam's response: You could say that.

You could also say that the Ahmadiyya Muslims are not considered by mainstream Muslims to be truly Muslim. They are thought of as heretics, traitors to the religion. The sect whose motto is "Love for All, Hatred for None", is an oppressed minority sect within Islam. Who, among the Muslims adhering to the majority sects, will listen to his urgings of peace other than his own community who are in any event geared to the message?