PITTSBURGH — Before and after the weekly prayer service held recently at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, volunteers sat at booths in the downstairs social hall, asking people to sign up to lead children’s activities, volunteer for a food pantry, participate in adult education or take part in a Quranic recitation.
The recruitment effort had been planned before the Paris terrorist massacres earlier in January, carried out by militants claiming to act in the name of Islam.
But the news was very much on the minds of Muslims at the booths, and others at the mosque. And they saw a connection.
They said getting children, teens and young adults more involved in the mosque will help them learn true Islam and counter what they say are murderous distortions purveyed by the terrorists in France — as well as by Boko Haram in Nigeria, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and various al-Qaida groups carrying out their own reigns of terror.
“Everything that’s going on around the world is sad,” said Esra Daghestani, who was helping to staff a booth recruiting volunteers for children’s activities. “I feel like you can’t really do anything about it. The best thing you can do is try to help with the generation that’s coming now.
“It’s important to tell the youth that (Islamic State) and al-Qaida and all these aren’t really related to Islam,” said Daghestani, 29, who recently graduated from Duquesne University with a nursing degree. “They’re just people who use the name of Islam to get attention.”
Sheikh Atef Mahgoub, imam of the Oakland mosque, reiterated the theme at his sermon during Friday prayers, which drew at least 500 mostly male participants.
The killers in France “were not defending the honor of Islam,” he said, despite their claim of vindicating the Islamic prophet Muhammad after he was depicted in satirical cartoons printed by the newspaper Charlie Hebdo. “They did exactly the opposite. They have done nothing but defame the image of our prophet. Muslims all over the world are suffering because of this. Innocent people were killed, including a policeman who was a Muslim.”
Mahgoub said he’s concerned about efforts by groups like Islamic State to incite people to attack Western targets.
A 20-year-old Cincinnati man was arrested recently for allegedly plotting to attack the Capitol after professing support for the Islamic State.
Sheikh Mahguob said the best antidote is more education. “Go to scholars, go to people who have more knowledge,” he said.
He said, for example, that while the prophet Muhammad was a ruler who used force to maintain public order, he never responded to personal insults with violence.
“If you really want to defend the honor of Allah … how about embodying the prophetic guidance of the messenger of Allah?” Sheikh Mahgoub said. “Mercy, compassion, gentleness, forbearance.”
He said it’s no surprise that Muslims – most of whom do not portray Muhammad in art even in favorable terms to avoid the temptation of idolatry – were outraged by cartoons lampooning the prophet. “You definitely have the right to be offended, but you don’t have the right to respond physically,” he said afterward in conversation with attendees.
The Oakland mosque operates a food bank once a month for the needy, regardless of religion. It hosts interfaith events and other activities, and it coordinates with other mosques in the region.
“Oftentimes, Islam is on the defensive,” said Shahid Madni, executive director of the mosque. “We always tell people we’re not this, we’re not that.”
One aim for the community outreaches is so that “when something atrocious does happen, or things are portrayed in the media in a certain way, we don’t have to tell people what we’re not because people already know us.”
Several young Muslim adults at the mosque said they had never seen – or been sent – any of the videos or other online propaganda being produced, often with a high professional polish, by groups such as the Islamic State.
“I’ve never come across any video, email, message” where such views were discussed, said Wasi Mohamed, a University of Pittsburgh student who helps coordinate the food pantry program. Radicalization, he said, seems to be taking place in isolated groups or individuals.
Niaz Khan, 23, a recent University of Pittsburgh graduate planning to go to medical school, said to counteract such propaganda, young Muslims are working to draw their peers into mosque activities. The mosque has a study room for students, and many of the food-bank volunteers are students.
“Come to their local mosque and talk to leaders like Sheikh Atef,” he said. “Here they’ll get the appropriate Islamic knowledge to handle those kinds of things. In Islamic teachings there are so many examples of oppression being met with forgiveness. That’s the biggest message.”
Ahmad Ali, chairman of the mosque board, cautioned against painting Muslims who oppose the violence with the same brush as the extremists. “When we start fighting among ourselves, the bad guys win,” he said.
