By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Education over paranoia, local Muslims preach after NZ attacks

Mar 16, 2019 | 12:19 PM

“Please do not fear Muslims.”

Those are the pleading words from Jawed Iqbal, spokesperson for the Red Deer Islamic Centre, and board member with the Central Alberta Islamic Cultural Association.

“I can’t speak for every single person, but we don’t want to be disconnected from our neighbours and friends in Red Deer and Central Alberta.”

Iqbal spoke to rdnewsNOW following a pair of terrorist attacks in New Zealand which saw 50 people gunned down inside mosques, plus at least 20 more injured.

He says the events don’t come as a shock to many in the local Muslim community – which numbers more than 2000 across central Alberta — especially after the 2017 shooting in Québec City which killed six.  

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“Not with the rising tide of anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim sentiment especially, which has been growing for the last three decades, especially after 9/11 and with the misinformation and propaganda by a lot of ‘prominent people’ in social media and mainstream media,” says Iqbal

“It was just a matter of when the next one was going to happen, and unfortunately it happened in this gruesome manner.”

The biggest mistruth people believe, he says, is that Islam is incompatible with the rest of the world, and that they want to take over and implement so-called Sharia Law.

“That we want to ‘kill’ or ‘subjugate’ non-Muslims — these are words exactly how I see them on social media on a very consistent basis,” Iqbal says. “People think Muslims are inherently evil, and even the so-called moderate ones believe we support an Islamic theocracy like in Iran where people are oppressed.”

Iqbal says in Red Deer, where the Islamic Centre welcomes 350-500 regular worshippers, there is no denying a steady rise in fear that has been accentuated since the attacks on Friday.

“They are afraid to come to the mosque, and to engage with the wider public for the safety of their own family,” he admits. “On the other hand, most of us are going to carry on as normal because we can’t live our lives looking over our shoulders. We’ll continue to allow people to come visit us without closing our doors because that would defeat the purpose of having an open discourse and trying to educate about Islam.”

On Saturday, a candlelight vigil was held at Red Deer City Hall to remember the victims in the New Zealand attacks.

Iqbal applauds the ‘good people’ of Red Deer who organized it, and admits the Muslim community needs to do better in its efforts to educate the broader population about Islam. However, there can’t be too much preaching to the choir, he says.

“The people who are open-minded will remain that way. Our concern is for the people who see this in the media and then justify it. We want to say ‘Okay, why do you feel this way, and why don’t you come sit down with us?’ If you really believe what you believe about Islam, then allow yourself to be challenged a little bit and let us present facts to you,” he states.

“Let’s see if we can have a conversation and hopefully change your mind. If not, at least you’ll get to meet Muslims in real life. A lot of people have never really interacted with a person of the Islamic faith. All they know is what they’ve read on the internet.”