LETHBRIDGE- Zeeshan Ahmed, the newest spiritual leader at the Lethbridge Islamic Centre, says the recent terror attacks in Paris have been hard on the city’s Muslim community.
“It hurts, because you see, people that don’t have knowledge within our own Muslim community, because of these actions, they get turned away from the religion. Islam, the name itself, means ‘peace’; that’s the name of our faith, that is the name of our religion.”
There about 2,000 Muslims in Lethbridge. In the days since Friday’s attacks, Ahmed says support from the Lethbridge community hasn’t wavered.
“Some of them reached out to us; they called and said ‘we want to come in just to see how you are doing’ and ‘how, you know, you guys are coping.'”
Ahmed says the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful but are sometimes lumped in with the terrorists committing acts of violence under “a false pretense of religion.”
“I’ve studied the faith inside out and these acts and these actions, these horrific actions that these people are doing back in the east and all around the world, they have nothing to do with our religion. I’ve never heard, ever in my life, of a terrorist attack being done by an educated scholar from Islam. It’s always individuals who say that they are, but if you look at their backgrounds and what not, their lifestyle, their life is totally un-Islamic.”
With the refugee crisis in Syria, Ahmed hopes Canada will welcome refugees of all religious backgrounds, but says it is also important to protect our country.
“The Canadian government should be diligent in the screening process and I’m pretty sure they have the resources to be able to do a screen, whatever their procedures are, and to make sure that the ones who need the help are being helped and looked after and the ones that have other motives or other reasons to be in this country are screened and dealt with appropriately.”
For now, Ahmed prays for an end to the violence and believes its important for humankind to stand together.
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