Approaching the West — Page 95
A pproaching the West—95 lead to rebut modern day radical scholars such as Maul ā n ā Maud ū d ī , Ḥ asan Al-Banna, Sayyid Qu ṭ b and ‘Abd al-Sal ā m Faraj. All are invited to read Murder in the Name of All ā h (1953) by Ḥ a ḍ rat Mirz ā Ṭā hir A ḥ mad–the Fourth Spiritual Head of the International A ḥ madiyya Muslim Community. The Muslims living in the West need your support to educate Church members by circulating anti-radical literature produced by moderate and peace-loving Muslims, especially by the A ḥ madiyya leadership. To counter the radical propaganda such as “Isl ā m is under attack by the West,” “Isl ā m is in danger;” or “America is leading the West to conquer Muslim lands to destroy Isl ā m,” I suggest that we, the Muslims living in the West, have to show that Isl ā m is not in danger in the West; we are free to practice and promote our faith in America; many mosques are coming up, and the number of Muslims is rapidly growing. There is a need of an ongoing interfaith dialogue, and the commonalities between Isl ā m and Christianity need to be elaborated. The Qur’ ā n stresses that the People of the Book— the Muslims, Jews and Christians, should work together on the commonly held values. We must promote our shared values of love, mutual respect, tolerance and freedom of worship. We have to improve our understanding of our neighbors’ faith. For Christians, it will helpful to remove existing misunderstandings about Isl ā m, which is the second largest religion in the world after Christianity, and is the fastest growing religion, not only out there somewhere, but also in Europe and in our own country America. In the past, the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims have worked together in advancement of sciences, medicine,