Letter to The Dispatch
January 13, 2015
Dr. Mouhamed N. Tarazi
The Prophet Muhammad was scoffed at and ridiculed many times. He was called a liar, a magician and a lunatic, among other things by people openly trying to dissuade people from his message. He never responded to these people with violence and he stopped some among his followers who wanted to defend him using violence. Poets mocked him and he asked some other poets to respond in kind. He insisted on a code of conduct that had three points of consideration.
• You are allowed to defend yourself when others attack you, but not to exceed the level of force brought against you. (i.e., If someone defames you with words you can respond in words, not with guns.)
• Your defense should not allow you to respond in a way that will debase you and corrupt your soul (i.e., Don’t torture others even if their group has tortured yours, because this behavior is immoral.)
• If you have the power to be forgiving, God loves those who forgive.
The tactics of al-Qaida and Islamic State, like those of the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and others, are generally robe themselves in religious rhetoric to rationalize their behavior, while they betray the basic tenets of their faith.
As a leader in the local Muslim community, I have been in meetings between the FBI, Homeland Security and other government officials and our local Muslim organizations. We look to continue protecting our community from those who would try to subvert our members.
