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Young local Muslims speak out against ISIS terrorism
9-09-2014
After reports that more than 130 Canadians have left the country to join terror groups, the call is out for people to fight Islamic extremism—and not just in large centres, here in Saskatchewan too.
“As a Muslim it is my job to make sure that nobody's abusing my religion. I don't want anyone doing something stupid, whether it's here in Canada or abroad, and giving it an Islamic label,” said Amir Aboguddah, President of the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) at the University of Regina.
Aboguddah says he is unaware of any extremist factions in Saskatchewan.
“Thankfully here we’re, I hope, a moderate and an observant community that observes the true Islamic beliefs and does not follow these radical, extremist ideologies,” said Aboguddah.
Canadians from Calgary have recently been outed for fighting overseas with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). A 2014 public report released by Public Safety Canada states that more than 130 Canadians have gone abroad to “participate in terrorism-related activities.”
“It is very upsetting, especially as a person from Syria—like, I’m from Syria and I’m not there fighting,” said Aboguddah. “Honestly, if I were to make up a name for ISIS it would be USIS and not ISIS because it is truly the Un-Islamic State.”
“I don’t see anything attractive about ISIS,” he said.
But others do. Aboguddah says young Muslims are sucked in by clever extremist messaging.
“They go to online forums. They see very attractive, slogans, ‘Re-empowering Islam,’ ‘Re-establishing United Muslim Nation’ –all of these nice and bright, shiny slogans that would really attract any young Muslim with lots of passion,” said Aboguddah.
Syed Soharwardy, founder of Muslims Against Terrorism, agrees. He says extremist groups target young, well-educated Muslims that haven’t had the proper teachings of Islam.
“The threat is across Canada, because we do not know who went to fight for ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” said Soharwardy. “Some of them have come back but we do not know where those people have gone, what part of Canada they are living in.”
That’s why Soharwardy is calling on people across Canada, including Saskatchewan to help root out extremists.
“Muslim leaders, community leaders, have an obligation to protect Canada to safeguard Canada to be loyal to Canada. If anybody potentially can cause harm to Canadian society, I think we should all stand up and identify that person and bring justice to that person," said Soharwardy.
Both Soharwardy and Aboguddah agree that imams can play a huge role in offsetting extremist messaging.
“These people are usually driven by emotions, more than anything else. Not by Islamic knowledge,” said Aboguddah.
JSlater@rawlco.com
Follow on Twitter: @genericjill
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