Again and again, listeners at a regional Muslim conference Saturday heard the message: Don’t stay in your own circles, work with others in making better communities.
Helping others is more than practical, speakers said at the conference of the Islamic Society of North America. They said it’s a religious duty.
“Serving people is an integral part of our religion,” college professor Zaid Shakir told 300 listeners at the conference at the Broward County Convention Center. “Allah will continue to help his servant as long as the servant helps his brother.”
The three-day conference, which started Friday, was the first in South Florida for the major Muslim organization. Topics included family relationships, domestic abuse, higher education, the Internet and youth development.
Leaders cited several goals for the conference: networking, training for community work and building Muslim identity.
“We want to give people a dose of hope that their work is worthwhile, and to make them feel good about being Muslim in America,” said general secretary Safaa Zarzour of Plainfield, Ind.
Conference speakers drew on classical Islamic sources — including the Quran and the Hadith, the recorded words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad — to support their case for civic involvement.
“We all know people who have lost their homes, their jobs, their husbands, their fathers,” said Shakir, a professor of Islamic law, history and spirituality at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, Calif. “We have to look at creative ways to serve. Don’t wait for someone else.”
At a panel on interfaith relations, local leaders offered examples of the good that can result from working with those of other religions. Leaders of JAM & All, a South Florida interfaith group formed after 9-11, told of their new “Peaceful Pairings” program, joining mosques with nearby churches and synagogues for religious dialogues. JAM also has met success in home discussions with women of various faiths.
“It has given me more insight to detect stereotypes,” said Laura Sue Wilansky, a board member of JAM. “Now I can speak out and correct misinformation.”
The president of the Islamic Society, Mohamed Magid of northern Virginia, said that interfaith work has spread to many countries, including Qatar and Malaysia. In September, he added, the group took part in an interfaith conference that condemned bigotry.
“It has become a must for people to talk to one another,” he said. “Instead of a clash of civilizations, people are talking about a dialogue of civilizations.”
Magid decried the New Year’s Day bombing of a church in Egypt and fighting between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. He applauded the news that some Egyptian Muslims offered to help shield churches there from further attacks.
The religious violence “merely makes me more committed to dialogue,” he said.
For some listeners, the talks hit the mark.
“This is my first [Islamic Society] conference, and it’s really inspired me,” said Afra Ullah, a third-year medical student at the University of Miami. “Especially about community service, that it’s such an important part of our faith.”
Not everyone was convinced. A group called Americans Against Hate drew about 30 people to a sidewalk rally, denouncing the Islamic association as a “radical Muslim group.”
AAH chairman Joe Kaufman accused the Islamic group of supporting organizations that raise funds for terrorists. The group is not on the State Department‘s watch list.
“It’s a smart thing, to try to make yourself look like a nice, kind organization,” Kaufman said. “But they’ve never condemned any of the things they’ve been involved in.’
In response, Magid said the Islamic Society has always condemned suicide bombings and other terrorist acts and said he didn’t want to “waste energy” responding to such groups.
Conference chairman Asad Ba-Yunus of Miramar said he hopes attendance would reach 1,000, although Saturday’s events drew a few hundred each.
James D. Davis can be reached at JDavis@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4730.
