American Muslims take on extremism

MPAC is pretty excited about this story in The New York Times. It’s about an effort by American Muslims to rebut extremism. It’s in video form, and it includes nine influential voices from different Muslim perspectives:

The video, which is about five and a half minutes long, opens with ominous music, like that used in some of the jihadists’ propaganda videos, and the words “Believers Beware: Injustice Cannot Defeat Injustice.”

“Many people are saying that there are so many issues of injustice taking place around the world,” Imam Mohamed Magid, leader of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, a mosque in Virginia, says in the video. “That is true, we acknowledge the injustice taking place around the world. But we believe there is a way to address the injustice — not by taking innocent people’s lives.”

Edina Lekovic, director of policy and programming for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the advocacy group that produced the video, said they intentionally chose scholars who represent a diversity of theological streams.

“We didn’t want to just target the liberals or the conservatives or ultraconservatives,” Ms. Lekovic said. “The point was to show that no matter where you stand on the religious spectrum, we all have a shared belief and shared outrage by the events that are taking place.”

She said the only criticism the council had received was that there were no female scholars in the video — a fact she attributed to scheduling problems. She said the council expected to make another video that would include women. The group is also preparing another version, without the music, for Muslims who consider music haram, or forbidden.

Read the rest here, watch “Injustice Cannot Defeat Injustice” above and comment below.