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| Great White North |
| Muslim Activist Embraces Israel |
| 2013-06-27 |
| [Ynet] While in Israel for Presidential Conference, Raheel Raza, Canadian Moslem activist, says 'I speak for myself and a group of progressive, liberal, freedom-loving Moslems' Raheel Raza is a one of a kind activist: A Canadian-based Moslem woman who has gained global notoriety for putting forth the most positive face of Islam while taking her co-religionists to task for certain behaviors. Raza heads the Council of Moslems Facing Tomorrow. She was interviewed in Jerusalem by The Media Line's Felice Friedson while in Israel for the Presidential Conference. Raheel, how would you characterize the image of Islam to the Western world? What stereotypes are fair and which are hurtful? That all Moslems are alike is the first stereotype. Even in Canada, where I live, there are Moslems from sixty parts of the world. We are diverse like every other community. I don't speak for the entire Moslem world. I speak for myself and a group of progressive, liberal, freedom-loving Moslems who are part of my organization. Our thinking is perhaps different from the mainstream or the majority, but we are growing in number. In Canada, you have had significant involvement with the Jewish community. How did that come about and how do you work with the Jewish community? In another part of my life, I've always been an interfaith advocate. So for 25 years I have believed that dialogue and discussion with members of other faith communities brings about a lot of understanding. Since we came to Canada as a minority, I felt it was very important that people know about us and that we know about them. I have supported the right of Israel to exist as a country and that has befriended me with many people who are Jewish. Islam is "Judaism light." You have taken on issues, in particular the building of the mosque at Ground Zero in New York. You were among those opposed it. Why? From the beginning, I didn't feel comfortable about it and didn't think it was the right spot and the right move. There was something political about it. A mosque is supposed to be community and the community in Manhattan where this has happened at Ground Zero was not in favor of having a mosque there. It's not the mosque they were against -- just the idea of having it on that spot. If they wanted to build a mosque 10 miles away, that's OK. I went back to the time of the Prophet and I remember that there was a story about when a mosque was built and the community there did not want it. The Prophet said, "This is not right thing to do." Taking that example, I felt this, too, was not the right thing to do. It would have been a knife in the side of those people who had died there. It was not a compassionate act. It was financial and political and more importantly, where were the financials coming from? Later, it was discovered that there were some shady dealings and there were all sorts of murky things attached to the people who were going to build the mosque. I still don't think it's the right spot for a mosque. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #4 And if anyone but the western press ever listens to her, they'll find her acid-scarred, decapitated corpse in the street with two hooting jackanapes waving their bloodied hands in pride. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2013-06-27 17:06 |
| #3 progressive, liberal, freedom-loving Moslems' And here we have the world's greatest oxymoron. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2013-06-27 07:27 |
| #2 "Moslems facing tomorrow". Takiyah or self-deluding Moslems who haven't read their book? |
| Posted by: JFM 2013-06-27 07:10 |
| #1 History teaches us that "Muslim Embrace" always involves a knife. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-06-27 03:51 |