Originally Published in The Minnesota Daily.
As a Muslim in the West, the killing of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and attacks on U.S. embassies in Northern Africa in response to a YouTube video points to a glaring lack of leadership in the Muslim world. Rather than teaching Muslim youth the true principles of Islam, religious clerics are increasingly quiet and unresponsive to the needs of the time.
I am glad to be a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which has a global leader or Khalifa. He has reminded Muslims that the Prophet Muhammad taught: “Even in time of war, in fact, when the Muslims are actually engaged in fighting against the Christians, do not harbor feelings of hatred and enmity against a Christian who lives amongst you. If any Muslim shows such behavior towards a Christian, he will be considered an aggressor and a rebel … who has shamed the religion of Islam.”
Given the respect that is due to a Christian in a Muslim society during times as trying as that of war, a YouTube video against Islam does not warrant the type of uncivil response that is to be seen in parts of the Muslim world.
Abdul Naseer Malmi Kakkada — University student and teaching assistant
