-—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—-
NEW YORK, NY (September 23, 2013) – The Islamic Circle of North America, ICNA, strongly condemns the ongoing terrorist attack on civilians in Nairobi, Kenya. The attack has left over 60 dead and many more injured. According to media reports the attackers are still holding some hostages and a fierce battle has ensued between the terrorists and the Kenyan army.
In Islam any killing of innocent people is totally forbidden and commands the believers in Chapter 5, verse 32:
“ … If anyone slew a person be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land, it would be as if he slew the whole humanity: and if anyone saved a life it would be as if he saved the life of the whole humanity.” (Al-Qur’an 5:32)
Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have said:
“I command you to do ten things: you must not kill a woman or a child, or an elderly person; do not cut down trees, or vandalize homes, or wound a sheep or camel except if you must eat it; do not drown a palm tree, or burn it, do not be treacherous; do not be cowardly; and you will pass by people who have devoted themselves to monastery life: leave them alone with their devotions.” (Tarikh At-Tabari, V.3, p.210)
Naeem Baig, President of ICNA said, “Nobody in their right mind can justify this brutal assault and massacre of innocent people. Men, women and children representing many faiths and ethnicities were just busy shopping at the mall and this terrorist act has just left them scarred for the rest of their lives.”
He said, “Any one who claims to be a Muslim and is committing such atrocities have completely wrong understanding of the faith of Islam. Islam is practiced by over 1.6 billion people in the world who are living peacefully and sharing this world with the rest of humanity.”
“We pray for the families who have lost their loved ones and for the speedy recovery of the injured.”
ICNA strongly condemns terrorist attack in Kenya mall
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BUt why not teach the right things to Muslim youth so they do not go join these groups (i heard 2 American youth were also in this attack) First we need to teach the youth about tolerance, instead of talking about who is oppressing the Muslims all the time… and talking about how we should never hesitate to start a fight for Islam. Or how our Prophet were fighting against his OWN family for Islam… First teach about TOLERANCE..
The Problem is the illiteracy in many Muslim countries, also in Many , if not most Masjids in the United States the Imam and leadership are immigrants from outside the U.S. I have hope that once the American Born Muslims grow and start to run and influence Masjids on a larger scale instead of foreign Imams then at least in the U.S. Muslim Community there will be a much smaller chance of extremism occurring .
While Islam does not support killing of the innocents, we need to be fair and also know the entire picture and condemn the wrong accordingly.
Kenya has invaded Somalia for years with the support of the West and killed many innocent civilians who has nothing to do with the war.
Before that Ethiopia also invaded Somalia with the support of the West and also killed many civilians.
Al-Shabab was formed (from my readings) to fight those kind of enemies to the Somalian people.
I don’t agree with killings of civilians, as Allah (sw) tells us in the Quran that killing one soul is like killing the entire humanity and saving one soul is like saving the entire humanity.
But to be fair, when people condemn this attack, they also need to condemn the years of killings from the Kenyan and Ethiopian armies to the Somalian civilians.
Something that is lacking here in us and many other parts of the world is to not bring such important talk in jumma khutba. For many young Muslims this is the only time you can have their attention. Instead we only emphasize on the same few topics about ibaadah. Agree that ibaadah is important but muaamelaat and specially telling all loud n clear about the impermissibility of such heinous acts in islaam. Our imaams need to bring this important topic as part of their jumma khutbas
Also condemn the attacks on the Christians of Pakistan. This topic needs to be addressed at the mosques and Islamic centers please!
I blame nations like Saudi Arabia Jordan and Pakistan who don’t do enough to take up a leadership position in the Muslim world. These countries will stand by when many atrocities happen and they won’t even voice an opinion on it. They need to be more vocal and active in trying to solve problems in Muslim countries
The pakistanies is to blame for all these misconceptions of islam look at how many sects of islam they have…. no joke and I am not a hater but some one above them is dictating how muslims should be.
I hope some imaams will someday realize that ibaadah is between u n ur lord Allah who is most forgiving and merciful. But if you harm another person I.e. huqooqulibaad that person will take ur good deeds n someone taking another person’s life may never b able to enter paradise.