Imam, Scholar Seeks to Clarify Image of America for Muslims Abroad
-- While many of the world's 1,200 million Muslims are being subjected to a steady barrage of distortions about America by Afghanistan's Taliban regime, Imam Yahaya Hendi of Georgetown University says Muslims should know the American people for what they are: "very warm and loving" and respectful of all religions.
Hendi, a Palestine-born Islamic scholar who has been the chaplain of the roughly 350 Muslim students at Washington's Georgetown University for the past three years, said: "From my experience living here, the American people are open-minded and very eager to talk to people not of their own cultures. This is compared to what I know about other nations -- honestly."
The Muslim cleric said: "I feel not only proud to be an American -- to carry an American passport and travel worldwide -- I feel that I can be myself, a fully practicing Muslim, particularly in America. This means I wake up in the morning without fear and come home at the end of the day without fear."
While the Taliban regime was busy oppressing a large segment of its own society -- its women -- Hendi said, America's six million Muslims were free to practice their faith without fear and unhindered by government. "It is the freedom of religion and other protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution that is what I have been enjoying, and I don't want to lose that. I urge people overseas to not hate and carry arms against America."
Referring to his "interfaith" work following the attacks, Hendi said, "I have not in my life [before] seen communities from different religious backgrounds coming together sincerely, joining hands, and praying with one another, for the healing of the nation and for peace in the world.
"You feel it, you see it, it's there. I have never before seen thousands of Christian churches calling on Muslims to go in and teach about Islam like I've seen in the last month. I have not seen Muslims inviting Christians and Jews to go into the Islamic centers to teach about who they are, like I've just seen."