peace

There is an urgent need for thoughtful influential Muslim leaders, like you, to raise a collective voice against this self-destructive violence that threatens to create a seemingly unbridgeable fault line in the Muslim world.

With wars around the world, occupations, genocides and refugees, the state of peace in the world looks very bleak. Here are some practical things Muslim communities, particularly Masjids can do, to promote peace and security in the coming days.

America has always been able to liberate itself from tyranny and fear. This is the beauty of this nation and its people. American can and will do it again, but it will take a willingness on the part of all citizens, Muslim and non-Muslim, to fight the fear mongering.

Lots of us watch in shock, horror and anger at the ongoing attacks on Gaza and the Palestinian territories. The killing of any civilian, Palestinian or Israeli, is wrong. It is condemned and must be stopped immediately. This is something made clear in Islam as well as international law

For the Prophet, peace was not a strategy he employed, it was the goal of his peace movement. He preached peace and justice leading to the establishment of a peace sanctuary in the city of Madinah where even animals cannot be harmed, hunting unless for food was forbidden and trees cannot be cut.

I could not believe my eyes and ears as I watched vice-president Dick Cheney saying "so?" There was a look on his face which said a lot. He was responding to an ABC News reporter who told him, "two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting." Cheney's response came before the question even finished: "So?"

"O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear God. For God is well-acquainted with all that ye do." (Quran 5:8)