Cobb's Muslims Work Against ISIS, Prejudice

COBB COUNTY, GA -- Cobb County Muslims are fighting a two-front war.

On one hand, the community is battling against propaganda coming from the Islamic State, which targets at-risk youth and promises glory in jihad. On the other, many Muslims feel less-than-welcome in their own neighborhoods, where some feel that being a Muslim is the same as being a terrorist.

Masjid al Furqan, a house of worship in west Cobb, held a seminar on Friday which gave a local imam a pulpit from which to teach local Muslims how to talk to their children about the Islamic State and dispel any notions they may have about the terrorist group or the ideals it espouses, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Arshad Anwar, an imam from Roswell, told the parents and children in the audience that the Islamic State recruiting tactics were a slightly more sophisticated sales pitch than one used by a used car salesman, the AJC says. Anwar says the Islamic State recruits new members the same way a gang does, offering a “home” and “community” to at-risk youth who may not have much of a support network.

Anwar directly tackled verses of the Qu’ran which seem to exhort the Muslim community to endless jihad against all non-believers, according to the AJC. The imam said these verses were written during times of conflict during Islam’s formative period, when the Prophet Muhammad and his followers were under attack from pagans.

The imam then spoke on the difficulties many Muslims face in their American communities, the AJC says, where they are judged as terrorists and discriminated against simply because they look like the scary men beheading people on television.

Anwar said that Muslims can tell anyone who asks them if they’re a terrorist that the Islamic State and other extremist groups are far more deadly to other Muslims than they are to Westerners. In the classroom, Anwar says that parents should fight for their children’s rights to be Muslim, and engage in dialogue with school administrators and district leaders to ensure that everyone is treated fairly.

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Credit: Masjid al Furqan/Facebook