Muslims urged to address religious misconceptions

GROZNY: The Islamic nation has endured the negative and dangerous impact of classification and exclusion, including takfir, said Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, secretary-general of the Muslim World League (MWL), during the Friday sermon at the Grand Mosque in Grozny, Chechnya.
In a first in the history of Russia, the Muslim World League (MWL) launched an international conference in Moscow on religious peace and coexistence.
The MWL conference promoted values of coexistence and peace, and emphasized the importance of “working in the common humanitarian and national circle.”
The sermon delivered by the MWL chief was attended by the president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, senior muftis and scholars, and a large gathering of worshipers.
Al-Issa highlighted that “there are young men who, in their diversion, got caught up in the illusion of their superficial knowledge, which is neither firm nor based on the teachings of scholars and, thus, had the nerve to declare other believers as non-believers (takfir), fueling great sedition.”
He added: “Every time one sedition dies, another rises, revealing its horns in the name of Islam. It believes no one is right except its prodigal followers. Not only that, but it took upon itself to fight all others after having declared all the people on Earth as non-believers.”
“And similar to those are the people who monopolized righteousness in place of discretion and claimed that people were denied access to the truth except through them.”
Al-Issa pointed out that monopolizing righteousness in the place of discretion is a systematic error and an intellectual danger that jeopardizes the harmony and unity of the (Islamic) nation.
“The problem is not limited to the narrative of this tragedy, which has damaged the reputation of the Islamic nation, but extends to every person who was privileged with extensive knowledge in Islamic sciences yet did not fulfill his duty in combating the wrongful ideology, especially in dismantling its structure,” he continued. “This ideology was not based on a military or political entity, as you know, but on misguided concepts that exploited the passion for religion in the youth that lack knowledge and wisdom.”
Al-Issa said: “We do not exaggerate when we say the amount of carelessness, sedition and misguidance is proportionate to the amount of the scholars’ failure, and part of this failure is a lack of addressing the misconceptions and fabricated concepts about Islam.”
Al-Issa stressed in his sermon that good behavior and common decency are instinctively well-received by all people, and that convenience and tolerance with positive open-mindedness are in the core of our Islamic concepts, highlighting that Shariah’s purpose is to establish mercy and tolerance, not difficulty and hardship.
“Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had delivered the message, fulfilled his mandate, advised the (Islamic) nation, strived for God as he ought to, invited (mankind) to the way of God with wisdom and fair preaching, did not assault anyone, and did not force anyone to follow his religion,” he said and quoted a verse from the Qur’an: “There is no compulsion in religion.” [2:256]
Russia was chosen as the site of the summit because it has been a model of religious and ethnic harmony in recent years, according to the MWL.

Muslims urged to address religious misconceptions