News Summary

Springfield, Ohio — The audience had many questions, mostly on Jesus, who Muslims consider a prophet, and on the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attack.

"There were Muslims in the World Trade Center, too," said Samina Ahmed, speaker at the Clark County Public Library presentation on Islam: "Thinking Globally, acting Locally."

At the 11th program in the library's Global Education Speakers Series Thursday, July 10, the Springfield-based Muslim said she is very saddened by terrorist activities.

She said one of the largest misconceptions people have about Islam is that the religious concept of "jihad" is terrorism. Jihad, she said, means "to struggle" or 'to strive."

Jihad usually is the personal, every-day struggle to do what is right and to resist temptation, she said. Excluding self defense, no violence is actually accepted in Islam, and radicals who call their terrorism "jihad" are bad Muslims, she added.

Ahmed said many terrorists are illiterate and were brainwashed to accept violence.

"They really have no knowledge of Islam," she said. "If I can educate a handful of people, I'll feel successful."

Many in the audience of about 75 people protested when Ahmed said the Bible is "human words mingling with the divine." Muslims, she said, consider the Quran the only "unaltered, unedited, unchanged" holy book.

There are about 30 Muslim families in Springfield, Ahmed said. About 1.82 million Muslim adults live in the United States, according to a 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Ahmed said the books of Judaism, Christianity and Islam contain the same message and that all religions should work together for common goals.

Islam "promotes peace, equality and democracy," she said. "We all have to live in harmony; we're not here to pick on one another."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0349 or dselden@coxohio.com.