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CNN Sunday Morning
What Do We Know About Islam?
Aired September 23, 2001 - 09:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: What do we really know about Islam -- most of us -- many of us? And the deep roots are shared by Muslims, Christians and Jews. From Boston CNN's Bill Delaney on how deep those roots go.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's of an air of a medieval way of thinking to say that now again the Christian West and the Islamic East confront each other. We should be many centuries beyond that we think. And anyway the West is not all Christian nor the East monolithically Islam.
And yet an age-old misunderstanding. Roots of violence flourish. To not know how close Christians and Muslims are to allow alleged distance to further drive us apart.
REV. RAY HELMICK, BOSTON COLLEGE: Jesus is spoken of in the Koran. Mary responds to the angels saying, "You have done to me according to your will." That is very Islamic.
They accept submission to the will of God -- that's what it's about.
DELANEY: What it's about -- how few non-Muslims know, how honored Jesus is in Islam and how Jews, too, are called People of The Book.
Mohammed, the prophet, born in 570 in what's now Saudi Arabia was a businessman to the age of 40. Then devote but illiterate he had a revelation and mysteriously began to pour forth the profound poetry of the Koran.
OMAR UL-HUDA, BOSTON COLLEGE: First he panicked but all he could see was the angel Gabriel telling him to recite the name of God. Many people thought he was a magician of sort -- or some sage -- a false sage. And so he was persecuted. And the people who started to believe in him and follow his message -- and let's remember it's the message not following him -- they were submitters to this message and they are called Muslims.
What he would see at the very beginning of his prophecy and towards the very end is a very basic reiteration of the message that there is only one God. Remember that this one God is the source of everything.
DELANEY: Most Muslims know what most Christians do not -- that early in Mohammed's ministry a Christian king and his followers by sheltering the then persecuted prophet saved his life.
HELMICK: The mystical part of this is always interesting. When you find among these various religions people who have come along to mystical experience -- that's very direct experience of God acting in their souls. And the differences tend to become very unimportant at that point.
DELANEY: And yet among Christians, Muslims, Jews -- differences and anger so horrific calls for Jihad Holy War.
Though here, too, say Islamic scholars, driving apart, perverting but real Jihad is.
UL-HUDA: The Book contains over 6,000 verses. There are over -- there are 114 chapters. I don't know how many references there are to actual war to Jihad -- maybe less than five or six.
It's referring to groups of people to work on their spiritual enlightenment -- their inner connection to God's self-disclosure. And then there's a specific verse that says, "Do not turn your backs on the cause of God."
DELANEY: That through history one side or another didn't try to understand the other -- declared the cause of God theirs alone -- why so many wars were born and may yet be born.
HELMICK: In any of our faiths we are inclined to think, "We've got the whole thing -- nobody else has it." And a rival claim is treated as something hostile.
UL-HUDA: It's dangerous when one thinks that mine is better than yours. But I don't think it's dangerous to believe in something and be committed to it.
DELANEY: The razor's edge -- West and East now walk again. Though the map for this difficult passage can perhaps be already read in the compassion that unites not divides great faiths sprung from the same desert, watered by the same God. Bill Delaney, CNN, Boston
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HEMMER: Joining me now is a man who does not believe terrorism and Islam should be used in the same sentence. Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan is a Muslim cleric and the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations here in New York. Good morning to you.
AL-HAAJ GHAZI KHANKAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS: Good morning to you. Thank you.
HEMMER: You sat down here a few moments ago and you said, "This has been rough." It has been tough on your faith and on your religion as a reflection on Muslims not only in this country but around the world.
KHANKAN: Yes.
HEMMER: How do you help explain to those who do not know a great deal about your faith, why the confusion is there and what we need to understand?
KHANKAN: Number one, Islam means peace and submission to the will of God Almighty -- that's number one. Muslims bear witness that there's only one God, that Prophet Muhammad is his last messenger, that Abraham was a friend of God, that Moses was the prophet with whom God spoke directly and that Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary, by the will of God, is from the spirit of God. That is Islamic teaching.
When you associate some members of the immediate associates of Islam with terrorism it is wrong because terrorism has no religion. McVeigh did this horrible act in Oklahoma -- nobody said, "This is Christian terrorism."
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) so many Muslims in prayer in Hebron mosques of Abraham. Nobody said, "This is Jewish terrorism."
So I associate the peaceful religion of Islam with acts of violence or terrorism because Islam is opposed to terrorism. And God says, "How dare you kill the life that God has made sacred?" And anyone who kills one person is as if he has killed humanity. And anyone who has saved one human being is as if he saved humanity.
HEMMER: Help me understand this, Mr. Khankan -- in your faith -- and I understand your statement about Jews and Christians as well -- but in the Islamic world if the terrorists who did this act in New York City did it in the name of Allah, what is it that they interpret in the Koran that says their acts are justified?
KHANKAN: It's like saying somebody in the name of Jesus Christ -- does that mean that it is part of the Christian teaching? Islam is opposed to terrorism. Do not kill -- this is part of the Islamic way. The only time one can kill is in due process.
He said Jihad is the Holy War in the script that we just saw . . .
HEMMER: In the story that in the story before this interview.
KHANKAN: Jihad is not Holy War. The words "Holy War" do not exist in the only Islamic source and that is (UNINTELLIGIBLE). There is no such two words saying (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Holy War.
Jihad simply means to strive and to do the best in becoming good in whatever you're doing. What you're doing now on the -- with CNN is your Jihad. What I'm explaining to you is my Jihad.
The most difficult Jihad is to raise children in America or in New York City. That is far -- to control one's anger, to control one's devilish sort that Satan might put into somebody's mind -- that is part of Jihad. HEMMER: But do you have a way of explaining to me and to our audience -- again, I'm not trying to be accusatory in any fashion.
KHANKAN: OK.
HEMMER: I just want to understand the interpretation for those that commit the acts not only in the U.S. but in other parts of the world and they do it based on their faith and their belief in God -- Allah. Why is it they believe those acts must be carried out?
KHANKAN: Whoever does such an act is not a true Muslim to start with. So to associate and say they are doing it because they are Muslim for Allah is un-Islamic.
HEMMER: Understood, understood.
KHANKAN: Therefore it is wrong. Even some Muslims sometimes might say, "This is for the sake of Allah." Well, show it to me in the book. If it is not in the Koran nor in the statements of the Prophets Mohammed (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they are un-Islamic.
HEMMER: It's good to see you in person. Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan, here in New York City. Pleasure. Thank you. Come on back, OK?
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