Ihsaan Hendricks – 2015-11-16 – On the extremists involved in the Syria’s civil war, Lebanon & Paris

Very disturbing the words of Islamic State threatening

Washington DC and the USA, the same organization

involved in the brutal war in Syria, the

same group who lay claim to the vicious

deaths in both the Lebanon and, of course,

the ferocious brutality

in France, all claim to be Muslim

doing the work of Allah.

So radical is their belief that they are

prepared to murder their own other Muslims as

well. Well, joining us now to shed a

little bit of light on this and discuss

this further via Skype is Mulana Ixan Hendrix.

He's the president of a Muslim Judicial Council.

Mulana, thank you very much for being with

us, and welcome to Morning Live.

Good morning, Adrienne. Good morning, South Africa, and

thank you very much for the wonderful opportunity.

An absolute pleasure.

Mulana, how do you react to the claim,

and and I suppose

the issue that the people that are taking

responsibility

are Muslim?

In my capacity as the president of the

Muslim Judicial Council South Africa,

we can then the attacks in Paris.

And yes, from the offset, we want to

say

that this group has absolutely

no connection to Islam.

Islam as a religion is completely

innocent and free

from the type of claims and the actions

such as the brutality,

the violence and the terrorism.

Islam is based on the highest objectives

of life

and such as the preservation of life,

the preservation of honor and therefore,

such type of actions has absolutely no scope

in the pure teachings of Islam.

So from the offset, it's very important to

say that Islam as a religion is completely

innocent of these type of actions.

Yeah. When when you hear these,

these individuals, and I I suppose to to

dub them as terrorists is is fair after

what we've been seeing unveiled. When they say

that they're going to do this in the

name of Allah, what does that do to

you? I mean, how does that make you

feel?

It places me and every other leader in

the Slim community in this responsibility

that we need to explain

not only to South Africa but to the

international community

as much as the paraphernalia

appears to be Islamic,

but the name Islamic

cannot be juxtaposed

with these type of actions.

And therefore, it cannot be in the name

of Allah, it cannot be in the name

of Islam,

it cannot be in the name of any

religion, whether it be Islam,

Christianity or

Judaism,

such as

the prime objective

of the Sharia of Islam is the preservation

of life.

What we see from such type of groups

is the destruction of life,

the brutality,

the very unacceptable manner in which and I

need to place on record, Leanne

and fellow South Africans,

in many instances, you may have followed that

the Muslims

are in actual fact the first victims and

amongst the victims

of such a brutal attack by these groupings.

What what is this doing for the reputation

of of Muslims around the world? I mean,

do you find that there's a lot more

prejudice towards you because of of these incidences

that are happening globally?

We are already beginning to see that the

Muslim community in France and in Europe, there

is a 20,000,000

Muslim population, of which 8% of the 20,000,000

is based in France.

We have already seen in the last 24

hours that the Muslim community, particularly in France,

is on the back foot.

Defense French authorities are now talking of the

possible removal and expulsion

of many of the imams,

whom they believe that the mosque and these

centers

are the centers for such type of rhetoric.

And it is clear that many innocent people

will also be harmed in the process.

And therefore, yes, it is of a great

concern for all of us.

In terms of the refugee crisis, and that's

one of the the the big issues that

needs to be looked at as well. And

I know that our president, Jacob Zuma, as

well as US president, Barack Obama, is just

urging the world not to see all Muslims

and, of course, all refugees

as people that are wanting to come into

their countries to cause problems.

You know, there is a major crisis. So

many refugees fleeing,

areas that are politically unstable, full of war.

Again, do you think that this is going

to to pose a huge problem to them?

It is precisely why the refugee crisis and

particularly of the Syrian people is where it

is today.

Because of such type of groupings, many of

these people are fleeing

from the type of brutality and the terrorism.

All that they want to enjoy is a

peaceful stay in their own country.

We have heard president,

Barack Obama portion,

the American United States of

America. And so yes, by all indications, it

is clear,

And so yes, by all indications,

it is clear

that many of the refugees

will suffer the blow in light of these

attacks that took place in Paris. Yeah. There's

a there's a major concern from many,

many people that

this it seems to be an indoctrination

of young people who are perhaps frustrated and

easily convinced into taking action on behalf of

others,

to the point of killing them, blowing themselves

up, and killing other people.

You know, and many saying you don't necessarily

see this in other religions and that it

it it comes from Islam.

Why? What what do you attribute this to?

Well, from the offset, I would want to

say that this is not peculiar to the

Muslim community. And again, Islam as a religion

is completely innocent.

But indoctrination

is

a process that is

used.

And of course, many of the young people,

as you would recall, not too long ago

in South Africa and particularly here in the

Western Cape,

we were exposed to the possible recruitment of

young 15 year old

boys and girls to the

ranks sizes.

It is precisely in light of this when

the Muslim Judicial Council

and many other Muslim leaders in South Africa

took the bull by the horns to say,

this is completely not the makeup of the

Muslim community in South Africa.

We will not allow our innocent young sons

and daughters to be

recruited, indoctrinated,

and, of course,

misuse and abuse when people misuse and abuse

religious texts for their own, agendas.

Yeah. Indeed.

Mulana, just to to wrap it up. I

mean, I do know that as much as

people were,

laying blame on Islam and Muslims in general,

a lot of other people were taking a

different course in saying that it's not religion

that kills, it's man that kills. And,

you know, that that that that's one of

the things that many people are focusing in

on. I mean, is this is this a

belief that you hold and and and you

would like to promote as well?

Of course, religious

religion does not kill. It is purely placed

at the individual accents of human being.

But one cannot deny that religion

sometimes is used and abused

for such type of agendas.

We call for peaceful coexistence amongst the religious

communities.

We call for the preservation of life for

the greater respect of human values.

And that, of course, we uphold these principles

in order to ensure

that there is peaceful coexistence amongst various communities.

Molena, Ekso Henriks, we we thank you very

much for your time. Here, of course, is

the president of the Muslim Judicial Council

talking to us via Skype. Thank you again.

Alright. The time.