REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Imam of New York, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, denies the allegation that Muslim will take over US. Instead, Muslim in US will be consistent with American law. Also, the Islamic laws will be compatible with American laws.
"The concern is that Islam want to take over US. We will not do that," the visiting imam said on Tuesday in Jakarta.
Islamic law, he said, believed that pluralism of religions was a fundamental human right, as cited in Quran 109:6 "Say: O disbelievers: To you your religion, and to me mine". An ideal Muslim society, as he said in his book 'What's right with Islam', was one in which such pluralistic interpretations within Islamic jurisprudence had to be admitted.
American Muslim, he said, would entrust the government to a particular leader even though they might not have voted for the elected president. The Muslim will respect him. Imam Feisal also said the most important issue of Muslim in US was how to develop themselves. He wants to create American Muslim identity for all Muslim in America.
Currently, Almost all Muslim in US are immigrant from Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, and others. Even though they are Muslim, people call them immigrant from Pakistan, immigrant from Malaysia, and so on. What made the different with each other, he said, was their culture.
"Even US has many different architecture of mosques," he said.
He added, culture was fine in Islam as long as it was not contradictive with Islamic laws. To unite Muslim in US, he plans to build a Muslim community center in Ground Zero called Park51. "It is like a laboratorium. We will focus on the activity," he said. Also on that place, Muslim in US will learn the sense of community.
