Muhammad Arshad offers reassurance from ‘shaken’ religious community
JASMINE.SIU@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 17 November, 2015, 11:51am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 17 November, 2015, 12:29pm
Muhammad Arshad, chief imam at Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Centre, in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: David Wong
Local mosques are mindful to keep their followers away from extremist teachings, Hong Kong’s chief imam said yesterday as he condemned Friday’s terrorist attacks that took at least 129 lives in Paris.
Muhammad Arshad, who has led local prayers for Paris, told the South China Morning Post: “Everybody from the Muslim community is shaken. No one can hear the logic of this act.”
Muslims were all “in grief and sadness”, he continued, adding that he had written to French consul general Eric Berti to convey the community’s condemnation over the recent acts of “terrorism and barbarity”.
“There is no second opinion to it,” he said.
His comments came after the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria last week claimed responsibility for orchestrating six coordinated attacks across Paris last Friday, during which attackers screamed “Allahu Akbar” — meaning “God is great” in Arabic.
Asked how members within Hong Kong’s Muslim community were looked after to keep from drifting towards extremists like ISIS, the chief imam said he was confident that no one from the six local mosques was teaching or guiding extremism.
“In Hong Kong, there is no information in mosques guiding believers towards extremists. [Teachings are] perfectly in the mainstream,” he said.
But he acknowledged that individuals could gain access to extremist messages through media and social media.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1879724/hong-kongs-top-muslim-cleric-says-local-mosques-perfectly
