Thursday, May 24, 2012

9/1/11, Letter to Editor, Contra Costa Times



Muslims For Life
By: Saad Karamat

Returning from the 33rd annual retreat of America's leading Muslim youth organization, Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Conference (www.mkausa.org), I was both excited and frustrated to see the news story of Rais Bhuiyan.

Bhuiyan, a Muslim-American hate-crime victim, was shot in the face at point-blank range in an attack shortly after 9/11. The shooter, white supremacist Mark Stroman, is now on death row because during that attack, he killed several people.

Bhuiyan, however, is relentlessly trying to save Stroman's life because he believes Islam's essence is forgiveness, not retribution. The Quran teaches: To save one life is to save all mankind (5:33).

At the youth retreat, Imam Naseem Mahdi, explained that he had just ordered 1 million Muslims for Life fliers -- a nationwide campaign to collect 10,000 blood donations to honor and commemorate 9/11 victims. Islam espouses life, not death, and Bhuiyan's actions embolden this campaign.

Bhuiyan's heroic actions, however, are missing from major news outlets, including your paper. Let Bhuiyan's life-saving actions and the Muslims for Life campaign, not bin Laden's murderous actions, champion the headlines on 9/11 this year.

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