Islamic leader supports peace, censures Saddam

Bypassing a lobby full of craft stalls, cultural newspapers and pie salesmen, a diverse audience filed into Irvine Auditorium last night to hear Islamic leader Imam Warith Deen Muhammad.

Muhammad -- son of Nation of Islam founder and renowned figure in the Muslim community Elijah Muhammad -- presented a speech entitled "The Life Blood of All Communities of Faith and Al-Islam is Peace."

"Peace requires strength," he told his audience. "Peace is a small word, but it incorporates so much."

Audience member and N.J. resident William Walden, who drove to Penn for the event, called this message "inspiring."

"Peace for all humanity was the focus tonight," Walden said.

Yet, the message of peace was not synonymous with a stance against the war in Iraq.

Muhammad -- despite professing to have "prayed hard and pleaded this wouldn't happen" -- still supported a strong stand against Saddam Hussein.

"The man has lost his humanity, and he should be removed," Muhammad said.

He also emphasized that Muslims in America should participate in the military, calling it a "sacred duty."

Audience member Mubashsir Akhtab of New York City looked upon this message and the entire presentation as focusing on the roles of Muslims within an interplay of other religions.

"Imam W. D. Muhammad stressed the importance of humanity and the importance of unity," Akhtab said.

And it was this idea of unity that the event's organizers had hoped to establish as well.

The Muslim Students Association co-sponsored the presentation with the Islamic Cultural Preservation and Informational Council, along with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, the Mayor's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and the American Muslim Society of the Tri-State Area.

"This is a really important event for the MSA as community outreach," Muslim Students Association president and Wharton sophomore Muhammed Mekki said.

Another member of the MSA, Engineering sophomore Anjum Cheema complimented the event as "good dialogue for interfaith."

Describing Judaism, Christianity and Islam as "sister communities," Muhammad said their "content materials bear a striking resemblance."

Yet, "his message wasn't that all religions are the same," according to Cheema. "It was that there is good in every religion."

In emphasizing his vision of this good, Muhammad recounted a message his father used to preach. "The thing I did understand -- even as a child -- was him saying, 'Islam is freedom, justice and equality," Muhammad recalled.

And it was this conception of Islam that Muhammad stressed last night when he told his audience, "We have to come back to the real Islam."

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