Two years ago, members of al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Centers, killing thousands.
However, despite the attackers' religious identity, their actions lacked religious justification, according to filmmaker and scholar Alex Kronemer.
Kronemer, who spoke along with former national and Canadian Muslim Student Association President Altaf Husain to Penn students last night at an event sponsored by the Penn MSA, said that the terrorist actions had no religious grounds.
"The Quran says 'don't transgress certain limits,'" Kronemer said. "It also says 'don't do that which makes you an abomination in the eyes of others,'" which the attackers clearly did.
Wharton junior and Penn's MSA President Muhammed Mekki added that the discussion, entitled "Muslim Perspectives: Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere," was meant to create an understanding of the concept of justice in Islam.
"Since the attacks, many negative images and untruths have been spoken about Islam," Mekki said. "We felt a responsibility to educate students" by clearing up these untruths.
Husain said that the events of Sept. 11 have brought the Islamic religion into a very negative spotlight.
"Much harm has been done to this religion... both on the outside and the inside," said Husain, who came to speak at a similar event at Penn one year ago.
Kronemer added that though Islamic prophet Mohammed did resort to violence at one point -- which some terrorists have since used as an example to "justify their actions" -- Mohammed was primarily a pacifist.
"Most of his life, he went about in a spiritual way, with a peaceful manner," Kronemer said of Mohammed.
In addition, Kronemer said that people who commit heinous misdeeds such as those that occurred on Sept. 11 are merely uneducated.
"It's not necessarily because they're bad," Kronemer said. "It's because that's all they know. That's just where they are, and our job is to help them get further rather than accusing them."
According to Kronemer, one necessary trait that makes a good "teacher" is a certain understanding and compassion for others.
"You can't have people care about your causes and things that matter to you unless you care about them," Kronemer said.
Penn's MSA attracted students of different races and religious backgrounds to last night's event.
"I liked one of Alex's themes of the idea of thinking about other points of view," Wharton junior Brendan Houser said. "I thought it was appropriate in that context."
College sophomore Sarah Rashid said she enjoyed hearing about the topic of Islamic justice.
"After a summer away from the Muslim community at Penn, [the discussion] reminded me of our duty" as Muslims, Rashid said.
Rashid added that not only was the talk informative, it was also entertaining.
"The stories they used to illustrate their points were great," Rashid said. "They were very charismatic, and they kept my attention the entire time."
