Asalaamu alaikum sisters

Interfaith relations is something I’ve been passionate about for a good few years now. I worked with local groups before I had my son, doing talks and articles etc about Islam. But these were always with a positive angle, looking at beliefs and practices rather than answering questions about the political situation of the world today.

For a while, I tried not to get in to talks about terrorism and other bad things which people associate with Islam. I was of the mind that I didn’t have enough knowledge to put forward the counter argument, nor enough confidence to speak up. But I have definitely started to overcome this and my view is changing. I know some Muslims feel that it is not their responsibility to condemn these things, because it should be obvious that they are not correct Islamic actions. I respect this decision, but personally I have begun to feel it is my duty to say something. Not to simply ‘condemn’ as we are told we should, but more to educate people about the real Islam with polite but factual responses.

And so, I’ve been taking a couple of online courses on Future Learn, one about British Muslims and the other about religion and conflict, to try and understand people’s perspectives a bit more. Naturally, there are many comments by fellow learners which state things like ‘Islam encourages slavery’ or ‘Islam can never agree with secularism’ or worse ‘the Quran is full of violence’.

I feel so deeply disturbed and worried by these comments because no matter who makes them or how misinformed they are, these are genuine opinions which are out there. I can reply to the comment with my understanding of Islam, but can that ever outweigh the exceptional power of the media and claims by groups like Isis?

I know none of us have the answers, but it’s occupying my mind so much lately that I felt it might help to talk about it here. As someone from a good family with a decent education, who chose Islam as my religion after so much research, I find it almost insulting that people would imagine I would choose for myself a religion which promotes such terrible things that they think it does! I am very strong in my faith Alhamdulillah but it’s such a deep rooted misperception and it makes me very sad. You will probably say I shouldn’t dwell on it but I just feel like I can’t ignore it anymore. Particularly with a non-Muslim family who share the same concerns. I need to be able to answer them.

Does anyone else worry about this stuff?