Then they came for the Shia’s… by
Where was the Outcry over Bombed Center?
ew Year’s Day is typically a day met with renewed optimism and cheer. But this was not the case for the Imam al-Khoei Center in New York. On New Year’s Eve, the Center, along with a Hindu temple and some nearby residences, was firebombed allegedly by a forty-year old man of Guyanese decent. Fortunately no one was hurt and the Center did not suffer significant damage.
But there are still reasons to be troubled by this start to the New Year. What is bothering me the most is the lack of sympathy, outrage or even notice of the incident from Sunni Muslims in North America.
It seems to be lost on the broader Muslim community that this firebomber probably did not appreciate the difference between Sunnis and Shias. So let’s leave aside caring for your fellow Muslim brothers for a second and just focus on this: THAT FIREBOMB WAS MEANT TO HURT MUSLIMS!
Muslims should not treat this any differently than if a Molotov Cocktail had been thrown at the Zaytuna Institute. It’s similar to when Sikh men were beaten in retaliation for 9/11. The mobs were beating first and never asking questions. All that was needed was an assumption that you were Muslim.
All Muslims should be deeply and vocally troubled by this incident. But Muslims have not been. I learned of the incident through a single e-mail from one of the Sunni mailing lists I belong to. But I had to sort through loads of typical “well-meaning sister” food alerts and prayer-scares to find it. There has not even been a single email of outrage from any of the lists, groups, sisters or brothers that I routinely hear from whenever some Muslim, somewhere in the world, is maligned. There was only that one blog report.
Maybe my outrage is because of my personal connection to this story. When I was converting to Islam, one of the places I used to e-mail for opinions was the Imam al-Khoei Center - a center of learning which has been around for more than twenty years. Despite pestering them with questions, the brothers always answered my questions promptly and never pressured me to adopt a Shia viewpoint.
When I eventually became a Sunni Muslim I promised myself that I would never engage in sectarian bickering or elitism. Because I believe what matters is submission to Allah and only Allah. I recognize that my approach to Islam is one amongst many. Allah is the One and Only Judge to determine whether I am correct or not.
But Muslims continue to play this age old game of deciding who is and who is not a true Muslim. Many rational, educated, God fearing and loving Muslims have imported all the cultural prejudices, intolerances and ignorance of ‘back home’ to North America. And because we have imported this dangerous and haram approach to the deen, we overlook the human aspect of our fellow believers. These are people who throughout their day, say ‘There is no God but God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God’. When incidents involving Muslims outside of our particular sect are harmed, we seem to shrug our collective shoulders and move on as if the incident did not happen.
It may be that the type of unity required for North American Muslims to speak with a single voice is still out of reach. But you would think, at the very least, that Muslims would view their own interests in broader terms.
I still hope for a future where North American Muslims leave sectarian divides in countries where cultural, political or economic reasons are the true causes for their continued prolongation. Because this time they came for the Shia’s and we did not speak up. Next time there may be no one left to speak at all.
More Articles by Tanda Khadijah Chmilovska
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Salam sis, i did not even know about this incident until i read your post. It was not even in the news! that is shocking, because when ever something like this happens to people who are not us, the news is all over it. It is extremely sad that the Shia community did not stand up for themselves or let other Muslims know. Jazak Allah for letting us know and making the effort to bring Muslims together. 
Thank you sister for highlighting this disgusting gap that exists b/w the shias and sunnis esp in the Calgary city!
Jazak Allahu khairan to our sister.
I personally disagree with going to a Shia mosque/centre and harming them. But we need to realize that Shia and Sunni have major theological differences. Many of the acts Shias do are blatant shirk like doing sajdah on the stone they do in Salah. Also cursing Aishah (ra) is also considered an act of kufr by Imam Ahmad because Allah (SWT) has free our mother from zina which the hypocrites accused her of, if someone tries to accuse of her the same, then that person is denying the Qur’an and that is kufr. Now I am not saying we should go and call the Shias kuffar. Yes their belief is kufr but we can’t just go to a random Shia and call him a kafir. The point is the difference is huge and is to be known and maintained. According the Imam Ibn Tamiyyah the general definition of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah is anyone who is not Shia thus it’s a very critical issue for us Muslims.
Sunnis do differ with Shias and will always do. But this shouldn’t lead us to go and kill them randomly.
And Allah (SWT) knows best
To the comment above:
1) Shi’as don’t worship the stone, rather they say its ‘Sunnah’ of Prophet (S) and Imams to prostrate on something natural, and the best things to prostrate upon is Earth/stone/Clay. Here is hadith which gives permissiblity on such action.
Narrated Abu Sa’id al-Khudri: I saw Allah’s Apostle prostrating in mud and water and saw the mark of mud on his forehead.
[Al-Bukhari, Sahih (English translation), vol. 1, book 12, no. 798; vol. 3, book 33, no. 244]
The ‘stone’ which Shi’a rest their forehead in prostrationis actually mud and water (clay) but baked to give it hardness. The question is,why don’t you follow the Sunnah?
2) No Shi’a accuses Ayesha of fornication or Fahishat. She, like other Prohet’s wives, are protected from this act, and this is a consensus amongst Shi’a. What we say about Ayesha is she was not a Good wife of the Prophet after His death,, since she disobeyed the clear commandments of the Qur’an and went out side, and challenged Imam Ali,the righteous ruler, which resulted in thousands of Muslim death. Thus we say, she is not a good example to be followed, unlike Khadija (R) or Fatima (A).
Assalamualikum,
Amazing article!, Its most definitely a problem that you see on a daily basis. Although getting the word out there and starting to realize our problem i think is a really great way to fix problems within our community as our Ummah inshallah.
Jazakallahu khayran to WMI for posting this, and Jazakallahu Khayran to sr. Khadija for highliting this!
Sister I strongly advise you to refrain from spreading shiaism. The comments posted above especially about our mother Ayesha RA are untrue. The Shias do claim that she committed fornication. And how dare you say she was not a good wife after Prophet sw died. If you want the true picture of shiaism refer to their books which are all filled with lies. Watch the video below
http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=CA#/watch?v=o87ppdvBPgk
I strongly condemn the acts of violence against any place of worship or against any sect whether they are Muslims or not. But we shouldn’t defend Shias under the name of Islam but as brothers from other faiths.
abdulahad, your source of youtube video is not working.
what faith do the shias belong to?
Which faith should one belong to if they say “There is no god except for Allah SWT and that Muhammad (Pbuh) is the last messenger of Allah SWT”?
Iif a person abuses our mothers and think that Abu Bakr and Umar RA are the worst people and they send curses upon them. And they say Quran is not complete, do you think a person is still in the fold of Islam. Not according to Authentic scholars( May Allah preserve them). Plus go on YouTube and search sheikh yasir qadhi on Shias.
Again I completely condemn acts done buy bigots on their place of worship.
Hope that clarifies !
AbdulAhad.
I made it clear its a consensus that Shi’a don’t accuse Aeysha of fornication or other fahishat. IF some Shi’a layman or Scholar says something, he is responsible for his own words, the Jama’a cannot beheld responsible. If some Sunni scholar says something absurd, is it appropriate to say all Sunnis are the same? Yasir Habib is condemned by Shi’a scholar as being extremist. He cruses and does takfir to other Shi’a scholars.
Shi’a consider the quran to be authentic, nothing has changed ever since the time of Prophet. Why don’t you drop by local Shi’a center or mosque and pick up a Qu’ran. Don’t make statements which will cause misguidance and Fitna. Wallah, your responsible for fitna, especially if you make a public statement. Don’t take these things light.
Some comments are simply retarded and full of hate. No wonder the Muslim nation is far from enlightenment!
Who cares what shias or sunnis think of Ayesha?! If you are true muslims, you have to believe in the freedom of thought and the fact that we ALL don’t know what happened back then, because we were NOT THERE.
STOP arguing about superficial aspects. You are distorting attention from the essence of religion and what Mohammed (SWT), Ali, Ayesha, Omar, Abu Bakr tried to achieve. Neither Mohammed, nor Ali nor Ayesha were Gods. They were all prone to errors at some point in their life. YOU still argue and make them sound like GODS. You still hate and resent one another because you forget God’s message and focus on your biased and selfish judgments.
I feel sorry for what you have brought Islam down to…
Surely they who divided their religion into parts and became sects, you have no concern with them; their affair is only with Allah, then He will inform them of what they did. (Quran 6: 159)
The distance is always created by extreme views on either or both sides. And a lack of interaction just widens it.
Calgary muslims were quite close until a few years ago when they stopped having common events such as eid milad un nabi.
bro. Turab, you were probably too young to remember the combined events.
Anonymous brother/sister, there are combined events still taking place. But according to Muslims like abdulahad, those events are bidah. There is one combined event up coming on Sunday 12th February 2:30pm at Whitehorn Community Center.
Open invitation to all the Muslim Brothers / Sisters to attend and unify under the banner of Prophet Muhammad(S.A.W)