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Karl Schembri
Muslim fundamentalists who are kidnapping and brutally killing their hostages in Iraq are also “putting one billion Muslims in the dock” by hijacking the peaceful religion of Islam, says the leader of the Muslim community in Malta, Imam Mohammed El Sadi.
In a frank interview with MaltaToday (see interview), the 53-year-old Imam expresses his outright condemnation of Islamic terrorists and also calls on serious reforms within the Islamic world, while similarly urging the West to stop injustices against Muslims.
“Islam calls for peace,” he says. “We feel very sad and disappointed and embarrassed, because our beautiful and peaceful religion is being hijacked by a small minority of extremists; mad and ignorant extremists, who by their criminal acts deform, destitute and abuse our religion.”
He adds: “Their criminal acts are giving a bad picture of our religion, they are damaging the true image of Islam and of Muslims. They are creating Islamophobia and are putting 1 billion Muslims in the dock. They are leading to confusion in people’s minds between terrorism and legal national resistance for freedom.”
Sheikh Sadi’s voice is a reminder to the world community that Muslims are the major, yet anonymous, victims of terrorism. He speaks about the biases of the Western media: “Sometimes the Western media concentrates on these criminal acts and close their eyes when it comes to state terrorism. The world should be just and condemn all kinds of terrorism, whether it is committed by powerful armies or by miserable gangs.”
In eradicating terrorism, he says, Islamic countries should take the first step of conducting “serious reforms” across the board, with major overhauls to their political, social and educational systems, and the free election of countries’ leaders.
“We also need a reform religious authorities,” he says, “to establish some sort of Islamic council that is recognised by all Islamic countries and Islamic governments, and which represents the Muslim world, so any problem can be referred to this council and a decision is taken not by one mufti, or one scholar or one Imam, but by a council that is representative of Islam worldwide.”
Himself the son of Palestinian refugees, Sheikh Sadi says that, at the same time, the world should stop every act of illegal occupation, particularly in Iraq and in Palestine.
“We should uproot the causes of terrorism: illegal occupation and social and political injustices, otherwise we cannot solve these problems,” he says. “The world should find a solution to the illegal occupation. I mean the forces that are involved in the illegal occupation of certain Muslim areas should show signs of good will.
“They should state officially and clearly that they are going to withdraw from the occupied land and present a plan for such a withdrawal, so people can put their mind at rest and settle.”
He says that the creation of an Islamic party in Malta is unlikely because of the small size of the 3,000-strong Muslim community here but expresses his wish that Muslims will eventually have their marriage contracts and divorce documents recognised by the state.
Speaking about illegal immigration, he says: “We have to uproot its causes – global inequalities, social injustices, famine, religious, political and ethnic persecution. The world is not doing its duty, it’s not fulfilling its obligations in many areas. It’s closing its eyes to the suffering of the Palestinian people for example and it’s doing nothing to stop it, and yet it sees their suffering every day on television screens.
“The Maltese people are a generous people, we should admit this. They helped thousands of refugees in the past years, we should recognise and appreciate the position of the government, the Church, NGOs and the Maltese people who were very hospitable to those poor people. “Unfortunately today we witness some fear, the fear of some people, but who might be influential, because of the size of the country. They’re afraid we might be flooded and that we cannot accommodate such big numbers of refugees; that we cannot give them the necessary assistance they deserve, and this is indeed a problem.
“One country cannot solve such a big problem on its own, it’s a global problem and all nations have to work together to solve it. We have the same problem in the Islamic world, there are Muslim refugees within the Islamic world, so we are all suffering because of the problem of immigration.”
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