NATIONAL 3 -(Spotlight Weekly)

Partisans Of Peace

Muslims in Nepal add their voice to the international outcry against terrorism

By KESHAB POUDEL

Like most of their co-religionists around the world, a large number of Nepali Muslims feel that their religion was hijacked by a group of terrorists to justify their act of killing innocent people and destroying buildings in New York City and Washington DC earlier this month. Their worry is that efforts to link Islam with acts of terrorism in the name of jihad would send the wrong message to the world.

After the devastating terrorist attacks in the two American cities by suspected supporters of Osama bin Ladin, a Saudi-born millionaire, Nepali Muslims were shocked by the efforts of a few individuals to misuse the name of a religion that preaches peace and harmony to kill innocent people.

Nepalese Muslims : Shoked by terrorism

To express their condolence to the victims of terrorism in the United States, Nepal Jame Masjid, Nepal's Sai Mosque, offered special prayers. Although Muslims represent fewer than six percent of the country’s population, they have always maintained close relations with other religious groups.

Nepali Muslims have a long history of living in harmony and tolerance with other religious communities. Having first arrived 300 years ago, Muslims entered Nepal as a traders and traditional medical practitioners. From hills and valleys to the southern plains, a large number of Muslims have been living in Nepal. The mid-western districts of Banke and Kapilvastu, the central districts of Parsa, Bara and Rautahat and the eastern districts of Sunsari and Saptari in the Terai have fairly high concentrations of Muslims.

"I condemn the terrorist attacks in the United States. Islam is a religion based on tolerance and peace. I don't think any genuine Muslim can kill innocent people in the name of religion. All Nepali Muslims are against terrorism," said Nepali Congress MP and former minister Mohammed Aftab Alam. "One cannot justify terrorism by invoking the name of God."

Others members of the community share Alam’s outrage at the way terrorism was being justified in the name of Islam. "We Muslims in Nepal were profoundly shocked by what we saw on television," said Niyaz Ahamed, Principal of Madarsa Islamiya School run under the management of Nepalese Jame Masjid. "No one can support terrorist acts committed by a handful of individuals in the name of religion."

The largest mosque organized special prayers for the victims of the World Trade Center twin towers and Pentagon bombings of September 11.

With the restoration of multiparty democracy 12 years ago, there has been a surge in the number of mosques and madarsas (Islamic religious schools) in the country. Several Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, are supporting the mosques and madarsas. Although a large number of Muslim clerics have grown up in moderate school of thought, officials say they cannot rule out the possibility of penetration by militants.

In her article in the November-December 2000 issue of Foreign Affairs, Jessica Stern, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and Adjunct Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says Pakistani militant groups are now exporting their version of Jihad all over the world. The Khudamudeen madarsa, according to its chancellor, is training students from Burma, Nepal, Chechnya, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mongolia and Kuwait. It also trains students from Uzbekistan, Tajkistan, Russia and Turkey.

"Nepal does not have Shia Muslims. Almost all Muslims here represent the Sunni sect," said Ahamed. "Islam does not teach hatred against other religions or people of any particular country. The killing of innocent people is not Jihad."

Although the Muslim population in Nepal is very small, they are very anxious to see the nature and scope of the response of the United States, which has called on countries of the world to act against international terrorism.