More American Muslim Leaders Sign on To Muslim Intrafaith Code of Honor at ISNA Convention
Sheila Musaji
At the Islamic Society of North america (ISNA) Convention over the labor day weekend there were 40,000 American Muslims in attendance, and many important discussions and activities took place. One of the most important of these took place in the main hall on Sunday night. A number of scholars and leaders from both the Sunni and Shia communities signed on to the Muslim Intrafaith Code of honor in front of a crowd of at least 8,000 people.
This movement towards making a clear public declaration that division between Sunnis and Shias will not be accepted or tolerated by American Muslims has been building for some time. Malik Mujahid called for a dialogue in April of 2005, and sponsored a gathering which issued a resolution in December of 2006. In April of 2007 at a meeting in Los Angeles a number of scholars signed on to a Muslim Code of Honor, and in May many more signed on in Detroit. This Code of Honor came out of a meeting called by MPAC in March, 2007.
The American Muslim has been active in encouraging dialogue and unity between Muslims for many years and has published many articles on the subject. Seeing this event take place at the ISNA Convention was very encouraging.
I would hope that individual Muslims would print out the Code of Honor and take it to their local Islamic Centers and masjids and ask them to sign on. Every mosque and Islamic organization in the U.S. should be a signatory to this document which is supported by fatwas by respected scholars across the Muslim world. Our international scholars have spoken out clearly in fatwas such as The Amman statement (signed by 170 scholars). There have been Sunni-Shia meetings in many countries, and ordinary Muslims have begun to stand up and demand an end to sectarian divisions.
If there are still any Muslims in the U.S. who haven’t gotten the message then we need to educate them.
RESOURCES:
300 Scholars Attend Islamic Unity Conference
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