For over a year, The Islamic Center of Las Cruces has offered classes to educate the Las Cruces community on Islam.
Radwan Jallad, President of the Islamic Center of Las Cruces said in a recent taping of “In Focus” the outpouring of response from the community has been very supportive.
“They recognize us as neighbors and friends,” says Jallad.
Community members reached out to the center for encouragement to offer presentations that provide a basic education of Islam, and what the faith is about to provide better understanding to the community.
Jallad says it is unfortunate that media coverage about Muslims has been “negative.”
“The word Islam is associated with terrorism, which is totally false,” says Jallad.
Radwan Jallad says there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and that people in his faith community do not want to be held hostage for the “bad apples.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWm08oIcNTE&spfreload=10
Last year, The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report on 867 reported acts of “hate and intimidation” during the ten days following the election of Donald Trump as President. https://www.splcenter.org/20161129/ten-days-after-harassment-and-intimidation-aftermath-election#antimuslim The report said the incidents targeted women, the LGBT community, different religions, minorities and immigrants. The report also says that six percent of nearly 900 incidents were reported as targeting Muslims.
Jallad says the community is aware of the incidents that have been reported in New Mexico and across the country, but he says that incidents like this need to be reported that law enforcement.
“Our job is to document and be mindful on how do we react,” says Jallad.
This is part two of a two-part interview with Radwan Jallad, President of The Islamic Center of Las Cruces. Both interviews were taped on January 23rd 2017. Part one of the interview can be found here: http://krwg.org/post/focus-president-islamic-center-las-cruces-shares-mission-and-history
