Johannesburg- The Muslim World League (MWL) is working intensively to counter extremist ideology on a global level, with most of the efforts are being directly led by the body’s Secretary-General Dr. Mohamed Al-Essa. In his Tuesday meeting, Dr. Al-Issa praised the league’s efforts on promoting moderation and combating extremism.
On stepping up efforts to address rising extremism, Issa affirmed that the MWL is ready to actively participate in South Africa’s religious, political, intellectual life through organizing cultural events, conferences, seminars, forums and dialogues.
He pointed out that the MWL and its worldwide councils, bodies, centers and offices are tasked with raising awareness and enriching Islamic culture values among Muslims in terms of moderation and away from fundamentalism or extremism.
The MWL chief stressed the importance of the positive integration of Muslim communities, in a way that they become a constructive addition to hosting countries. Issa praised the South African model on integration and mutual awareness.
The recent approval of a draft bill by Canada House of Commons that paves the way for future measures to counter Islamophobia was reviewed as progressive at the MWL session.
Issa said in a statement that this draft bill comes in the context of raising awareness on the danger of religious hatred, which helped the terrorist extremism use “Islamophobia” as an excuse to promote its crimes.
Issa reiterated Islam’s promotion of tolerance, dialogue and rapprochement among cultures and civilizations in the context of positive exchange and spreading values of co-existence. Religious, political, cultural and intellectual differences should not be allowed to feed into extremism and terrorism, he explained.
Issa said terrorist extremism, mistakenly related to Islam, plays into the interests of promoters of Islamophobia. Rising Islamophobia could provoke a backlash among passionate Muslim youth who could be swayed into radicalization by opportunist terrorists who are constantly in search for a new rally base.