The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association of Canada (AMYA) knows that many people have misconceptions about their people and their religion. In response, they hope to reach people and educate them, promoting peace, condemning terrorism and dispelling myths. The group recently held an open house at the Gallagher Centre.
Noman Khalil explains that the project began as a response to Pastor Terry Jones burning the Holy Qur'an in Florida. He explains that watching reactions of Muslims around the world, they decided they needed to react in a positive way.
"Because 'Islam' means 'peace' we decided the best way to react is peacefully. We decided to have an open house, have the teachings of the Holy Quar'an and let the people see it for themselves, read it for themselves, and decide for themselves if it is a peaceful message," Khalil explains.
Yorkton was the fifth city the group the visited, in a tour that is planned to cover three provinces. Khalil says the communities have been receptive to their message.
He says that a variety of people come to the open house, from those who want to know about Islam because they are meeting people and want to better understand their beliefs, to those who find contradictions between what they see in the news and what their message is. Khalil says that they field a lot of questions that are inspired by current events, about things such as jihad and sharia law, and they have the opportunity to show people that Islam should be a religion of peace and understanding.
"Somebody has to stand up, make a stand, and fight peacefully. If the extremists are fighting to put a bad image for us, some of us have to stand up and react in a peaceful way and create a force against that, and spread the message and the knowledge."
The group hopes that they can help people both understand Islam better, and understand their own religion better through the open house. He says it's about getting people talking and being open to each other.
Khalil says the goal is to reach 7 million people across Canada. He says at the moment they have reached 1.3 million people so far.
He notes that it is a youth driven initiative, and he says that it is a point of pride to see the young people working towards this goal.
"It works both ways for us. We get the message across, and this is educational for our youth and important for their development as well," he concludes.
