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Informing people of other religions about Islam is important because the more people know about Islam, the less hostile toward it they will be.
For that purpose, the Council on American-Islamic Relations assisted with an open house event June 23 with the Islamic Center of San Antonio.
"The less people know about Islam, the more of a deformed view they form about the faith," said Khalil Meek, vice president of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The center, which is in the Medical Center area on 8636 Fairhaven St., has been planning this for a while and it is not the first time that it held such an event, said President Solomon Hamideh.
The center also offers a class called Islam 101 at 7 p.m. every Wednesday to teach people about Islam, Hamideh said.
The event started at 2:45 p.m. with the movie "Legacy of the Prophet" that showed the life of the prophet Mohammad, his accomplishments and the basic fundamentals of his message.
Meek has been a Muslim since 1989 and grew up in Lewisville.
"If I sound like I'm preaching, please do not think so because I'm teaching actually," Meek said. "I was going to be a Baptist minister before I converted to Islam."
Meek began his speech saying that the council had hired a company to conduct a survey about Muslims and Islam in 2002.
The company asked the participants to rate themselves on their knowledge about the religion, Meek said, while looking at about 55 people who were sitting before him.
"People who knew nothing had very hostile answers, while the ones that knew more had more favorable opinions about Islam," Meek said.
Islam is a universal religion, Meek said.
There are 1.7 billion Muslims in the world today while 57 different countries have Muslims as the majority, Meek added.
"Only 18-25 percent of Muslims are Arabs," Meek said. Islam comes from the root "Salam" which means peace, while the word Islam means to submit or surrender willfully to the will of God.
"Islam doesn't approve of the killing of nonbelievers just because they are non-Muslims," Meek said. "That kind of behavior is condoned neither by Islam nor by CAIR."
As a matter of fact, Muslims have an obligation toward Jews and Christians to treat them nicely, because according to the Quran, Islam's holy book, they are the "People of the Book" as the Quran identifies them, Meek said.
"It is against our faith and God's commands to kill innocent civilians and to commit suicide to kill other people," Meek said. About 60 percent of the people who were there were Muslims, while the rest came out of curiosity or because they were invited by a member of the community.
The women were sitting to the right while the men sat to the left, because Islamic law doesn't allow for men and women to congregate at the same place. Islam is a monotheistic faith which means Allah (Arabic for "the God") is the only venerated entity, Meek added.
Meek said that Jesus was a messenger from God just like Mohammad was.
Jesus was born to a virgin mother who was Mary, but he was not the son of God, Meek said.
"Monotheism is the first and most important pillar of Islam," Meek said. "That is the key to go to heaven; without it you don't."
Meek added that all the messengers and prophets came with the same message of Islam, and therefore all people are born Muslim until they negate that by altering their faith and do something to become a "Kafer," a nonbeliever.
The message of Islam began with Adam, he said. "The Holy Bible and the Torah are not the same ones that Moses and Jesus brought to their people," Meek said. "They were altered after they were gone."
Muslims revere and respect Jesus but consider him to be a prophet just like Mohammad and Moses and all the other ones, Meek said.
The Quran says that Jesus was just like Adam made of dust, and nobody worships Adam although Adam had neither a father nor a mother, he said.
Muslims believe that the Quran that was revealed to the prophet Mohammad 1,400 years ago is still the same because it has remained in Arabic and that is why it is required for every Muslim to pray in Arabic only, Meek said.
"Some of the words lose their power and essence when you translate them from one language to another," Meek added. "And that's why the translated Quran is never as powerful as the Arabic one."
"There is no compulsion and pressure about the Deen (to accept the Islamic way of life)," according to Quran: 2-256.
That is a clear response to the false, saying that Islam is a violent religion, Meek said concluding his speech.
The Islamic Center in San Antonio is a place for prayer and worship. It also has a recreational area for children and a soccer field. The center also has a Muslim school with classes from pre-kindergarten to third grade, for a total of six classes.
Musa Sadek, principal and director of the child care center, said the school is under the state's licensing directorate.
"Our school, the Islamic Academy of San Antonio, has been operating since June 2006," Sadek said. "We are adding one grade per year from now on."
Sadek added that they are planning on adding four new portable school buildings to include a library, administrative office and bathroom, for a total of five buildings for 2007-08.
The school is open to all students regardless of their faith, Sadek said.
"We teach all the required courses by the state of Texas, and in addition, we teach Arabic, Islamic and Quranic studies," Sadek said.
"We had a couple of non-Muslim students last year, and their parents didn't mind them attending the religious studies, but it is their choice," Sadek said.He added, "We started with 45 kids, and we will have 75 this year."
The school doesn't get any support from the U.S. government, Sadek said.
Tuition covers about 60 percent of the school's expenses and the rest comes from fundraising, Sadek said.
Sadek is a full-time employee of the center and is a certified teacher by the state of Texas.
He is of Palestinian descent who came to this country in 1983 right after he finished high school in Kuwait. Sadek said while smiling proudly that he has a bachelor's degree in organizational sociology with a minor in education from Texas A&M University.
"Yes, sir, I am an Aggie," Sadek said.
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