Islam badly misunderstood – Kiwi MP

Islam has been badly misunderstood, says a New Zealand MP, but adds that the country has come a long way of managing race relations and as a nation has been very accommodating of all religions and races.

Speaking to a cross-section of the Auckland community at the 23rd Annual Religious Convention hosted by Ahmadi Muslims, National MP Jackie Blue commended the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community for their effort to change the perception and misunderstanding about Islam.

The annual convention is celebrated internationally with tens of thousands of participants in countries including Australia, England, Germany, Canada and the United States of America.

Mohammed Iqbal, National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said: “We cannot deny the fact that there is turmoil everywhere in the world in one shape or the other. This is a result of man forgetting his objective of creation, that is, his inclination towards worship of God and endeavour to gain Divine nearness.”

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s Central Missionary Maulana Shafiq-ur-Rehman said that mankind will continue to suffer from social upheavals, and the moral tones of human society will never really improve unless economical inequalities of such a serious nature, where some sections of society roll in wealth and others die of starvation, are done away.

“The Holy Qur’an, being a perfect Scripture has provided the roadmap for progress and perfection of man by means of the Law of Shariah, the moral law and the social law. It identifies the basic necessities of human needs such as food, water, clothing and shelter.

“The Holy Qur’an points to the fact that to provide these primary necessities of life to its people is the first duty of a civilized government and that a society can only be called civilized when all its members are adequately provided with these necessities” says Shafiq-ur-Rehman.