Texas Mosque Denounces San Bernardino Terror, Insists ‘ISIS is not Muslim’

The Ahmadiyya Community Dallas sponsored a service at the Baitul Ikram mosque in suburban Allen on Sunday afternoon to pray for the victims of last week’s San Bernardino terror attack and distance their religion from the Islamic State and extremism.

“Isis is not Muslim,” one man said at the service; “not Islam, not part of humanity.”

KXAS 5 (NBC) reported approximately 80 mosque members attended. Those who spoke condemned the act and terrorism, saying these are not the teachings of Islam.

“We the members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community condemn and denounce this heinous crime and barbarous against humanity in the strongest terms,” said Suhail Kauser, president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Dallas chapter.

“Our prayers are with the brothers and sisters of San Bernardino, who were innocent but lost their lives to the heinous crime of a few evil people” he stated, according to Islam in Dallas, which also reported Kauser reminded the community that while serving humanity, it is natural that we face these dark faces of evil and we have to conquer them. The community’s online newsletter editorialized that “targeting Islam for the perverted ideologies of evil minded terrorists who have other agenda does not yield positive results.”

Area resident Saima Sheikh, who attended the service, said: “We are taught that any form of terrorism is not allowed in Islam.” She also said: “I can’t even imagine a woman doing this thing, especially leaving her child behind,” adding, “and I’m a mother, and I have a teenage son, and I can’t even fathom that.”

Following the service, several male members gathered outside the mosque to reflect. One of them, Jari Khan said, “I think this is the cancer of Islam. Islam is a healthy body.” WFAA-8 (ABC) reported the consensus from the group in response to the latest radicalized Islam terror attack was: “This is not Islam.”

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community national spokesperson Harris Zafar told CNN the San Bernardino terror attack was “radical extremism,” distancing the terror-moniker off the Muslim community. He calling “the nature of the act terrorism, not due to the fact that it’s a Muslim but due to the nature of the crime.” Zafar recalled Newtown, Planned Parenthood, and Buddhist monks’ actions in Myanmar as other acts of terrorism. He also said it was more important to look at how to stop these groups, including halting radicalization and ending mass shootings.

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who also appeared in the CNN segment, called “radical extremism” the issue. He said the San Bernardino Islamic extremists got under the radar, noting Al Qaeda training manuals, instruct people how to get under the radar, “what kind of communications to use, how to stay off social media, and shave their beards…” Kerik believes we will see “more of this stuff in the future.”

Note: This article has been updated.

Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.