An Egyptian-born Canadian Muslim thinker believes that Muslims living in the West and in non-Muslim countries should seek ‘civic engagement' in the communities where they live. "This involves dialogue at various levels, which generates a sort of friendship… [as well as] mutual knowledge and helps integrate Muslims in such societies," says Gamal Badawi, an activist and volunteer preacher. "This is a sort of positive integration without assimilation in such societies or without such communities losing their identity or values as Muslims," explains Badawi, who is now living now in Canada and delivers lectures, in order to advance inter-faith understanding in North America and Europe. Speaking to the Egyptian Mail in an interview on the sidelines of a series of lectures to foreign communities and locals at the Bahrain-based Ahmed Al-Fatih Islamic Centre, Badawi notes that such integration is important for a diversified human coexistence, as isolation is harmful for humanity as a whole, not just for Muslim communities. "Muslim communities need to engage as well with the political authorities in the countries where they live, at the national and municipal levels… because in the West, if you are not active, no-one will care about your rights," he says. According to him, people living in democratic countries should not shy away from participating in politics, as engagement helps establish good relations and improve things for communities. He noted the "good examples" of Jews and African Americans, who have engaged in politics and succeeded over the years in becoming influential in the US. "Engaged, Muslims can express their views legitimately and peacefully, as provided for by democratic values." Reminded of the discrimination of some people in the West against Muslims, he urges Muslim communities to learn from the African Americans, who struggled for long for equality, until they succeeded in bettering their situation ��" indeed an African American is currently the President of the world's sole superpower. "Muslim scholars and institutions have a responsibility, when it comes to advancing understanding between Muslims and the West and to changing the stereotypical images of Muslims through dialogue, urging co-ordination among them." He suggests a concerted effort to create an "independent think tank" to help jointly undertake this task, as some countries, like Egypt, have good organisations such as Al-Azhar, but do not have enough resources to do this alone. Al-Azhar is Sunni Islam's prestigious institutions. Badawi is wary of what he terms as the political agendas of certain Muslims countries that can negatively affect this effort, even at the level of regional organisations such as the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, as "each member state seeks to underline its perspectives and political agenda". As for his view on promoting understanding between the West and the Muslims, he said: "My approach is based on underlining the fact that the Holy Qur'an makes it clear that it is God's will that there should be diversity in His Creation, not only diversity in ethnic groups, national groups, colours and in terms of gender, but also diversity in religious convictions. "I underline that the notion that people are free to choose whatever faith they want or even not to believe in any faith at all is well established in the Qur'an." He referred to a verse in Surat Younis (The Chapter of Younis) in the Qur'an that reads: "If Allah wilt He could make all people on Earth believers." He also noted another verse in Surat Al-Kahf (The Chapter of the Cave), that reads: "Whoever wilt let him/her believe, and whoever wilt, let him/her reject faith." "When talking about issues of freedom of faith and belief, many people also refer to the verse in Surat Al-Baqara [The Chapter of the Cow], that reads: "There is no coercion in religion". "Westerners are mostly unaware of this tolerance of Islam. We need to make them aware of this and other Islamic values that are hidden by the smokescreen of false propaganda about Islam. "We need to explain to them also that dialogue is imperative for peace and understanding in this world… and that Islam is dialogical, urging Muslims to engage in dialogue with those of other faiths," he argues. "The Qur'an calls upon Muslims to engage peacefully in dialogue with those who differ with them in their beliefs, notably Christians and Jews, as a verse in Surat Al-Ankaboot [The Chapter of the Spider] reads: "Do not argue with the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] except in the best possible way". "This means being courteous and respectful," Badawi argues. "The accountability to decide which faith's acts are right and which ones are wrong is supposed to be left to Allah." Stereotyping Muslims as terrorists and extremists can end "if we set a good example by the way we behave as Muslims". Badawi believes that it must also "be underlined that Muslims are ‘not equivalent to Islam'… and that Muslims are human beings and can be close to or far away from the teachings of Islam. They sometimes fall short of Islam's teachings, which means they are ‘not identical to Islam', though they are still Muslims". "The worst thing is to do some bad things then claim that Islam condones them. This leads to a wrong idea about Islam, as people do not always think rationally, differentiating between Islam and the bad things some Muslims do," he argues. "I therefore cannot blame Christianity for the bad things some Christians do and cannot blame Judaism for the massacres perpetrated by Zionists in Israel against the Palestinians."
