Click the above picture for data re Islamo fascists in the Portland area and from this mosque/
Posted on 05/10/2004 11:35:33 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
Events push mosque leader into spotlight
Whether bumped from a prayer breakfast or fielding concerns about a detention, Shahriar Ahmed broadens views of Islam
Monday, May 10, 2004 JILL SMITH BEAVERTON -- The question took Shahriar Ahmed by surprise.
The president of Bilal Mosque in Beaverton was looking for an elevator at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center when a security guard approached him: "Aren't you the guy who was disinvited from the prayer breakfast?"
A week earlier, organizers of the Mayors' Prayer Breakfast of Washington County had pulled Ahmed from the program because he is Muslim. Most mayors bowed out of the May 5 breakfast, which was subsequently canceled. But the incident upset many.
"Tears came to his eyes," Ahmed remembers. "He shook my hand and said, 'I am so sorry.' "
And then the 5-foot Ahmed -- in his brown, knee-length kurta shirt -- and the security guard shared a hug.
The prayer-breakfast snub signaled for Ahmed -- a passionate and media-friendly spokesman for local Muslims since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- a return to the news.
The attention didn't end there. On Thursday, he spoke for a shocked Muslim community about the detention of Brandon Mayfield, an Aloha lawyer being questioned in connection with the March train bombings in Spain.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the mosque or some of its 250 members have been host to or part of 167 interfaith gatherings. Most often, Ahmed is the main speaker.
People from varied faiths come to learn about Islam but leave with Ahmed's praise warming their hearts -- praise for their love, their tolerance, their concern. Over and over in his low, gentle, slightly accented voice, Ahmed thanks them and tells them, "You are the best America has to offer."
"Some people are gifted. Shahriar is one of them," said Mohammed Haque, one of five men and three women who also have represented the mosque. "I have seen non-Muslims crying at Shahriar's speeches."
Ahmed's is a soothing message for the war-stressed who want to believe that markedly different people can get along.
But it is a message complicated when members of the local Muslim community raise suspicions. Last year, it was Maher "Mike" Hawash, a respected Hillsboro engineer who pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban.
Ahmed "really was horrified by that incident because he knew that this man -- who had all kinds of people backing him -- made it kosher for people to suspect all Muslims," says Rabbi Daniel Isaak, who knows Ahmed through an interfaith group of Muslims, Jews and Arab Christians.
An eloquent, self-deprecating extrovert who describes himself as "vertically challenged and laterally endowed," Ahmed serves as the antidote to any alarm raised by those incidents.
"It's good for people to meet a Muslim who is a funny, likable, normal family man rather than a Shiite imam rallying a bunch of Muslims against the United States," says Tom Manning, a Jesuit High School religion teacher who has invited Ahmed to speak to his students.
Two decades in Oregon
Ahmed, 49, grew up in Bangladesh, where he studied engineering in college. In 1980, he came to the United States to study for a master's degree and a doctorate.
His brother, meanwhile, helped arrange for his marriage in Bangladesh. Through letters, phone conversations and a few meetings, Ahmed fell in love with Shamima Banu.
In 1985, they moved to Oregon, where he took a job at Intel developing transistors, interconnects and other devices for microprocessors.
Shamima, who studied science in college, stays at their Cedar Mill home with the couple's three children: Hamzah, 5, Sumaiya, 15, and Shehab, 17.
Shehab Ahmed echoes his father's self-deprecating style when describing his election this year as student body president at Sunset High School.
"I think they must have checked the wrong box," he says. "I don't know what happened."
Shamima Ahmed, who runs the household, says her husband checks with her before assenting to any speaking engagement.
"He asks permission, but you have to say 'yes,' " she quips.
Facing the hard questions
During his presentations, Ahmed challenges people to throw him their "hardest questions" and explains basics such as why Muslims separate men and women inside the mosque or why they pray five times a day.
These rules are for "bad people -- people like me," Ahmed answers jokingly.
He needs all those prayer times because he is so easily distracted from God.
And when Muslims kneel and bend during prayers, he says, "I can promise you if there's a lady in front of me bending over like this, I won't be thinking of God."
Ahmed says he was glad to get the initial invitation to pray at the Mayors' Prayer Breakfast, which has long been sponsored by the Beaverton-Tigard Chapter of the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship & Concerned Citizens.
"We are the untouchables," he says of the Muslim community. "I'll take anything thrown out to me."
When the event's organizers rejected him, Ahmed says his first reaction was to feel hurt.
Now that the pain has faded, he wants to do what comes naturally for him -- to talk. Ahmed says he sincerely hopes he and the prayer breakfast organizers can sit down for an interfaith dialogue.
"I will be open to any questions," he says. "How we treat women? How we mistreat our children?"
Meanwhile, he says, "we should respect their wishes and definitely give everyone the space they need to feel comfortable."
And he reminds his outraged friends how easy it is to make mistakes: "I'll screw up tomorrow with some stupid statement, and I'll be in the trash can."
It is only by accident that admitted traitors from his Mosque have been sentenced to jail.
Click the above picture for data re Islamo fascists in the Portland area and from this mosque/
When this guy goes to Iraq and gets in between the Marines and the local Islamists and asks the Islamic Nazis to stop killing Americans THAT might mean something.
In the meantime I don't care what he SAYS. BTW, the followers of Islam all share the same Arab concept of "truth". "Truth" is whatever you make someone else believe is true.
As we American say, talk is cheap...
uaagglaaagggaga....uaaggaahhaaauauaa....uaaguuaa....ok, I think I have now finished...please pass a towel.
Spanish Bombing Suspect Mayfield
Mayfield's defender and fellow muslim, Tom Nelson
Mike Hawash, admitted terrorist supporter
The Portland 7 (or was it 9?) who went through China to join in hostilities against America in Afghanistan
And then the 5-foot Ahmed -- in his brown, knee-length kurta shirt -- and the security guard shared a hug uaagglaaagggaga....uaaggaahhaaauauaa....uaaguuaa....ok, I think I have now finished...please pass a towel.
Of course you and I don't understand nor do we want to the emotions between Islamos as described in this uaagglaaagggaga....uaaggaahhaaauauaa....uaaguuaa scene.
Click your mouse while your pointer is on the picture.
"Come on down, Ahmed..."
"You'll like the way you'll look!"
What is he so involved in that it's distracting from God? Hmm?
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