Using a blunt approach, a professor of Islamic tradition presented information to sway audience members from enforcing stereotypes of Muslims.

Jamal Badawi, professor of management at St. Mary University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, presented “Islam, World Peace, and September 11th” Friday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union as part of the Iowa Conference on Islam. The lecture focused on misconceptions of Islam that have come to light since the events of Sept. 11.

“After the Oklahoma City bombing, no one went around looking for people who looked ethnically white like Timothy McVey,” said Badawi.

Islam has been associated with terrorism throughout history, but when terrorists from Christian or Jewish backgrounds commit acts of terrorism, they aren’t called Jewish terrorists or Christian terrorists, Badawi said.

“Why keep using the terms Islam and terrorism as if they are one in the same?” Badawi questioned.

“Are Muslims – as 1.3 billion people in the world – the only ones who might have a fringe group committing terrorist acts?”

During the lecture, Badawi expressed the importance of not assuming that actions taken by Muslims or people claiming to take action in the name of Islam should be extended to the beliefs of all of people.

“Islam is not equivalent to Muslim and all Muslim actions,” said Badawi, who teaches a course on Islamic tradition.

“There have been many crimes committed in the names of various religions and ideologies,” Badawi said. He noted that when Christians commit crimes, it does not mean all Christians support the motives of the criminals.

Badawi addressed issues of misinterpretation, such as using a “cut-and-paste” method to explain how people have misquoted the Quran in order to justify actions.

“Some people have been going around these days . saying that the Quran states, `Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them,'” Badawi said. “And they say in other verses in the Quran . `Whenever you meet the unbelievers, strike their heads.’

“If you use the cut-and-paste approach you can prove anything you want from any scripture you want. It doesn’t take much skill or intelligence.”

Badawi said the Sept. 11 attacks have given people a window to misinterpret the Quran.

“Unfortunately you find some people – writers, professors, journalists – who have been taking advantage of the tragic events of Sept. 11 to believe that the Quran itself justifies violence, justifies dominance over others and even compulsion in religion.

“And they use the flimsiest interpretations . to explain that,” Badawi said.

Yasir Siddiqui, freshman in computer engineering, said Badawi’s lecture was informative.

“He was very blunt [and] cleared up some of the misconceptions of the [non-Muslim] community,” Siddiqui said.