Rhon­dor Dowlat

Is­lam is not about be­ing re­bel­lious and join­ing rad­i­cal groups to per­form cow­ard­ly acts, but of per­form­ing Salah (Is­lam­ic Prayers) and hav­ing re­spect and ded­i­ca­tion for your par­ents.

This was the strong Eid-ul-Fitr mes­sage sent out to the youths of Cara­pichaima and by ex­ten­sion the na­tion, by Imam Im­ti­az Ah­mad Khan of the Cara­pichaima Masjid un Nur yes­ter­day.

Khan urged the youths to re­frain from as­so­ci­at­ing them­selves with "bad com­pa­ny" and/or join­ing rad­i­cal groups that car­ry out sui­cide bomb­ings.

"The dean of Is­lam is cer­tain­ly not to harm our broth­ers, women and chil­dren. We, Mus­lims, do not as­so­ciate with this and we have no right to bring harm to any­one. Even if it is be­ing done to us, it still does not give us any right to harm and kill," Khan said.

"Please, do not join gangs. Wake up and per­form Salah and have re­spect for oth­ers. Is­lam is about hav­ing a pos­i­tive in­flu­ence in so­ci­ety and in­te­grat­ing good val­ues. Those killing will nev­er earn re­spect in the end. Re­spect will be earned to those do­ing the right things."

The Imam al­so chal­lenged par­ents to be role mod­els for their chil­dren in show­ing them the right way and true teach­ings of Is­lam.

"Set an ex­am­ple for the youths. Mus­lim women, you have in­flu­ence over your chil­dren, use sim­ple words to main­tain and es­tab­lish Is­lam in the house," Khan said.He added that when par­ents do the right things in the home, al­though at times chil­dren may dis­obey when they get old­er, they would re­mem­ber that their fa­thers used to pray and read the Quran and one day they will wise up and fol­low af­ter them (the par­ents).

"We are the back­bone in the mosque and in the com­mu­ni­ties and the pos­i­tive fu­ture of our youths lie in your hands. Have the most in­flu­ence over them so that they won't fall in­to the wrong hands that can cause may­hem and con­fu­sion.

"My dear broth­ers and sis­ters, take your place in so­ci­ety and find your­selves in the masjid and get­ting ac­tive," Khan said.

Yes­ter­day, thou­sands of Mus­lims cel­e­brat­ed Eid af­ter dis­ci­plin­ing them­selves to a month of pray­ing and fast­ing in ob­ser­vance of the month of Ra­madan.