The Prophet’s Mosque, the burial place of Muhammad, is Islam’s second holiest site

DEARBORN — No one is spared. 

ISIS’ disregard for human life transcends religions and nationalities. During Ramadan, the Holy Month of mercy, militants intensified their criminality against Muslims.

Hundreds slaughtered in Baghdad, dozens in Dhaka, Yemeni soldiers bombed during iftar. The terrorists’ cruel, erratic murder-worship even reached the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, Islam’s second holiest site.

Local Muslims say the crimes ISIS is committing against the follower of the faith demonstrate the militants’ unethical creed, which contradicts Islam.

The attacks hit home for Muslim activist Shaffwan Ahmed. Bangladesh, his home country, was targeted by militants. A terrorist attack left 21 people dead in the capital Dhaka.

“It brings to mind how un-Islamic ISIS is,” he said. “We’ve been saying it for years.”

He added that simply because ISIS has “Islam” in its name, it doesn’t mean it’s Muslim. Ahmed said Muslims are more susceptible to being victims of terror than any other religious group. 

The attack on Medina left Ahmed and his family in a state of shock and disbelief.

“It angered me because we’re not even allowed to chop a tree in Medina; its sanctified,” he said. “These guys, here they are taking lives.”

Ahmed fears for Bangladesh. He said his relatives live close to Dhaka. 

The Bangladeshi American activist has little hope about Islamophobic attitudes’ changing after the recent targeting of Muslims by ISIS.

“They’re not going to listen to reason or logic,” he said of bigots. “They follow emotions and whatever is being said to them by whatever sources they follow. They’re not going to look at it with a solidarity type of mindset. It’s an us-versus-them mindset.”

Muslim activist Asha Noor said terrorists’ targeting Muslims during Ramadan annihilates the narrative we have been bombarded with for the past few years — “You’re a Muslim; you need to deal with these Muslims who are killing in the name of Islam and killing non-Muslims.”

“In reality, as Muslim Americans and Muslims in the West, we’ve known since day one that in our home countries we’re the ones under attack; we’re the ones living in fear of these deviants,” Noor said. “It’s not the way the media sees it. It’s not East versus West, Muslim versus Christian. Muslim lives are at the most risk from these groups.”

She said Muslims are under attack by terrorists in their home countries and by right wing bigots who blame them for terrorism in the West.

“On both sides, we’re doomed,” she said.

Noor said the suicide bombing in Medina cannot be justified even by the most extreme and demented interpretations of the religion.

“It makes no sense, even from their worldview,” she said.

Mahdi Ali, board member of the American Moslem Society, Dearborn’s first mosque, said the recent attacks further prove that Islam is not responsible for terrorism.

“Terror is striking in the core of Islam— meters from the Holy Prophet’s grave,” he said. “They are bombing mosques. They don’t understand Islam because they don’t belong to it.”

Ali added that hatred against Muslims here has no logical justification because it is clear that terrorism is an enemy of the faith.

“Baghdad. Dhaka. Istanbul. Jeddah. Kuala Lampur. Kabul. Mogadishu. Qatif. Medina… for real though?” wrote law professor Khaled Beydoun on Facebook. “All Muslim majority cities, including the Prophet’s Mosque, targeted by ISIS during the Holy Month of Ramadan. How much longer will mainstream media repeatedly showcase ISIS’s religious identity without fully acknowledging the religious identity of (the vast majority of) their victims? What city, or sacred site, must be attacked next? Prayers up.”