Imam Hamad Chebli became the first non-Christian to speak at Princeton Theological Seminary’s Miller Chapel in its 190-year history.
By: Steve Rauscher
With an eye toward dispelling the many myths surrounding the perception of Islam in America, Imam Hamad Chebli visited the Princeton Theological Seminary on Thursday, becoming the first non-Christian to speak at the school’s Miller Chapel in its 190-year history.
The context of the Muslim cleric’s visit was obvious. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York and outside Washington on Sept. 11, the Muslim world has been the subject of unusual scrutiny in this largely Christian nation, whose people have little knowledge of Islam, the world’s most widely practiced religion.
"I consider the Torah the book of Moses, the Bible the book of Jesus, and the Koran as revealed to Mohammed to be given by the same God to all of humanity," said Imam Chebli, religious director at the Islamic Society of Central Jersey, addressing about 130 students, faculty and visitors at Miller Chapel.
"If we read these books with an open heart and an open mind, none of them, as I believe, teaches violence," he said.
The tall, broad-shouldered imam kept his address in the chapel short, delivering his fluent if heavily accented remarks in about five minutes. At the end of the service, he presented a shrink-wrapped Koran to the seminary’s president, Thomas Gillespie, who accepted with a smile and a handshake.
From the chapel, the imam moved to a classroom building next door, where he spoke to Professor Richard Young’s comparative missiology class.
Before taking questions from the graduate students and faculty in the audience, Imam Chebli made sure to define a few terms commonly associated with the world of Islam.
"Allah," he said, "means ‘God,’ but not in the sense of an all-powerful man or woman ruling from heaven.
"It is that which is beyond our mind," he said. "Beyond our capacity."
Islam, he told the audience, is pronounced "Iss-LAMB," and means "peace."
"When you pronounce it ‘Izz-lom,’ it means ‘injustice,’ " he said.
The imam also cautioned against equating Muslims and Arabs.
"Only 2 to 3 percent of the Islamic population are Arabs," he said.
But the most commonly misinterpreted term, he said, was the word "jihad."
Most non-Muslims believe the word means "holy war." In fact, he said, it means "struggle."
"What we are doing here in this hall … we are waging jihad," he said. "A jihad against ignorance.
"None of the 6,230 verses in this book, none of them gives a person permission to kill another person or destroy property under the word ‘jihad.’ "
Answering a question about religious freedom in Muslim countries, the imam said the apparent intolerance of Muslim governments for other religions stems from "five things a Muslim must protect."
The Muslim, he said, protects his soul by eschewing pornography and other things considered unwholesome; his mind by abstaining from alcohol and other drugs; his property; his religion, and his community.
"Anyone who tries to destroy any of those things," he said, "I say he is my enemy."
The roots of Islamic fundamentalism, he said, stem from perceived threats to these things.
"Let us ask, ‘What is the cause of these things?’ If we find those causes, we will be safe," he said.
But the imam was careful to say he did not consider himself to be representative of the entire Muslim world, and spoke little about its politics.
"If you ask me about what is in the Koran, I can tell you," he said. "It’s not for me to decide what they should do in Washington."
In fact, he said, even though he is an imam the closest equivalent to a minister or a priest that gives him no special authority or relationship with God.
"I do not have a link to www.allah.com. I represent only myself," he said. "In Islam, there are no missionaries.
"The mission of Islam is to spread the word of peace. Anyone who does not spread peace, we do not consider him a good teacher," he said.
Many of the students in the audience believed Imam Chebli was a good teacher.
"There were many things I had misunderstood," said Ben Gladston, a visiting Indian pastor. "The explanation of the jihad, I think, was particularly good."
Graduate student Amber Henry said she was grateful for the imam’s visit.
"Its an opportunity, both to make a statement of unity and to learn so that we don’t have the tendency to generalize about Muslims out of fear," she said.
Imam Chebli felt he learned as much from the students’ questions as they may have learned from his answers.
"Without questions, there can be no knowledge," he said. "I believe that with every tragedy, Islam and Muslims and especially Arabs come to the forefront, and something good can come from it."
If there is something positive for the Muslim world to come out of the recent tragedy, he said, it was President Bush’s visit to a Washington, D.C. mosque.
"The president said it is not the religion of Islam, it is the evildoers. And you will find evildoers in every community. That is life," he said. "We have to have peace in our hearts, in our homes and in the house of God. And if we don’t know peace ourselves, how can we give it to one another?"