Bosnians and Herzegovinians in Iowa, USA, spoke for the local media on rising Islamophobia in the USA, as well as about equating Muslims with terrorists.
“Islamphobia makes me sad, but I am trying to ignore it. USA is a country established by migrants,” said the young Senada Alizasić from the capital of Iowa, Des Moines.
Senada’s father Fahrudin highlights that Bosnian Muslims are somehow different from others.
“However, Islam is Islam and Quran is Quran,” Fahrudin said.
Precisely Bosnians and Herzegovinians who migrated to USA during the war in B&H in nineties of the past century make up the majority of Muslims in Iowa. They founded an Islamic and Education Center Ezan, which also includes a mosque. Members of 500 families are coming to that mosque.
“This is practically our embassy,” said Nijaz Valjevčić, imam in that mosque, who points out that Islamic center is their connection with B&H.
Valjevčić added that the Islamic center is also visited by people who are not Muslims in order to provide support for them after certain politicians in the USA started speaking about connection between Islam and violence.
“People who are coming here know that we are not aggressive. If you’ve heard about Quran, then you know that it does not promote violence. If you read a single page, you should ask us: what is the message here? If you knew Bosnian Muslims, you would know that we do not like violence. Some of our members ran from Srebrenica and Prijedor, losing many family members there,” Valjevčić said.
(Source: klix.ba)
