The perception that Muslims are a violent community is baseless and against the historical facts, said Hamza Yusuf, an Islamic scholar from the US, during his lecture at the Qurum Amphitheatre on Thursday.

Hamza Yusuf is here on an invitation from the Diwan of the Royal Court to deliver a series of lectures in Muscat on Islam-related issues.

In the second of the series of his lectures, Hamza Yusuf spoke on perceptions about the Islam and the Muslim world. He said that the world history of last 2,000 years prove that Muslims were hardly involved in violence against others. He said that misdeeds of a handful of people can not be used to judge as the practice of the people of a particular faith.

On issues like rights of women in Islam, he said that there was no doubt about women abused in all civilisations. Islam is the religion which gave women their rights, liberty and complete freedom to use her wealth as she wanted. This religion gave women respect and dignity in the society, said Hamza Yusuf.

He said that it is not important to accord priority to what others think about Islam and Muslims. Instead, it is important that we should know what Islam is all about, he said.

Hamza Yusuf was born in a Greek Orthodox family in Walla Walla, Washington, and grew up in Northern California. He is the founder of the Zaytuna Institute. At the age of 17, he embraced Islam. Later, in the educational institutions in the UAE, he studied Islamic jurisprudence.

Source: http://1.mqu.be/SHY_Oman2010

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