(JNi.media) Mohammad Razvi, a Brooklyn businessman who, after 9/11, gave up much of his business to become an advocate for Muslim Americans, is the kind of Muslim everybody talks about when they argue Islam is not crazy and bloodthirsty, only large groups of jihadists are.
In Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, on Sunday night, on the same weekend as the bloody Paris attacks, faith leaders of all stripes gathered to prayed for peace in English, Hebrew, Arabic and French, PRI reported. And, in this group, it was Muslim community leader Mohammad Razvi who had the harshest things to say against the ISIS murderers. And while public officials and clerics called for unity and tolerance, Razvi, a descendant of Pakistani immigrants, said: “We pray to God for justice and for these individuals to be taken off this Earth. If it’s going to take our communities coming together and our governments to come together internationally, so be it. We look forward — because the red, white and blue are coming to get you!”
Razvi insists his views about ISIS are based in his faith. In his opinion, they “have nothing to do with Islam.” Citing the Prophet Mohammed (in text that’s reminiscent of the teachings of the Jewish sages), he said, “If they hurt one human person, it’s as if they are hurting all of humanity. If you help one human being, it’s as if you’re helping the whole humanity. It doesn’t matter what culture or what religion they’re from.”
Mohammad Razvi, who received the FBI 2012 Director’s Community Leadership Award, used to run a small empire of family-owned stores in Little Pakistan, Brooklyn, NPR reported in 2006. But after the 9/11 attacks he left the business to become a community activist. He told NPR that his life had changed dramatically. For one thing, his paycheck is not what it used to be. But Razvi has no regrets.
