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Muslims should step up good works after mass shooting, leaders say in Friday prayers

Jeelanne Gouda of Rancho Cucamonga prays during a vigil and prayer service for the victims of Wednesday's shooting rampage at the Chino Valley Islamic Center on Friday.

Jeelanne Gouda of Rancho Cucamonga prays during a vigil and prayer service for the victims of Wednesday’s shooting rampage at the Chino Valley Islamic Center on Friday.

(Jae C. Hong / AP)
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In forceful Friday sermons, American Muslim leaders throughout Southern California urged congregants to step up their good works and community engagement following the mass shooting in San Bernardino this week.

Leaders also drew a distinction between Islam’s values of peace and the actions of two shooters identifying as Muslims who killed 14 people and wounded 21 at the Inland Regional Center on Wednesday.

At the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles, religious advisor Jihad Turk told about 700 people not to retreat from the larger society, as uncomfortable as they may feel following both the San Bernardino and Paris massacres by those professing to be Muslim.

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“This is not an option,” said Turk, who trains imams and scholars for America through his Bayan Claremont Islamic Graduate School.

“We have tremendous opportunities in this country ... to enjoy the benefits of this democracy and this freedom,” he said. “But we have responsibility to contribute to the betterment of this world.”

A similar message was delivered to about 250 people at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands. Shakeel Syed of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, which represents 78 mosques and Muslim organizations, told congregants to reach out to neighbors and form coalitions with those of other faiths and ethnic backgrounds.

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“Our primary message to Muslim Americans is hold your head high and continue the good works you’re doing and do more of it,” Syed said.

Muslim American service projects in San Bernardino include the Al-Shifa Clinic, a free health center, and the Sahaba Initiative, which assists the hungry and homeless, he said.

Follow live coverage of the San Bernardino shooting >>

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In his sermon, Syed also offered sympathies to the victims and their families and appreciation for first responders to the scene. He counseled to be “vigilant but not paranoid.”

The Friday service was attended by many non-Muslims, he said, including educators from the University of Redlands and U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands).

But at a candlelight vigil later Friday at the Islamic Society of Redlands, Syed said a man cursed him and, when Syed offered his hand, the other man spit on it. He said that so far, only two anti-Muslim incidents have been reported to him -- an “incoherent rant” against Muslims left on his office voicemail and bullet holes found at a Muslim-owned bookstore in Anaheim.

At the Islamic Center of Riverside, Hussam Ayloush of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of the Greater Los Angeles Area told congregants that the shooters hurt everyone, with victims of various races and faiths -- including a Muslim. Anies Kondoker, who attends the mosque, was shot three times in the attack.

Speaking from behind the wall that separates men and women at the Riverside center, Ayloush said Muslims should not feel that the shooters represented Muslims.

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“This crime was not committed by a Muslim,” Ayloush said, explaining that the shooters shouldn’t be identified by their Islamic faith. “It’s committed by a criminal.”

“No one should have to apologize ... because the only people who are guilty are those who did this.”

But such attacks are often used to begin a crusade against Muslims -- attempts that should be exposed and rebuffed, he said. “We need, unfortunately, to be vigilant.”

“It’s not the time to be cowardly. It’s not the time to stop coming to masjid,” he said, using the Arabic word for mosque.

He mentioned the possible connection between the female shooter, Tashfeen Malik, and Islamic State. He said that whether or not it’s true, it will serve as a reminder of how terrible ISIS is.

“There hasn’t been a group that’s caused more damage to Islam,” he said.

Shameemara Abdulmumin prays at the mosque every day and has been coming here for more than 30 years.

“She’s part of the community,” Abdulmumin said of Kondoker. She said she planned to visit Kondoker soon. She taught two of the family’s children at a school near the mosque.

Only a small number of worshipers showed up for Friday prayer services at the San Bernardino mosque once frequented by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the assailants in Wednesday’s attack.

Leaders said the Dar Al Uloom Al Islamiyah-Amer mosque has been targeted with death threats since Farook’s name was made public.

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“People feel sad and people feel scared,” said Tashneem Biabani, one of a handful of worshipers praying on the women’s side of the mosque.

A San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy was on hand to keep dozens of journalists from entering the mosque grounds.

As reporters milled about, so did three protesters with a group called Ministry 2 Muslims, which aims to convert Muslims to Christianity. They toted signs and attempted to hand Bibles translated into Arabic to worshipers entering the mosque.

Farook prayed here several times a week, leaders said. Malik, his wife, never did, they said.

Gasser Shehata, who remembers Farook’s excitement about becoming a father six months ago, said he wonders whether Farook’s Pakistani-born wife may have radicalized him.

“There is no radicalization happening here at all,” he said of the mosque. “What we learn here is to love others.”

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Assistant Imam Mahmoud Nadri was one of several mosque leaders who said he has been interviewed by the FBI.

He repeatedly said that Farook’s crime “does not have anything to do with Muslims.”

“Only someone who is a psycho would do this,” he said.

The sermon during the prayer service echoed that message.

“One very fundamental principal of Islam is the value of the life of a human being,” the speaker said.

“If anybody says anything contrary to that, it’s incorrect.”

He implored the mosque to come together to “differentiate between what are the teachings of Islam and what are the subversive and deviant concepts being introduced.”

Follow me @TeresaWatanabe

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