Neighbor to know: Ahmed Qadeer

Ahmed Qadeer doesn't buy the adage that familiarity breeds contempt.

Familiarity, he believes, breeds understanding.

That's why Qadeer, a board member and past president of the Islamic Center of Naperville, is willing to speak on and answer questions about his faith for groups that ask.

Qadeer, who makes several presentations a year, said he doesn't seek out the opportunities but is happy to oblige when he has the time. The requests have increased in the past few years, he said.

"If you don't know the other person, you are afraid of the other person," said the 30-year resident of Naperville. "We are all brothers and sisters in humanity."

Qadeer was well-received when he made a presentation on Islam at St. Thomas the Apostle church in Naperville this spring, said Rose Bagley, a member of the parish's Pax Christi ministry that sponsored the program. Qadeer described how Muslims pray and even knelt down to demonstrate, she said.

"There were a lot of questions from people," she said. "He was very open."

Qadeer, the secretary of the Naperville Interfaith Leaders Association and a longtime peace and justice advocate, said his activities stem from his faith.

"My religion requires me to be in the world. God commands to do justice. I consider it my religious duty," he said.

The word Islam is derived from the Arabic word for peace, Qadeer said. But outsiders most often want to know why Islam is associated with militancy and suicide bombings, he said.

Qadeer answers with a quote from the Quran: "Saving one life is like saving the whole humanity. Taking one life without good reason is like killing the whole humanity."

Islamic teachings allow for retaliation, but forgiveness is the greater good, he said.

"If we retaliate, we cannot use more force than the force used against us," he said.

Qadeer calls suicide a sure path to hell, but he also asks people to understand that suicide bombings are acts of desperation.

"They do it because there is no other way to fight back," he said.

Qadeer doesn't just preach peace and understanding, he practices it, said Barb Dwyer, director of community development at Benedictine University in Lisle and a member of the Naperville Interfaith Leaders Association.

Dwyer recalled receiving an anti-Islamic e-mail and, not knowing how to answer it, she sent the message to Qadeer.

"He did not take offense. He was glad to respond to it. That's the kind of man he is," she said.

Dwyer also recalled the time Qadeer and his wife invited her and her husband to a program for Muslims in Itasca. Going beyond just extending an invitation, he explained the event and the rituals they would observe.

"We were very comfortable," she said. "Ahmed Qadeer is the essence of hospitality. He has a respectful way of staying very true to his faith while accepting other people. He extends the hand of friendship to everyone in the community."

An American citizen since 1972, Qadeer arrived in the United States from Pakistan 44 years ago. He planned to stay three years -- long enough to obtain a graduate degree in civil engineering and gain some experience. Along the way, he took a class in computers.

"When I came over here, I didn't even know what a computer was," he said. "Little did I know that it would lead me to be an IT professional."

Starting his career with IBM, Qadeer lived in upstate New York and served in his free time as a counselor at a maximum security prison.

After transferring to the Chicago area, Qadeer worked for Bell Laboratories and other major corporations while his community activism continued to grow.

In the 1980s, he was part of the West Suburban Peace Action Network. Today, he's active in DuPage United, DuPage Against War Now and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

The births of his two children caused him to take his faith more seriously, he said.

"The more I learned, the more I found I needed to practice my faith," he said.

Qadeer said he once was an avid sports fan but doesn't follow sports much any more because of his other activities. He calls his favorite hobby playing with his 8-year-old grandson.

"All the activity I have," he said, "is trying to leave the world better than I found it."