Compassion a two-way street at annual Muslim convention

An estimated 30,000 Muslims from across the continent are expected to meet in Rosemont this weekend for an annual convention that promises to focus on compassion. But will that compassion be centered within the Muslim community or will it be directed toward non-Muslims?

"It should go both ways," says Safaa Zarzour, a lawyer and professor who lives in the near West suburbs and serves as secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America.

Titled "Nurturing Compassionate Communities: Connecting Faith and Service," the 47th annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America urges conventioneers to answer the Quran's call to "Help one another toward kindness and piety; do not help one another in furthering sin and hostility."

But the gathering also gives participants a chance to speak out against Islamophobia that illustrates a need for compassion toward Muslims.

Zarzour says he realizes that some Americans see Muslims as "extreme, hard, suspicious, uncaring and unfriendly," and many Muslim kids report feeling stress. But, just as Irish Catholics and other minorities overcame stereotypes to become integral parts of society, American Muslims can, too, Zarzour says.

"It is our duty as Muslims in America to educate our fellow Americans," says Zarzour, who has served on many interfaith committees and received the Chicago Commission on Human Relation's Outstanding Service Award in 2009. "We feel it is our duty to foster a feeling of belonging and compassion. Muslims are here to add to the beauty and diversity of America."

Enduring prejudice on the way to acceptance seems to come with the territory, Zarzour says.

"The Mormons were chased out of Illinois and their leader was slaughtered in Illinois," Zarzour says, noting how a mob killed Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844.

Making an effort to understand different religions and viewpoints makes a community stronger, he says.

"Our duty as Muslims is to represent the true meaning of Islam by reaching out to the broader community we serve, the underprivileged and underrepresented," reads a description of the presentation planned by international Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan. "As tensions continue to increase throughout the world, we, as North American Muslims, have a unique opportunity rarely found elsewhere to serve our community with assurances of security and freedom."

Ramadan has been at the center of those ever-changing tensions. An acclaimed Muslim scholar from Switzerland, Ramadan was appointed to a prestigious professorship by the University of Notre Dame in 2004 but was denied entry into the United States by the Bush administration.

Ramadan had donated about $1,300 to a Swiss charity that the U.S. Treasury Department later categorized as a terrorist organization because it gave aid to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group. After years of legal battles, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued an order in April rescinding the travel ban and allowing Ramadan, who accepted a post at Oxford University and speaks and writes about the need to reject violence, to appear in the U.S.

The majority of sessions at the Islamic convention focus on family, marriage, school, kids, business, finances, charities, the efforts of Muppies (Muslim urban professions) to manage their busy lives, and everything from green energy and organic farming to bringing Islam to deaf people and controlling a child's time on Facebook.

But Zarzour says speakers such as Ramadan and Paul Larudee, founder of the Free Gaza Movement, will probably attract more attention.

"It will draw some protests and some support," Zarzour figures, noting that the freedom to disagree should be a part of the July Fourth weekend. "This is America. It's all within the American experience."