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Local Muslim group condemns Paris attacks

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Hoosier Muslims are condemning the attacks in Paris.

24-Hour News 8’s Phil Sanchez sat down with a spokesperson for the Indiana chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community group.

Muzaffar Ahmad said he wanted Hoosiers to know that these types of attacks do not represent Islam, and that his heart goes out to the victims of the Paris attacks and their families.

“Every time this happens in the world I feel like someone is just abusing my rights, my peaceful religion is being used and hijacked,” he said. “The reason I’m here, the reason I’m speaking is I want to take it back, take that flag of Islam back from the hands of these extremists and tell the people that no Islam is not a violent religion.”

Ahmad also said that every time something like this happens it stigmatizes a peaceful religion.

“It’s the extremism that is our enemy, so what I want Hoosiers, my fellow Hoosiers to know is that, don’t fear Muslims,” he said. “I know there are a lot of bad things being done by ISIS, and before that it was Al Queda, before that it was this or that, and it seems like there is something wrong with the religion of Islam, but the true teachings of Islam is love and peace just like any other religion.”

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, established in 1921, is the first American-Muslim organization.