Source: theoaklandpress.com

AMYA of Metro Detroit volunteers donating water for the recent Flint Water Crisis.

A Michigan Muslim youth group will continue to serve the City of Rochester Hills after a pledge made Monday, July 18 at the third annual day at city hall.

“Our motto is ‘Love for All, Hatred for None,’ ” said Adeel Ahmed, President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association of Metro Detroit. “We will never cease to sacrifice our wealth, time, and honor for the sake of our faith, country, and nation.”

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association of Metro Detroit is one of 70 chapters across the country. The local group pledged their allegiance, support and service to the City of Rochester Hills two years ago during a July 2014 city council meeting and again a year later in July 2015.

AMYA of Metro Detroit sponsoring a Rochester Hills Arbor Day ceremony in 2015.

The association chapter has served the Rochester community by donating food to local non-profit Neighborhood House, volunteering for the Older Persons Commission and organizing water bottle drives for the recent Flint Water Crisis.

This year’s pledge will include a new initiative where The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Center in Rochester Hills will be offered to the public as a community center where residents can play sports, utilize the facility for events and meet to learn more about Muslims as a weekly “Meet a Muslim” coffee hour. These meetings will take places Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

“We want to show the general public how normal [Muslims] actually are,” said Mahir Osman, vice president of the Metro Detroit chapter.

“We welcome questions about the Muslim faith. We are with you in your community and there is no reason to fear living side-by-side with Muslims as neighbors.

The group’s pledge comes at a time when Muslims in America are at the end of inflammatory rhetoric from Republicans across the nation, who gather this week in Cleveland, Ohio for the Republican National Convention.

“It’s not healthy rhetoric,” Osman said. “We invite these leaders to visit one of our groups 72 mosques to learn more about Islam.”

Mahir said Muslims should respond to this type of discourse from leaders with kindness, education and academia.

“Our objective to to show the difference in what Islam teaches and the hateful ideology of ISIS,” Osman said. “We discuss the Quran and how groups interpret it differently.”

For more information on the group, visit their website at www.muslimyouth.org.