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For Aliya Khan of Pittsburgh, the idea of Islam is spelled out in its Arabic translation: “submission to God.”
That submission is not compulsory, and the horizontal structure of her faith means it is practiced differently all over the globe, she said.
Khan, who teaches classes on Islam at the University of Pittsburgh's Osher School of Lifelong Learning, spoke Thursday to about 60 people at the American Association of University Women's meeting at the Murrysville Community Center.
In addition to giving a quick primer on the tenets of a religion practiced by nearly a quarter of the world's population, Khan also worked to dispel some popular misconceptions.
She pushed back against the idea that Islam is incompatible with modern democracy.
“Many Islamic countries are monarchies, but that is more a function of post-colonialism,” she said. “It's not a question of religion. It's a question of politics.”
Khan hit on the similarities among Islam, Christianity and Judaism, three religions that trace their roots to Abraham.
Muslims consider the gospel of Jesus and the Jewish Torah important holy texts to be studied in concert with the Quran, she said, and Islam has more prophets than Muhammad, including those familiar to Western Christians — such as Jesus, Moses, Solomon and David.
Garth Clarke of Murrysville said the talk was a unique learning opportunity.
“For me, I'm always interested in religion, even though I'm not religious,” he said. “I like to hear about anything newsworthy.”
The newsworthiness of Islam — that is to say, what mass media choose to cover — also was a topic.
“What you see so many times on the news is the ‘shock-and-awe' aspects of Islam,” Khan said. “You look at a group like ISIS, and they have 25,000 members. And that seems like a lot. But there are 1.7 billion Muslims in the world.”
Khan recommended that Americans thoroughly vet their sources of information about Islam to ensure that the person or group giving that information does not have a specific agenda.
One of the most misunderstood aspects of Islam is the concept of “jihad,” she said.
“It's simply a ‘struggle,' ” she said. “What I'm doing right now is ‘jihad' — I'm working to inform you.”
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-2862 or pvarine@tribweb.com.
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