“It’s difficult,” said Imam Talib Shareef, who is head preacher at the Nation’s Mosque.

He made the comments in an interview with Catholic News Service Nov. 28. Two weeks earlier, terrorist attacks, which the Islamic State claimed responsibility for, killed 130 people and wounded hundreds of others in various locations in Paris.

Shareef has condemned the attacks in the French capital in the strongest terms, much as he has similar attacks claimed by Islamic State and other militant groups the imam lamented were tarnishing the image of Islam.

“The essence of Islam is peace. These extremists … they aren’t Islam. They are the biggest challenge for people of faith, and they are the biggest challenge to the world,” he said, and then he sighed.
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