“People think whenever a Muslim does something it’s because of his religion,” Asani said. “It’s like looking at the prison population of the U.S. where most of the prisoners are Christian and saying, therefore, Christianity promotes crime.”

Engler said this panel was just the beginning of promoting understanding about Islam.

“This evening was not meant to neatly package Islam,” Engler said. “If anything, this evening shows the complexity of the religion.”

—Staff writer Anne K. Kofol can be reached at kofol@fas.harvard.edu

All of the panelists stressed that the core messages of Islam are inclusiveness and peace.

“The word ‘Islam’ means submission. The word ‘Muslim’ means submitter. A person who submits to God if they’re Christian or Jewish is Islam,” said panelist Ali S. Asani, professor of the practice of Indo-Muslim languages and cultures.

“You don’t need an ID to get into a mosque, you don’t need a membership,” said Munir Fasheh, director of the Arab Education Program in the Middle Eastern Studies Center at Harvard.

The panelists also tried to dispel the conception of Muslims as angry proponets of holy war, or “jihad.”

Hossam Jabri, chair of the Interfaith Committee of the Islamic Society of Boston, said there are only two reasons for a Muslim to go to war—physical self-defense