Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris and numerous others by the Islamic State group have forced Muslim communities around the world, including in Japan, to repeat a familiar phrase: Islam isn't the problem.
Though none of the organizations in Japan's Muslim community contacted by The Japan Times on Monday had received threats or other harmful acts of the kind they experienced when freelance journalist Kenji Goto was killed by Islamic militants early this year, they said many people still misunderstand Muslims and their religion.
"Islam's holy book Quran mandates absolute freedom to all people of the world, not only Muslims," said Haroon Qureshi, a representative of the Japan Islamic Trust in Tokyo.