Interfaith Coalitions and Revolution

I was sitting there in my "Introduction to the Middle East and Islamic Politics" course today, listening to Dr. Hashemi lecture about the relationship between authoritarian states and their effect on political expression. He did this through a case study of Iran, explaining the ways in which politicized Islam grew to be a legitimate outlet for Iranians because there was no other outlet. This is what happens when a government squeezes its own civil society.

As he was speaking, I zoned out, and found myself wondering (because I've never checked it out) where the other religious groups stood in those months leading up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Despite Tehran's vociferous condemnations of Israel, Iran still boasts a population of 25,000-ish Jews (they've been there a very, very long time). At the time of the Revolution, there could have been as many as 80,000. There are of course Christians of various shades and Zoroastrians and probably bunches of others. I'm going to do some research and see if I can find out how involved, if at all, these groups were before, during, and after the Revolution. And of course find out if they are involved today.

It's worth noting that interfaith coalitions are really a value-added way to promote revolution/social change. Martin Luther King walked with Abraham Joshua Heschel. Gandhi collaborated with Indian Muslims and the panoply of South Asian faiths. There were Christian/Muslim/Jewish coalitions working to end apartheid in South Africa.

In all these cases, and for our current hour, the power of people of faith cooperating to do good things is readily apparent, and cannot be underestimated.

Religion and Politics Roundtable - A Long Post

The Center for Religious Services hosted a "Religion and Politics Roundtable" last night. The idea was to get a representative panel together, have them give different perspectives on the role of religion in political life or vice versa, then have Q&A time. We had a good crowd. The University Chaplain opened it up by explaining a bit about the contemporary American religio-political scene.

The first speaker was an organizer with the Navigators, an interdenominational Christian ministry. He started out with Matthew 22 and Leviticus 19 which state, respectively, "love the Lord your God with all your heart," and "love thy neighbor." His view was that Christians who held these passages close to them ought to care deeply about our election process, since the elections will affect the lives of all people. He mentioned how the Bible doesn't explicitly talk about every political issue, but it can help to provide us with a normative moral framework to figure it out. He also spoke to the dangerous ways in which politicians claim God to be on their side during elections, something that seems against the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven not being on earth.

The next speaker was a representative of FOCUS (Fellowship Of Catholic University Students), and he began with the distinction between himself and his parents, who he referred to as an "older generation" of Catholics. This older generation was still concerned, as it always had been, with things like civil liberties and worker's movements. In his mind, younger Catholics have become concerned more with issues of LIFE, and the sanctity thereof. In one sly turn of phrase, he was stating that workers have a voice, while the unborn lack that luxury. It was very curious and clever.

Next up was a member of our faculty who happened to be a Turkish Muslim. He spoke about Turkey's secular nature and the mandatory nature of their elections, i.e. you have to vote. Turkey's ruling party is the AK (Justice and Development), a slightly Islamic party. He noted that the President and the Prime Minister are both "practicing" Muslims. But he was also quick to note that the Quran deals overwhelmingly not with political life, but with the life of the individual, and about how to be a good person. This was what he saw Islam meaning for political life - making decisions, even in elections, that help us be good people.

Our rabbi from Chabad rounded out the panel by explaining a large part of Jewish history - the Chaplain had to eventually cut him off. But the gist was that for the fifteen centuries after Moses had been given the LAW, Jews had ruled themselves by Divine Governance, although there had been kings who slipped. But then the Babylonian Captivity began, and the Jews found themselves under the control of someone who did not share their faith. The question became - How do we keep the faith when our system of law and our truth are not running the show? He explained that since then it has been a waiting game. The Messiah will eventually come back and restore the original plan. But he was very clear in pointing out that the quietist version of Judaism has been in effect since the destruction of the Second Temple. Jews were faced with a bit of a "Hobbes' Dilemma." It was better to have a repressive government than complete anarchy. This was, however, beginning to change as Jews came into their own in the political life of America.

After that we went to Q&A. People asked about the tide of secularism in Europe and America and what it meant for us. The Catholic fellow pointed out that Catholics were called by Scripture to spread the Gospel, and that no matter how secular the world got, they would always have that responsibility. The rabbi pointed out that European Jews used to have to wait until a major Christian holiday to get beaten up (har har), but that both Jews and Muslims were being discriminated in Europe nowadays by "religious bigots without faith." It was a very keen reading of what's been going on on the Continent since the end of World War II.

The Catholic fellow mentioned seeing New Jersey Governor John Corzine (who he referred to as pro-abortion) in the office of a local bishop. He confronted the man of the cloth and asked him what on earth the two men could have possibly been talking about. The bishop replied, "Oh you know, the things we have in common - our common concerns, like the poor and civil liberties." He admitted that as people of faith, we can pick and choose when the times demand it.

With the exception of a few more forays into the "abortion issue," the whole thing went quite well. And it ended with a very prescient observation on behalf of the Muslim professor, who said, "Of course, you don't have to vote the same way each time. Every four years you vote again, so if something isn't working, you can change it."

DIYS

When I was working as the Wackerlin Fellow at Aurora University, I organized a Day of Interfaith Youth Service under the auspices of the Interfaith Youth Core of Chicago. The long and short of it was that we took 40 young people of faith (Jews, Catholics, Bahais, Hindus, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Atheists, etc.) and put them together to tie together fleece blankets for our local transitional living community. After the blankets were all set, we gathered around for a massive feast (mostly of junk food) and then retreated to our original groups for some dialogue about the shared value of service.

Most of the kids in my group had already spent lots of time within their faith communities in various incarnations of service; many had spent time working in New Orleans after Katrina. One young man in particular made a very poignant remark. He told us that it was refreshing and welcome to have a safe space where he could talk about issues of "faith" without getting "religion" crammed down his throat.

It's comments like that that remind me why interfaith dialogue is so appealing, and especially to young people. There are precious few opportunities to engage our own faith in neutral, mutually-reinforcing spaces, and sitting down and chatting with other people about shared religious values is one way to make those opportunities available.

Choosing "The American Dream"

New post at the Interfaith Youth Core's "Bridge-Builders" social network. It can be viewed here, and is also reproduced in its entirety below:

It dawned on me some time ago that most nonprofits exist to do good things: fill gaps in social services, provide hope, advocate for a positive future, etc. I tried imagining what a nonprofit organization would look like if it did things that were bad. You know, like a group that tried to ban kittens or keep people in poverty. Maybe a nonprofit that was trying to take aspirin off the streets or something like that. Such a thing, I thought, would be very, very weird. But dangerous...now that's a possibility that I hadn't really thought about.

I have a low tolerance for groups (be they nonprofit or otherwise) that work to keep women in the 19th century, or that espouse radical political programs, or that seek inequitable resolutions to social issues. I don't like the thought of people trying their best to make things worse for most people. And I definitely have no respect for groups spouting hate speech, especially when it comes in DVD format in your Sunday newspaper.

The Clarion Fund, an organization whose stated goal is informing the American public of the threat of militant Islam, has packaged and released a few dozen million copies of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” to newspaper subscribers in many "swing states," ostensibly to inform them that national security issues (i.e. scary Muslims) should push them toward one presidential ticket in particular. The Obsession DVD is not vital information, it is careless drivel, and those who have seen the film and have the ability to reason will understand this. Let’s be honest here – the Clarion Fund is spending a lot of money to destroy one of the historical roots of America: freedom of religion.

America is a melting pot, right? People of faith have been streaming over here for hundreds of years, yearning for a spot where they could practice whatever religion they felt like and not be spat upon, arrested, or worse. It is part of the American Dream. The Obsession DVD, and other attempts to misrepresent and malign the religion of Islam and its followers, can do great harm to our nation. We will view with suspicion the many Muslims who have come to call America home.

Pardon the violent imagery, but if I could buy an “Opposite Gun,” something that would reverse whatever it was fired upon, I would shoot it at the Clarion Fund and see what popped out. Odds are, the opposite of a group like that would be something like the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a group based out of Chicago that works very hard to strengthen the bonds of community and cooperation among the diverse faiths of America. Instead of envisioning a western world under siege, the IFYC celebrates our religious pluralism, and posits the very American notion that we are all in this together, regardless of what god (if any) you pray to. While the Clarion Fund and its supporters shout loudly about the incompatibility of American democracy and Islam, the IFYC and its supporters illuminate interfaith collaboration and the shared values of all religions.

I would prefer that the effects of my Opposite Gun remain permanent, but I know that eventually the intolerant people and organizations that I have shot will return to their regular, nasty selves. The Interfaith Youth Core and all the other good groups will still be out there, too, and they will have a lot of work to do. And regular Americans, be they Christian or Muslim or whatever, will have a lot of work as well. We have to remember that there are in fact groups out there that do only bad things, and that have a very negative view of the world. So will we choose a worldview of negativity and opposition, or one of positivity and cooperation? Let’s stick with the American Dream.

Heartland

Rough news out of Elmhurst College in the suburbs of Chicago: http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1214233,101008attack.article

A Muslim student was assaulted a week after some anti-Muslim graffiti was found on campus. I've spent a lot of time at Elmhurst. I like their programs. They've got some very committed interfaith-workers there. Sad that stuff like this would happen there. All the more reason to keep doing what we're doing.

Yom Kippur

Happy New Year 5769 to all our Jewish friends!

Jesus Mosque

A mosque has recently opened in Madaba, Jordan, 30 kilometers south of the capital Amman. This is not surprising - Jordan is a Muslim country. But this one is interesting; it's name is "Jesus Christ Mosque." 10% of the population of Madaba is Christian, and there is a long history of interfaith cooperation there.  One of the worshippers had this to say: 

"We have lived in peace for centuries with our Christian brothers and now we feel that this mosque symbolizes out fraternity."

Jordan has often pushed itself as a model of good interfaith living, with at least 5% of its population being Christian. There are also Druze and various other Muslim denominations. The full story can be found here.

Films of Hope: Eboo Patel

Find more videos like this on bridge-builders

Eid Mubarak!

As-salamu alaikum!

The DU Interfaith Student Alliance would like to wish a Happy Eid to all of our friends!

An Army of Compassion

Many of us know or have heard of Rick Warren, the author of "A Purpose Driven Life" and pastor of Saddleback Church (the site of a recent debate between our presidential candidates). For some, he represents a key figurehead of the modern American Evangelical movement. I stumbled across some comments that he made at a recent Clinton Global Initiative meeting:

"There are 600 million Buddhists in the world, there are 800 million Hindus in the world, there are a billion Muslims in the world, and there are 2.3 billion Christians . . . And there is already an army ready to be mobilized, an army of compassion, in those villages. They're called churches or mosques or temples or synagogues."

The last line is in bold print because it's important. This is a telling comment, not simply because he's laying out a vision of the power of people of faith to do good in the world, but because he's including all people of faith. Pastor Warren wields considerable influence among American faithful. When he mobilizes his "Army of Compassion," I don't think it'll just be Christians marching to help.

*Disclaimer* I found this quote on a "Biblical End Times" forum, where concerned Christians were venting their frustration with Warren's open message. Still, I doubt he would ever fall that far out of favor.