This week, a lot of frightening events are happening.
This week, Congressional hearings are currently underway to investigate the “radicalization of Islam in America”.
Led primarily by Representative Peter King, the hearings target American Muslim politicans, advocacy groups, community organizers, and more, questioning them about terrorism within the Muslim community. Key trials have included CAIR and Minnesota’s own Rep. Keith Ellison.
For some, these hearings are strongly reminiscent of the McCarthy trials of the previous century. For others, they offer an excuse to question the Muslim community. “A Congressional hearing on Thursday addressing homegrown Islamic terrorism offered divergent portraits of Muslims in America,” wrote the New York Times, “one as law-abiding people who are unfairly made targets, the other as a community ignoring radicalization among its own and failing to confront what one witness called “this cancer that’s within.”
Also this week, America is still reeling from the anti-Muslim ICNA protests in Orange County and from the anti-Muslim murder of two Sikh men in Elk Grove.
In Orange County, regardless of ICNA’s individual motives or agendas (which may or may not be reprehensible), protests can and should be examples of fair, peaceful, inclusive, and nonviolent action for change. Even if the above video has been edited and marketed unfairly, even one bad apple is too many. Vitriolic racial and ethnic hatred is unacceptable. We should all learn from these experiences and use them to produce better dialogue in our public sphere — especially regarding religion.
And in Elk Grove, 65 year old Surinder Singh and 78 year old Gurmej Atwal were gunned down in broad daylight. Their murder is under investigation as a hate crime directed at Muslims. When will this end? When will the misguided hatred and violence stop? “During a news conference Monday at a Sikh temple, a spokesman said the recent violence has scared some temple-goers into concealing any indicators of their religion. Sikhs often are mistaken for Muslims and have been the subject of occasional violence across the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.”
However: This week, we are fighting back with a better story.
This week, the Hamline University Better Together + Taking Root campaign is coming together to share an interfaith meal, collect donations, and volunteer for a young refugee family from Burma.
Karen refugees Ker Ner and Paw Shu are 19 and 23 years old, and they are expecting their first child in May. Hamline interfaith students are bringing together their faiths and traditions and giving them a helping hand!
Join us on Saturday at 2:00pm. Meet up at the statue of Bishop Hamline on Hewitt Avenue in Hamline’s campus, and we’ll head to our service site in a Hamline van! We’re also going to share pizza and work on packing welcome kits! Key donations include pots/pans, bakeware, silverware, can openers, new towels, new pillows, waste basket, broom, mop, new toilet paper, new shampoo, and baby items.
Also this week, Hamline University’s Multifaith Alliance shared an awesome event about welcoming atheists into interfaith dialogue.
After setting our safe space and digging into our lasagna, we talked about a lot of important questions. What is atheism? What is interfaith? These simple words actually encompass a wide variety of personal perspectives and worldviews. How can we welcome them all?
With the help of a fantastic video by notable atheist Chris Stedman of NonProphet Status, we listened to stories and shared our own. How can we make new friends? How can we develop some more inclusive language? What do we want to learn more about? How can people who care about interfaith work be welcoming of atheists? How can atheists, Humanists, Religious Humanists, non-theists, Freethinkers, and more be receptive to working with all members of our community?
Most importantly, how can all of our faiths and traditions make an impact?
