Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Table Spread

Home
Muslim
A Renewed Commitment to Religious Pluralism: Initial Reflections on President Obama’s Mosque Visit

A Renewed Commitment to Religious Pluralism: Initial Reflections on President Obama’s Mosque Visit

Last updated on: February 4, 2016 at 12:06 am by Dilshad Ali

A Renewed Commitment to Religious Pluralism: Initial Reflections on President Obama’s Mosque Visit 2016-02-04T00:06:59-04:00 Dilshad Ali

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo courtesy of Zainab Chaudry

Good news travels fast, and this time, it’s generated quite the buzz in cities across America — particularly in Baltimore, Maryland.

Last Saturday, the White House revealed that President Barack Obama will visit the Islamic Society of Baltimore this week. That visit happened today.

He has visited mosques in other countries before, but this will be his first time visiting a U.S. mosque since he took office seven years ago.

While mosque leaders and White House staff coordinate logistics, this exciting news dominated dinner table conversations, especially in Muslim households as families discuss this historic occasion.

The timing is not coincidental. This long-awaited trip penciled on the president’s itinerary comes during a critical time for members of the Islamic faith.

In recent months, anti-Muslim bigotry has taken on a pronounced and emboldened tone – creating a hostile environment where demonizing Islam and vilifying Muslims is normalized and profitable. The president recently said:

GOP presidential candidates … have been using distasteful tactics to curry favor among their base, and the fallout from their fear-mongering has affected Muslims on multiple levels.

Islamophobic rhetoric has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels in America, and many Muslims report feeling more dejected and disenfranchised than ever before.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees religious freedom for all Americans. But increased incidences of Muslims being profiled, harassed and bullied reinforce the perception that it only applies to some.

GOP presidential candidates, political pundits and party elites have been using distasteful tactics to curry favor among their base, and the fallout from their fear-mongering has affected Muslims on multiple levels.

Bipartisan repudiation of bigoted attacks has been swift, though largely ineffective.

President Obama has also vocally denounced the hate speech and intolerance while pledging his commitment to defending religious freedom.

During his final State of the Union address in January, he emphasized that commitment:

When politicians insult Muslims, whether abroad or our fellow citizens, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid is called names, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. It betrays who we are as a country. ‘We the People.’ Our Constitution begins with those three simple words, words we’ve come to recognize mean all the people, not just some; words that insist we rise and fall together, and that’s how we might perfect our Union.

This week, the president’s words were underscored by his mosque visit, described by the White House as an event to “celebrate American Muslims’ contributions to our nation and reaffirm the importance of religious freedom to our way of life.”

During a round table with community members before his speech, the president delivered remarks stressing the importance of staying true to our core values of welcoming fellow Americans and speaking out against bigotry. He listened to what Muslims had to say, digested their comments and then reflected it back in the speech he gave. Watch it here:

As an activist working to build interfaith relations and protect the rights of diverse Muslim communities, this occasion was especially important because I have witnessed firsthand the startling and grave impact of bullying, harassment and discrimination.

“I don’t want to be Muslim anymore,” a Muslim friend’s son confessed one night. Unprepared for this discussion, his shocked mother asked why. His response: “Muslims are bad people.” Parents like her are anxious knowing they cannot protect their child from every attack on their religion.

In the aftermath of the tragic San Bernardino shootings, a 13-year-old Maryland Muslim student was bullied and taunted by a classmate who yanked off her headscarf. When reprimanded, he replied that he was “making jokes” — except it was not funny and no one laughed.

Anti-Muslim bigotry impacts people regardless of their age and socioeconomic status, and it has both immediate and long-term consequences.

“The visit will not be a magic bullet to cure every problem or resolve every grievance. But it will go a long way to restore faith in American ideals …

The president’s visit will not silence critics demanding an end to drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and elsewhere that kill innocent Muslims. It will not ease the pressure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility that holds scores of prisoners detained indefinitely without trial for over a decade.

It did not and will not appease activists mobilizing against unconstitutional policies and programs that wrongly profile vulnerable communities or compromise the rights of law-abiding Americans.

The visit was not be a magic bullet to cure every problem or resolve every grievance. But it did go a long way to restore faith in American ideals and reassure concerned communities of their place in our country.

It was a strong rebuke to those promoting bigotry and intolerance by sending the message that American Muslims must also be respected and valued in our country.

Today, our commander-in-chief enters a U.S. mosque for the first time since assuming presidency, and I thought about my Muslim friend and her son, who is struggling to reconcile his American nationality with his Islamic faith.

As he greeted guests and spoke on inclusion and mutual respect, I remembered the thirteen-year-old Muslim girl who was bullied and harassed because she wears an Islamic headscarf

And as our president reaffirmed his pledge to promote religious pluralism, I renewed my commitment to preserving the ideals of our nation he speaks of so it is inclusive of all people — regardless of their religion.

Follow Zainab Chaudry on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/zainabnc, A version of this article originally appeared on Huffington Post.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 18, 2016

Dr. King's Legacy: Fulfilling The Pledge of A 'Promised Land'

Next Post

February 29, 2016 Ring the Bell In Honor of Black History Month and the Struggles of So Many

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the first disciple to be martyred?

Select your answer to see how you score.

James Thomas Andrew Peter