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2010-09-22 |
By
Banan F. Malkawi
AMMONNEWS – A discussion of Islam and
Muslims in America and America’s
relation with the Muslim world may be
best understood and explained when
viewed from within the context of the
history, development, and status of
religious pluralism and diversity in the
United States.
In a conversation via video-conferencing
on Tuesday held at Princess Sumaya
University for Technology, a panel of
Jordanian scholars discussed religious
pluralism and diversity in America and
the U.S. relationship with Islam and
Muslims with Harvard University religion
scholar Professor Diana Eck, author of
“A New Religious America: How a
“Christian Country” Has Become the
World’s Most Religiously Diverse
Nation.”
On the occasion of the launch of the
Arabic translation of her book,
Professor Eck highlighted her work with
the Pluralism Project, an ongoing study
of religious diversity in the United
States and a think-tank that explores
and interprets the religious dimensions
of America’s new immigration, focusing
on the explosion of Muslim, Hindu and
Buddhist communities, among others, in
America over the decades.
The Translation of the book, which was
originally published in 2001, was
overseen by the Arabic Book Program at
the U.S. Embassy, and was launched by
the U.S. Embassy in Amman, in
cooperation with The Royal Institute for
Interfaith Studies.
The Panel included H.E. Professor Kamel
Abu Jaber, Emeritus Professor and
currently president of the Jordan
Institute for Middle Eastern Studies,
Dr. Amer al-Hafi, Assistant Professor of
the Fundamentals of Religion (Usul
al-Din) at Al al-Beit University, and
Dr. Mohammad Rayyan, Assistant Professor
in the Faculty of Shariah at University
of Jordan.
In her book, Eck traces back the roots
of religious diversity to the
establishment of the United States with
the arrival of colonists followed by
waves immigrants from around the world,
noting that differences among various
religious denominations culminated in
constitutional guarantees that there
shall not be an established state
religion in America, but rather a
guarantee of freedom of religious
practice, “which has been tested
throughout the years of the young
country.”
The religious experience in America was
not one without tribulations, noted Eck,
with “not so admirable” movements that
discriminated against religious
minorities, be they Catholic, Jewish,
and later witnessed through anti-Chinese
and anti-Asian exclusion leagues, that
are also seen today with anti-Muslim
waves of Islamophobia.
She highlighted the Pluralism Project as
an effort to investigate the religious
dimensions of America’s changing
religious landscape, noting that new
immigrants, along with their economic
and political dreams, often brought
their faiths and found a haven to stress
their religious identities, culminating
in changing the religious landscape in
America, but also the context in which
religious communities interact with each
other. The Project not only highlights
how America has changed and been
affected by such diversity, but also how
religious communities adapt and change,
becoming “American in their own way.”
Commenting on the increasing presence of
Muslims in America, Eck said “We no
longer speak of Islam and the Islamic
World as ‘somewhere else,’ America is
now part of the Islamic world, and Islam
has become part of the local religious
landscape in America.”
Yet highlighting that incidents of
Anti-Muslim hate crimes even preceded
the tragic 9/11 events, with “tension,
fear, anger, harassment, and violence
that we can see all along.” Yet despite
that, since the 1990’s, America has also
witnessed a rising interfaith movement
on the local level all over the U.S.
Yet as religious communities are
becoming more visible than they were
before, waves of Islamophobia has also
risen in reaction, as evident in the
controversy surrounding the Cordoba
Project, which became pinned “Ground
Zero Mosque” by opponents to the Islamic
Center that aimed to become an
interfaith initiative for Muslims to
interact with other faiths.
She added, “we are hearing more of the
negative voices than positive profound
voices such as the “Common Word
Initiative,” and stressed that religious
pluralism is an issue facing the future
of every country, and not uniquely an
American issue.
Commenting on her book, H.E. Professor
Kamel Abu Jaber characterized the book
as “radiating hope,” stressing that
America and Americans had once
represented hope for oppressed nations,
that America’s power is not in its
military might, but rather in the
thought and freedoms that it ought to
give to the world. On the issue of Islam
and Isamophobia in America, Abu Jaber
stressed that “we hope that America
would return and rediscover its
humanistic self, the country and society
that was once the hallmark of hope and
freedom.. the Arab and Muslim worlds
hope that America would rediscover
itself and help us in humanizing Israel
as well.”
He described the book as a “Journey of
the Professor herself and a tribute to
her country, a descriptive, analytical,
and optimistic volume on the new
religious scene in America, and
highlights that such creeds are all
facing similar challenges in America,
especially that they all contain many
voices, and like Islam, do not all have
a unified voice.”
On his part, Dr. Amer al-Hafi commended
the author for her “remarkable
objectivity” in writing this book,
noting that objectivity in the study of
religions is a rather difficult task.
“Candidness and objectivity are very
evident in the book, especially in the
author’s ability to critically analyze
the development and current reality and
landscape of religious diversity in her
country. “
“This encourages the need for us to also
change our curriculums regarding “the
other,” noting that there are common
misconceptions perpetrated by Muslims
themselves regarding “the other.” “If we
wanted to resolve problems of religious
minorities in America, we have to
resolve them everywhere else as well,”
he said.
“We as Muslims are in dire need for
serious reconsideration of our view of
“the other,” and stressed that Islamic
and Christian cultures are very close to
each other, especially with Islam’s
stress on respect and love for the
Christ, yet a wide gap exists today
between these two cultures compared to
the close relationship between the
Christian and Jewish cultures.
“Pluralism is the model solution not
just for religions in America. Every
religion is part of our human heritage.
What is important is how to understand,
respect, and co-exist with these
religions.”
Dr. Muhammad Rayyan, Assistant Professor
in the Faculty of Shariah at Jordan
University, noted that the book is
written an exciting story-like style
that is full of lessons, noting that the
book’s impartiality and objectivity
highlights its socio-religious
methodology rather than a theological
one.
“The book and its translation have come
at a critical time when extremist voices
against Islam are rising.. and this book
is a building block in bridging the gap
between “us” and “them,” and a
building-block of optimism and a step
towards it.”
“Religious pluralism may be a
double-edge sword, it may be fertile
ground for acculturation between
different peoples, but also may be a
sword that tears apart relationships
between and among religious faith
groups,” he said.
In religious dialogue, Rayyan said, it
is not necessary to accept, what is
important is to understand and respect
the other. He highlighted a dangerous
triangle of misconceptions, between the
West towards Islam, Muslims towards the
West, and Muslims towards Islam itself.
This, he said “leads to
misrepresentation of followers of
religions who misrepresent their faiths,
which then leads to misleading and
misguiding paths that widen the gap
between religious groups, and such was
the case in how Islam has been greatly
misrepresented and how media is used to
mislead and misguide audience on Islam.
He however disagreed with the author
that Islam in itself carries a cause for
the existing tensions among religions,
he stressed that it is not Islam itself,
or Christianity, Judaism or any other
religion, but rather our understanding
and behavior in representing the
religions that is the major cause of
tensions and misunderstanding between
religions, noting that Islam obliges the
values of respect and acceptance and
even cooperation among faiths.
On highlighting the treatment for such
tensions, he noted that “pluralism
without dialogue causes fragmentation
and division, whereas pluralism with
dialogue results in a society
characterized by solidarity and
understanding.”
He stressed the need to work on more
fair and balanced media, both in the
West and the Arab world, noting that
just as Western Media misrepresents and
offends Islam, so does Arab media as
well generalizes misconceptions about
the West.
Professor Eck said in her concluding
words that “Pluralism is not simply
tolerance, or a laissez-faire attitude.
In the world today, we live too closely
to have tolerance as the standard,
Pluralism is also not relativism either,
it rather begins with difference; we do
not have to agree on everything, we need
more knowledge. Pluralism requires the
language of dialogue.”
Professor Diana L. Eck is a Professor of
Comparative Religion and Indian Studies
at Harvard University where she is chair
of the Religion Department. Since 1991,
she has headed the Pluralism Project. In
recognition of her groundbreaking work
on America’s fast-changing religious
landscape, she received the National
Humanities Medal from President Clinton
and the national Endowment for the
Humanities in 1998.
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