When Interfaith Goes Sideways: The
Uncomfortable Smiles, Selective Hearing
29 May 2012
By Imraan Siddiqi
Interfaith events have always represented a paradox to
me yet, I find myself attending more and more of
them. On one hand these events do give an
opportunity to bridge religious gaps. Conversely, the
tenor of the events sometimes tend to be too sugary
sweet and representatives from all faiths have been
guilty of toning out the other side while smiling,
only to tune in when their religious group weighs in.
Even though you enter the events with the best of
intentions, only to walk away asking yourself "Have
I really accomplished anything today"?
Last Tuesday, I was one of two Muslim representatives
at an event hosted by the Arizona Interfaith Movement
entitled "Texts of Terror". The purpose of the event
was to highlight verses within the 3 major
monotheistic scriptures (Hebrew Bible, New Testament,
and Quran) that contain violent imagery and have
possibly been used to justify violent acts. The title
was a red flag to me when I received the invitation
to attend, I knew this was going to be a lightning rod
event.
A few days before the event took place we received
word that the already controversial subject matter had
just added a new wrinkle an infamous local pseudo
scholar named Carl Goldberg would be attending the
event with the hopes of stirring up the crowd and
turning the dialog into the debate. This just added to
my hesitance, but I knew I would have to pull through.
Imam Anas Hlayhel and I both sit on the board of CAIR-AZ,
and we have attended multiple events held by the
Arizona Interfaith Movement as representatives for the
Muslim community. Usually, the attendance is
relatively sparse but on this day, we were told we
would be walking into a capacity crowd at the Arizona
Jewish Heritage Center. As we walk toward the
entrance, a familiar face greets us the director of
the Heritage Center. "Hey guys, I just want to let you
know that we have a weird crowd today, so I apologize
in advance for anyone who may say offensive things to
you." As the two Muslims walk into the room I felt
like the scene in Gladiator when Russell Crowe and
Djimon Honsou were first thrown into the arena,
waiting for the carnage to begin. At first glance, it
was hard to tell who was friendly and who was there in
the hopes of seeing the Emperor give the "thumbs down"
signal to us. I have never seen the Goldberg figure
before, I have just read his hateful, manipulative and
inaccurate discourses on my religion Which one was
he? I scanned the room looking for someone who looked
like they were coming with an agenda but it was hard
to tell who was who.
Looks like we would have to wait until the lions were
released
and then the Tea Party Patriots walk in. How
did I know that these people were with the AZ Tea
Party Patriots movement? Well one of them was wearing
a pin that said "AZ Tea Party Patriots," so that sorta
gave it away. You see Dr. Goldberg along with other
virulently Islamophobic speakers such as Pamela Geller
are extremely popular among Tea Party groups
especially here in Arizona. These groups like to get
worked up and amplify violence conducted by Muslims
assigning guilt by association to the religion and all
its adherents due to the acts of a few. Here are just
a few links to the events they put on:
http://www.sparksrepublicanwomen.com/srweventcalander.html
https://www.facebook.com/events/184604054923770/
http://sonoranalliance.com/tag/carl-goldberg/
As the event commenced, it became clear that the
organizers wanted nothing to do with the Tea-Partiers
and their self-described "expert on Islam." The
organizer (Dr. Paul Eppinger) set the ground rules
from the beginning this event was for our selected
clergy to cover the topic of violence in holy
scriptures. This was not going to turn into a debate
or an opportunity to bash a religion basically an
Islam-bashing fest. He also stated that each audience
member was only allowed to ask one question and no
speeches or diatribes were going to be accepted. It is
then, we saw Goldberg and the other Tea-Partiers look
at each other, scrambling for a backup plan.
When it came to the program itself each clergy
member did a great job of covering and giving an
explanation of so-called "violent" verses in their
scriptures, while providing the historical and social
context. For example, the rabbi read from the book of
Deuteronomy - where the believers are instructed to
wipe out the 7 nations: the Hittites, Girgashites,
Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and
Jebusites.
Next, the Methodist pastor/scholar covered material
from the Book of Revelations where many of the
verses that appeal to fighting refer to "The Beast"
which in historical context represented the Romans.
Finally, the imam read from Surah 9 (al-Tawbah) which
many extremists misuse to justify acts of violence
and which many Islamophobes misuse to label Islam as
inherently violent. All three clergy presented great
cases as to why their faiths' respective verses should
not be taken out of context, while highlighting recent
cases of violence done in the name of almost every
faith and some in the crowd seemed to agree. But
what were Goldberg and the Tea Party doing while the
actual program was taking place?
After their wings got clipped with the one-question
limit, the provocateurs in the crowd were scrambling
for a solution. This was going to be Dr. Goldberg's
big moment he brought a binder full of material, and
had a list of questions that he was ready to shout
out. What was he going to do next? He started coaching
the people sitting next to him and the Tea Partiers on
what questions to ask during the Q&A portion. As the
Q&A started, the "expert on Islam" jumped out of his
seat in anticipation to be the first questioner. This
is where the wheels started to fall off as Goldberg
accused the imam of being apologetic and obscuring
information, while praising the pastor and the rabbi
for being so honest. "I now have a comment if you will
allow me" said Goldberg.
The moderator of the session shut him down -and
Goldberg's time was up. He now went to other audience
members to try and coach them on what questions to
ask. There was a poor old guy sitting next to Goldberg
(I sat directly behind them) and Dr. Carl was kept
pointing to the piece of paper in his hand on what
question to ask. The elderly man wasn't very quick on
the uptake, so it took about 5 minutes for him to get
properly coached by the anti-Islam polemicist. In the
meantime, our Tea Partiers shouted out questions on
how all Muslims want "Sharia Law," and screaming out
cases of where Muslims have done bad things.
The interfaith event was officially sideways.
In the dozen inter-religious events I have attended in
the last few years, this was the first time we have
encountered hostility and boy did it come strong.
Thankfully, we only had to endure about 10 minutes of
wild-eyed, out-of-context, unhinged questions
although it seemed like it lasted an hour. The members
of the clergy did a great job of extending their
answers sort of like the 4-corners offense in
basketball lingo. The event came to a close and the
Dr. Eppinger thanked everything for coming.
At this point, I didn't know if I would have to play
the role of secret service agent, and exit stage
left. Would this be the moment where the crowd joins
up with Goldberg's crew and starts screaming "Go back
to where you came from"? But a funny thing happened
instead of being taunted with jeers, chants and
madness we were greeted by hugs, handshakes and
gestures of goodwill streamed from the majority of the
crowd. The Tea Party reps were still looking for a
confrontation after the event was over, but their
hostility was completely overshadowed by the warmth
and compassion from the rest of the attendees. As the
angry Tea Party lady peered in the distance, the rabbi
asked us "You have time to go to lunch?" We obliged
the rabbi on his offer, much to the chagrin of our
counterparts.
For the hour and a half that we sat in the auditorium,
the question "what are we doing here?" kept resonating
in my mind. It was impossible to shake the feeling
that we were on the road to accomplishing nothing but
increasing our anxiety levels. But as we are taught in
our faith, if you approach a potentially negative
situation with the best of intentions there is
always a positive that will arise from it. Thankfully,
the ensuing lunch with the rabbi opened up such
positive avenues. After leaving the tension of the
previous environment, it was great to just sit down
and have meaningful dialogue with another member of
the faith-based community. In this brief but
meaningful conversation, we were able to discuss myths
and misconceptions about our respective faiths along
with the organizations that we represent.
More importantly, we all reached the conclusion that
while interfaith events are great and have their
place, the more important work will be "hands-on" and
educating our communities on a grassroots level. As
many activists and clergy who have participated in
interfaith events have said before, we shouldn't be
trained to just "tolerate" each other. Its time to
transcend those lines and advance the conversation
past the uncomfortable smiles, selective hearing, and
simply going back to business as usual after the event
is over. Thankfully, with the relationships we forged
on this day, there is definitely hope for a greater
and more meaningful level of participation in the
future. And while the detractors attempted to steer
this event off the tracks, they actually helped
strengthen the bond between faith leaders, and ensure
that we will work together to defeat the forces of
hate and intolerance.
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