Avoid religion and politics at the dinner table -- so goes the conventional wisdom. Tempers will flare and appetites curdle with the passions that both topics so often arouse. But in reality we need to get the kind of dinner-table discussions going that can help overcome some deep and poorly understood prejudices about religion in American life.
Keith Ellison, the first elected Muslim in Congress, observed this week that while America's founders got race and gender very wrong, they got religion right. America's foundation as a pluralistic society is one of their great legacies. A drive along 16th Street in Washington with its extraordinary array of churches, temples, and other religious centers, gives an inkling of what is happening across the country – complexity, color, variety, and change.
Ellison was hosting a three-hour event on Capitol Hill Thursday, about how the global tensions that some call a "clash of civilizations" play out in the United States. It was an eminently civil discussion among 12 experts, a diverse group chosen to represent a range of views – Muslim, Christian, and Jewish. Journalist Sally Quinn moderated the event, which was organized by the World Economic Forum (the Davos folks), which sees West-Islam relations as one of the world's greatest strategic challenges, and by Georgetown University, which oversees an annual global stocktaking about how those relations are faring.
Politics kicked off the dialogue and ended it also. What do we know about the Muslim vote? (Not much.) About Muslim views on health care? Education? The economy? (Not much.) One thing we do know: today basic civil liberties are the top issue for American Muslims, whose situation has become far more troubled since 9/11.
The extraordinarily diverse group of American Muslims numbers some 3 million today, with origins in over 80 countries. Several at the event stressed that they are proud Americans. But many are also wounded Americans, uncomfortably aware of the hostility and fear with which many view them and their religion. (One Gallup poll puts negative perceptions of Islam at 57% of respondents.) This naturally spills over into how people perceive Muslims, in the grocery store and schools as well as at the airport. There has been little political leadership to acknowledge, explore, and address this situation.
Our national perceptions seem stuck on a few issues, national security taking the prime spot. Even though the terrorist threat is linked to a small minority of Muslims, the cloud of fear and tension creeps far beyond this narrow group of extremists. And even though the causes and consequences of terrorism are ferociously complex, the public discourse is shallow and stuck like a broken record on a few narrow talking points – where are the moderates? What about Muslim attitudes towards women?
Sojourners chief Jim Wallis offered part of an answer, pointing out that Christians with extreme views-- a vocal minority skilled at communication-- had tainted all Christians until very recently. Other Christians, representing core American values, had to step up to seize back public perceptions. The same thing, he said, needs to happen within the Muslim world.
From all this rather depressing discourse, an inspiring idea emerged. It began with admiring statements about Barack Obama's remarkable and lengthy Philadelphia speech about race in America. What we need next is the same kind of speech about religion. Every presidential candidate should take the time and muster up the courage to address what religious prejudice and religious pluralism mean for America today.
Now that's an idea that's worth pushing, and it deserves to be aired at dinner tables everywhere.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>