In addressing the presidential campaign and the question of religion, it is dangerous and unwise for all of us to drag the presidential candidates into this orbit. There are five points to remember in dealing with this question.
First of all, the religious affiliation of most of the candidates is common knowledge to them and to their fellow Americans. The idea of raising the issues should take place only when we have evidence from the public record that questions a candidate's commitment to the religious rights of their fellow Americans from different faith communities.
Under this condition, it is fair play to pursue this line of engagement. A candidate who comes from a faith community that questions the American identity of other members of society simply because of differences in faith, deserves to be interviewed and questioned as to whether his religious identity could affect his public policy.
Remember the controversy surrounding the candidacy of President John F. Kennedy. The last 2004 elections made it categorically clear that the political landscape in the United States of America has gone through some major psychological and sociological changes to remove the "ugly face" of religious bigotry lamented over fifty years ago.
For this and other related reasons, it is clear to me that American Muslims would worry about a candidate whose views are such that Muslims would suffer from his or her religious bigotry.
Secondly, I would argue that, though the American society has become more religiously sensitive to both modernity and secularism, there is still a wide margin of peaceful and harmonious co-existence between the secularists and the assertively religious believers.
What cannot be denied by many of us is the growing power of scientific and technological transformations of our way of life on the one hand, and the growing recognition by believers that modernity and spirituality can coexist as two oases of human adjustment to life, on the other.
Because of this state of affairs, I would argue here that the presidential candidates will have the opportunity to address religious issues directly or indirectly because debate on many of the larger societal issues cannot be thoroughly secularized or indifferent to serious religious analysis.
We pray for the candidates' genuine engagement with these issues while holding tightly to their respective faiths.
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