Prof. Todd Green of Luther College spoke in Des Moines at a monthly Interfaith Alliance of Iowa event on April 15
By Michael Gillespie, Contributing Editor
Interfaith Alliance of Iowa’s monthly lunch and discussion event, Crossroads, featured Prof. Todd Green of Luther College on April 15. Green, who teaches courses on European and American religious history, spoke about and facilitated discussion of recent conflicts over mosques and minarets in the USA and Europe and the underlying causes of the controversy.
“It is difficult, and I know this from personal experience, it is difficult in this country and across the Atlantic in Europe as well, to have a calm, rational, civil conversation about Islam. It’s harder than it seems, particularly when talking about the conflicts that we’re going to be dealing with today, over mosques, over minarets, and starting with the conflict over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York City, because when that conflict emerged last year in the late spring early summer, it was pretty clear to me that this was not a conflict over a building, it was first and foremost a conflict over a religion, and the place of that religion in the West, in the United States. It’s a conflict over a religion that many in the West still don’t quite trust or understand,” Green told an audience numbering about 60 who had gathered in Waveland Hall at Plymouth Congregational Church.
Green provided a brief history of the development of the conflict over what became known as the ‘Ground Zero Mosque,’ which he described as “a major national controversy,” and identified four points of contention. The first was location, the proximity to Ground Zero being sensitive to the families of those affected by the attacks of 9/11. The use of the building was another, said Green. Was it to be a mosque or an Islamic center, and what is the difference? Most Americans don’t have an adequate vocabulary to distinguish between the two, noted Green. The third issue was funding. Would there be foreign contributions and influence? And finally there were questions about the organizer, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative, who proposed building the center that was to be named Cordoba House.
Green spoke about similar controversies in Europe and compared and contrasted them with events in the USA.
“Muslims had been worshiping in Europe for decades in significant numbers, and no one cared,” said Green, explaining that when their numbers increased and they began to build mosques, they became more visible. “That’s when we have controversy,” said Green.
“Similarly, in the United States, it’s not like in the past decade, we now suddenly have Muslims worshiping in America. But we have the increasing visibility of Islam, and as mosques are being built we can see Islam, and that’s when we have the tension in Europe and in America,” said Green, who noted that in some European countries the controversy has shifted to minarets.
“A minaret is a prayer tower, usually attached to or located adjacent to mosques, sometimes compared to steeples, but they are very tall towers,” explained Green, adding that in many Islamic countries, minarets are where the call to prayer is broadcast, but in European countries, with but a few exceptions such as the Netherlands, the call to prayer is not allowed.
Minarets, being tall, are much more visible, and there is a fear that one day the call to prayer in Arabic would be broadcast from minarets in the West, said Green.
“That drives some of the anxiety as well,” said Green, who noted that in Switzerland a recently adopted law prohibits the building of minarets though there are only four such towers in the entire country, while France has new legislation banning the wearing of the burqa, a woman’s loose body-covering that includes the head-covering, hijab, and the face-veil, in public.
Green noted that, “the diversity of political and legal approaches to religious liberty in Europe make it more possible in some European countries to restrict freedom of religion in a way that the First Amendment in the United States makes very difficult. … In New York, there’s a good example of how quickly the debate shifted away from whether Muslims have a right to build an Islamic center there. Even the greatest opponents said, ‘OK, Muslims have a right to do this.’ The First Amendment trumped that. The argument had to take on a different tone, a different angle,” said Green, who noted that Europe is much more secular than the USA.
“Those who are uncomfortable with Islam on both sides of the Atlantic tend to define Islam as inherently oppressive, anti-democratic, anti-woman … dangerous, and incapable of being reconciled with Western values and Western ideals,” said Green.
Green pointed out that Europeans and Americans who are opposed to Islam and the building of mosques frequently attempt to portray Islam as not really being a religion.
“When Newt Gingrich came out against the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero, he made this move. … There is a method to his madness, in that he wanted to say, ‘This is not a religion and we don’t need to be worried about being sensitive to another religious community because this is about a political movement. This is about political conquest.’ I can think of plenty of examples in Europe where you hear the exact same language, including the case in Switzerland against minarets. As the Swiss Peoples Party, which is a far-Right political party that led that campaign, often said to the Swiss People as it was trying to gear up for its referendum, ‘If you are worried about infringing upon the religious freedom of Muslims, don’t worry about it, this isn’t a religion. You can go to bed and sleep peacefully. This is a political movement bent on conquering the West. Minarets’, as one member of the party said, ‘are like flags that generals plant in the ground when they have conquered territory,’” said Green.
By transforming Islam from a religion to a political movement in public discourse, opponents of Islam seek to make it acceptable for Westerners to put aside their own traditions of pluralism and tolerance, and their longstanding commitment to religious freedom, said Green.
“That tactic was used on both sides of the Atlantic, and I assure you that in Switzerland it was used quite effectively,” said Green.
Connie Ryan Terrell, Executive Director of Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, introduced Prof. Todd Green
Finally, Green addressed Muslim leaders’ inability to be heard in the West, touching on obstacles presented by Western media outlets and the reluctance of some Muslims leaders to speak publicly about controversial issues.
“When conflicts emerge in Europe and in the United States pertaining to Islam, it becomes very difficult, I’m not going to say impossible, but very difficult for Muslim leaders to assert their points. Sometimes it’s a conscious choice for some of these leaders to recede and allow leaders like Mayor Bloomberg to be their spokesmen. … I don’t know what to make of that. It concerns me. It’s a challenge that any interfaith organization has, including this one, when they are dealing with interfaith dialog and understanding. Who gets to speak for what religion? And particularly when conflicts emerge, Muslims have trouble having a voice. Or sometimes they actually make the decision to cede that to someone else to make matters better. That troubles me. It should trouble all of us. Interfaith dialog isn’t really interfaith dialog when we are talking about Muslims and it’s not Muslims who are articulating their own religion, other people are talking for them in an autonomous voice. I assure you that in the United States, many Christians wouldn’t stand for that, people who aren’t Christian defining Christianity in a public space. But that standard seems not to apply across the board, and we need to address that,” said Green who then invited his audience to ask questions.
The response was enthusiastic with about half a dozen members of the audience asking questions and in some cases engaging in dialog and a wider discussion facilitated by Green.
In response to a question by David Drake, a member of the Des Moines Human Rights Commission, regarding the recent French legislation banning the burqa, Green noted that he had visited France last summer.
“I was there four days in Paris. I saw one burqa. Estimates are that less than 2,000 women in the entire country wear the burqa. It reminds me of Switzerland and the minaret ban. France doesn’t seem to have a real burqa problem. Why ban it? Why ban minarets? Is it because burqas are flooding the streets? Or is it something else? This is also an example of the very people who might have something to say about what that religious clothing means to them, Muslim women, aren’t given a voice. Others are telling them, ‘This is an oppressive garment. You’re probably being forced to wear this by your husband or your Imam,’ and Muslim women cannot speak for themselves,” said Green.
Among those who put questions and comments before the group were Samar Sarhan, an American and a Muslim of Palestinian descent, and Mirza Baig, President of the Islamic Center of Des Moines.
Baig noted that most Muslims are immigrants and that the Muslim community in America is growing and changing.
“Christianity went though this 200 years ago. Muslims are doing this under an excruciating amount of pressure from the Western society and media,” said Baig, who explained why some Muslims are reluctant to speak publicly.
“One reason why we are not [more actively involved in the discussion] is that we are not eloquent. My parents and most of my, um, parishioners, in my community are immigrants. They don’t speak proper English. It comes out badly when somebody is very passionate about something and is having trouble speaking the language and is trying to impress something, it never comes out properly. Trust me, when it comes to the media and the two second sound bite, it never comes out right,” said Baig.
Baig declined to be drawn into a discussion about particular passages in the Holy Quran or particular statements made by scholars of Islam, saying, “I’m not a historian or a religious scholar. … If you go to Jordan or Syria, these issues [that may be controversial here] are not that relevant. They are more relevant here because of the identity that we are establishing in Western society,” said Baig.
Sarhan, who was wearing hijab, declared that she has a voice.
“I am a Muslim woman. I have a voice. Hijab doesn’t cover my face, it doesn’t cover my mouth, it doesn’t cover my mind. … I’m American; I was born in Dayton, Ohio in case you were wondering. I can show you my passport. [general laughter and applause] I have a Catholic mom, but I choose to follow Islam. We don’t hear that story. We hear the story about the Muslim man who killed his wife. We hear the story of the woman who was beaten up. I work as a social worker. I don’t have a harrowing story of, ‘My family persecuted me and I ran away from home.’ … We don’t hear the ordinary, everyday stories of Muslims living life. Instead, we hear the stories of Muslims who are in trouble. … I’m not oppressed. I’m making choices,” said Sarhan.
Interfaith Alliance of Iowa celebrates religious freedom by promoting the positive and healing role of religion in public life, encouraging committed community activism, challenging extremism, and defending the rights and freedoms of all Iowans.
