By IHSAN ALKHATIB, Ph.D, ESQ.
Staff Writer

In responding to a 2006 survey of 1,000 American Muslim registered voters, a plurality of American Muslim respondents chose to identify themselves as “just a Muslim”. Of the survey respondents, 12% identified themselves as Shia while 36% self-identified as Sunni, and 40% called themselves “just a Muslim.” These responses were read to mean that American Muslims want to emphasize their common Muslim identity over their narrower sectarian belonging.
It is greatly misleading to think of Muslim “division” as a Sunni-Shia phenomenon. Within the Sunni Islamic tradition there are four schools of jurisprudence. In addition, the Sunnis are often classified into Sufis, Salafis or Ikhwan/Muslim Brotherhood. There are lesser known sects and schools of thoughts in Islam. One way to think of this complex phenomenon is as a healthy diversity of a vibrant great faith/civilization. Another way to think of it is as a division- thus implying conflict and irreconcilable and clashing differences. If there is a problem in the Muslim community it goes beyond the Sunni-Shia split- it’s an issue of accepting “the other” and co -existence. In some communities members of the same mosque have come to blows- inside the mosque. In one mosque in Chicago congregants fought, in the mosque, and the police were called to separate the “leaders” of the mosque. It is a tragic reality given the fact that Islamic doctrine and tradition calls for peaceful and respectful dialogue even with non- Muslims, let alone among Muslims. These conflicts and disagreements sometimes arise out of simple issues. USA Today once quoted well-known Imam and activist Mohamed Majid stating: “I’ve seen people fight over how close their toes can be when they kneel in prayer. It’s got to stop.”
American Muslims face daunting challenges. These challenges are mainly imposed by international developments beyond their control. The criminals who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks and the others who attempted terror attacks have put the American Muslim community in a very precarious condition. Since 9/11, American Muslims are not only the American group whom it is acceptable to demonize but also the group whose demonization and victimization is thought by the perpetrators of hate as an expression of American patriotism.
Unity and co-existence are good in and of themselves. But when a community is threatened and outnumbered, unity and cooperation become basic necessities of survival. A hated and demonized community like the American Muslim community does not have the luxury of dwelling/(emphasizing) on real and imagined differences and grievances. Benjamin Franklin said: “We must hang together, gentlemen…else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.” This is so true today of American Muslims.

By Michael Gillespie

Martha Hennessy, the seventh grandchild of Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day and now a Catholic radical in her own right, visited Iowa and spoke in several venues in late September and early October.

In an exclusive interview following her presentation at the Des Moines Catholic Worker (DMCW) community’s 35^th anniversary celebration on September 30 at Trinity United Methodist Church, Hennessy told this reporter that she had found God in the Muslim world.

“You know, I’m a Christian, born in a so-called Christian nation, born Christian, baptized Catholic. I had to go to the Middle East to find God. I could not feel God here. The moment I stepped into Egypt, Morocco, all of those countries, the call to prayer was just rising up to the heavens and I was immersed in God,” said Hennessy.

Hennessy is soft spoken, but her words often surprise, electrify, and inspire.

“People there, Muslims, carry reverence for God in their everyday actions in a way that we here in this intensely materialistic society don’t. So, yes, I had to go to the Middle East to find God,” said Hennessy.

In response to a question during the Q&A following her presentation about growing up as Dorothy Day’s granddaughter, Hennessy talked about how her travels and experience in the Middle East and Southwest Asia inform her activism.

“I’ve tried to get into Gaza twice, but I have yet to get there. I went to Afghanistan in March with the Voices for Creative Nonviolence peace delegation with Kathy Kelly and others. We saw the refugee camps, we saw the destitution, we saw the malnutrition, we saw the utter breakdown of the social fabric,” said Hennessy.

“If we are going to be dropping bombs, if we are going to be making perpetual war, which we seem to be – our economy is a war economy – if we are going to maintain our standard of living, all of us, with war, then going to Afghanistan [to see the results of war] is appropriate.

“Afghanistan is an astounding place, a place of incredible beauty … also a place of incredible tragedy. We met with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, young people ages 12 to 21. We listened to them articulate what has happened to their country,” said Hennessy.

“One thing I clearly understood was the ignorance and arrogance on my part, on my country’s part, in terms of going into these places and then dictating to them what we think should happen. These boys, these teenagers, are more attuned than Obama or Gates or any of those people who are conducting these wars. … They would like to live without war. Their country has known nothing but war for 30 years.

“So we go there just to be with them and to look in their eyes and to listen. We don’t give them advice,” said Hennessy.

“Once you see what war is, you can’t remain silent about your role in it,” said Hennessy.

The Rev. Diane McClanahan, pastor of Trinity Methodist, welcomed about 75 people to the DMCW celebration and spoke of the long history of cooperation, “the troubles, the triumphs, the pain, and the joy,” that the church and DMCW had experienced together over the years. DMCW founder Frank Cordaro introduced Hennessy. Music was provided by Steve Jacobs of the Columbia, Missouri Catholic Worker community. A reception followed Hennessy’s presentation.

By Michael Gillespie

The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa sponsored Common Ground, an interfaith commemoration service on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, at Drake University’s Sheslow Auditorium in Des Moines on September 11.

Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Executive Director Connie Ryan Terrell told The Independent Monitor that the interfaith commemoration service was intended to address a number of issues and concerns.

Terrell said she began talking with the leaders of local faith communities about a commemorative service in July.

“Every single person I contacted said, ‘Yes, I want to help, I want to be a part of it,’ and no one said, ‘No.’ Everyone wanted to be a part of it,” said Terrell.

“We wanted to honor the people who died on 9/11 and pay respect to their families,” said Terrell, “and we wanted to bring together as many faith communities as we could get in a room and hold an interfaith service.”

Terrell said the planning committee knew there would be animosity toward the Muslim community around the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and decided to address that concern by focusing, “on the commonalities that we find across the spectrum of faith communities, not the differences.”

“There is enough that gets played out in media about differences in faith beliefs and traditions.  We felt the service should be about what we have in common.  That really became the theme,” said Terrell.

“We went through a very intentional process of building consensus,” said Terrell, “and every major decision was made by committee, which is a difficult thing to do, but we did it.

“Interfaith work can be difficult,” said Terrell, “and we had disagreement on a couple of different issues, but everybody stayed at the table and we came to consensus on everything that was discussed.”

“From the first meeting, Hindu, Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, Greek Orthodox, Unitarian Universalist, Sikh, Protestant, and Muslim, they were all there.  I won’t say that they were all at every meeting, because schedules didn’t allow for that, but they were all part of the conversation in a very detailed and important way,” said Terrell.

The event included music, poetry, and song.  Along with Terrell, the service participants included Ben Allaway, Music Director/Composer, First Christian Church; David Maxwell, President of Drake University; Pramod Mahajan, Hindu Community; Rabbi David Kaufman, Temple B’nai Jeshurun; Kyle Lechtenberg, Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines; Rev. Eido Bruce Espe, Des Moines Zen Center; Fr. Basil Hickman, Greek Orthodox Church of St. George; Rev. Mark Stringer, First Unitarian Church; Jasbir Singh and Baljit Singh Virdi, Iowa Sihk Association; Rev. Carmen Lampe Zeitler, American Baptist Church and Children and Family Urban Ministry of the United Methodist Church; Mohamad Kahn, Muslim Community Organization; Bishop Alan Scarfe, Episcopal Diocese of Iowa;  and Rev. Sarai Rice, Des Moines Area Religious Council.

A drum circle, Tina Manbeck, Jon Stafford, Eric Hedberg, Ben Alloway, Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, and Thayne Henderson, offered the call to service and a reflection during the service.

Collaborative partners included Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, Des Moines Area Religious Council, Ecumenical Committee for Peace, American Friends Service Committee, and faith leaders from Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist, Sikh, Buddhist, and other faith communities.  More than 50 religious and community organizations lent their names in support of the event.

A representative of one group walked out in protest just minutes before the event began.

According to a September 13 article in the Des Moines Register, ”The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines withdrew its support for a multifaith prayer service Sunday that marked the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks after event organizers declined to display a U.S. flag, said Mark Finkelstein, federation spokesman.”

Terrell declined The Independent Monitor’s request for comment regarding the protest.

Rabbi Kaufman, who was part of the planning process, told the Des Moines Register in part that, “there was no anti-American sentiment by not having the flag.”

A community leader who asked that his name be withheld characterized the last-minute protest as a potentially divisive publicity stunt that succeeded only in bringing Finkelstein’s motives into question.

By Michael Gillespie, Contributing Editor

More than 150 Iowans gathered in Des Moines on the west side of their state capitol on a cool, overcast Palm Sunday afternoon, April 17, to walk for peace. Once again, as in years past, the procession was led by a small donkey. The Independent Monitor talked with several of the participants.

“I come here every year to walk in this procession,” said Vern Naffier, a board member and former chair of the Progressive Coalition of Central Iowa.

“We want to see peace in the world, and we need to speak up for it. I’m a person of faith, and I believe that God wills peace for his world and for his people,” said Naffier.

“We [Americans] are the world’s biggest weapons manufacturer. We outdo everybody else all together, and that isn’t right. We’re the only nation that has military bases all over the world. We are quite militaristic. We’re spending a lot of money on that when we should be building up our own country,” said Naffier.

America’s enormous weapons industry and war machine are a problem, said Naffier.

“Unfortunately, it provides employment for a lot of Americans, but it’s not the right kind of employment. We need to re-deploy our resources for peaceful uses,” said Naffier.

“I think it’s very important to have a presence, especially on Palm Sunday, for peace throughout the world,” said Janet Rosenbury.

“Too many lives are lost; too much money is spent on war. That money could be put toward helping the poor and other problems,” said Rosenbury, a member of Plymouth Congregational Church who serves on the board of Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, ACLU of Iowa, and One Iowa.

“I’m here because I think resorting to war does not work. I think it’s bad politics, and most of all it’s bad for human life. It moves us in the wrong direction,” said Bob Brammer, a former spokesperson for the Iowa attorney general’s office.

“We have to have a witness coming from our faith perspective. We have to find alternatives. We’ve caused enormous disasters already, and our warlike approach to every crisis is only making things worse,” said Brammer.

“I think some of our leaders are trying to do the right thing, but I don’t think they have enough skepticism and abhorrence of war. It just isn’t working,” said Brammer.

The economic crisis may have a silver lining if it persuades Americans that war is no longer affordable, said Brammer, who retired from state government in 2010.

The event attracted a diverse group of participants, young and old, from a variety of backgrounds.

“We believe that Jesus would have wanted peace, would have disapproved of the war, and would have disapproved of the fighting, the weapons, the killing,” said Heather Minard, a member of First Christian Church who came to walk with her family and friends.

“I am so tired of wars and hate, and I think this is something I can do to support peace,” said Bengu Tekinalp, a Drake University professor who met and walked with one of her colleagues. Tekinalp, who is originally from Turkey, said she was raised Muslim and carries on many Muslim traditions but is not religious.

“I’m not Christian, but I support the cause of peace,” said Tekinalp.

“I’m here because I believe in peace, and I think our government devotes way too much of our treasure to war. I think it’s long past time for our soldiers to be home from Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Stephanie Dirks, a member of Our Lady of the Americas Catholic Church.

Carmen Lampe-Zeitler spoke about the Palm Sunday Procession as a representative of the Des Moines Area Ecumenical Committee for Peace (DMAECP).

“We’ve been doing this since the first Palm Sunday after the Iraq War began. The point of the procession is that we believe Jesus would have us do whatever we can to make peace in the world. On Palm Sunday, he began his last stand against ‘the powers that be’ and he did that not as a soldier coming in, not as the military coming in, but humbly, on a donkey,” said Lampe-Zeitler.

“We feel like that was a symbol for his way of doing things. As Christians, on Palm Sunday it feels like marching for peace, putting our feet to the work of prayer for peace, is the thing that ought to be done. So, we’ll march and we’ll meet at St. John’s Lutheran Church for a prayer service,” said Lampe-Zeitler.

“I’m here today because we want to celebrate the original meaning of Palm Sunday,” said Eloise Cranke, a member of First United Methodist Church of Des Moines and co-coordinator of the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA)’s Iowa Chapter.

“We believe that Jesus was a peacemaker in his day, and we are called to be peacemakers in our day,” declared Cranke.

Sponsoring and co-sponsoring organizations included the Des Moines Area Religious Council, American Friends Service Committee’s Iowa Program, MFSA-Iowa, DMAECP, and several area churches.

Palm Sunday Peace Procession, Des Moines, 2011