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“Our Sacred Responsibility
to Our World” Remarks by Dr. Ingrid
Mattson, President,
Islamic Society of to the
“Faith in Action, Interfaith Gathering” Democratic
National Convention August
24, 2008 “Our
Sacred Responsibility to Our World” May
God’s peace be with you. I have
been asked to speak today about “Our sacred responsibility to our world.” This
is an awesome topic and I can only offer a few remarks about some lessons I
have learned about what we need to keep in mind as we engage the world. In the
year 2002, I went on a study tour to But
there was another thing I learned on that trip that has stuck with me until now
– something I learned about news
channel, there was one image of I was
so frustrated that this was the only image of incident,
but, I asked myself, when would we be shown the many Americans, including other
police officers, who denounced this brutality? When would we be shown the
public servants and ordinary citizens who were working hard to ensure better
justice? And when would we be shown the many great things that happen each day
in The
Ninth Commandment prohibits “false witness;” Islam, sharing the Abrahamic
tradition, affirms the content of the Ten Commandments – the Prophet Muhammad
said that false witness is among the worst of sins, along with idolatry,
dishonoring parents and murder. This is
a commandment, however, that perhaps does not get the attention it deserves. In
fact, most brutality is founded on false witness – declaring about the other
what is simply not true, but offers a justification for oppression and mistreatment.
Throughout the world,
and throughout history, the intelligence and humanity of certain classes of
people has been denied in an act of false witness in order to deprive them of
their human rights. Before we can hope to have any positive impact on the
world, we therefore need to expand
our knowledge of those with whom we share this earth. We cannot know about the
other, without knowing the other. Engagement, dialogue and personal interaction
allow for us to know others as they see themselves, as Martin Buber taught us,
to engage with others as subjects, not as objects. As
Americans and as people of faith, we need to support policies and programs that
offer many more opportunities for this kind of engagement and authentic
knowing. I think about the impact, for example, of a group of young Syrian
Muslim women who came for graduate
studies to Hartford Seminary, where I teach. Not only did they have the
opportunity to study about Christianity from faithful Christians, but as part
of the Abrahamic program, for the first time in their lives, they visited
synagogues, as well as churches, where they engaged with ordinary congregants
and witnessed worship services. There
were some deeply emotional moments, especially when each group expressed their
views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But, because they were safe, equal
partners in dialogue in this country, and supported by committed mentors from
the religious and academic institutions, the parties were able, perhaps for the
first time, to hear each others fears and pain. No
longer could American Jews be distant nefarious characters in the minds of
these young Syrian students – they were flesh and blood elderly Holocaust
survivors whose stories moved them to tears and they were intelligent inquisitive
young students like themselves. And as one of the Jewish participants told me,
while before he always had only
negative associations with Syrians, now he was more hopeful that some day there
could be peace because of the compassion and intelligence that he had come to
know in these young women. A
program like this needs the support and participation of many parties: the US
government to issue visas to students from such countries, academic
institutions, to ensure that their educational missions encompasses the global
challenges we face, and ordinary faith communities, who are willing to open
their houses of worship, and even more importantly, to open their hearts and
minds to learning about others. This is the form of engaged religious pluralism
that tradition
and better Americans. Avoiding
false witness also means that we not only tell the truth, but we tell the whole
truth – that is, that we acknowledge what is wrong and work to change it, but
we also bear witness to what is right. And, as the Chinese newscast
demonstrated to me, we have to work hard to broadcast the good news, lest the
bizarre, the brutal and the bombastic dominate the news. The truth is that we
should not be naïve about the challenges we face, but we should also not be
cynical. The truth is that there is much cause for hope for a better world and
this is the witness we should bear. In the
last few years, when I have travelled overseas to Muslim countries, or when I
have engaged with delegations of State-department sponsored Muslim visitors to
this country, I have often been asked one question – and this question has been
asked in whispers: “How are Muslims in I am an
honest person, and so this is what I have been able to respond: “Yes, there
have been problems, but which
those policies can be challenged. If there is hate speech, there
is also free speech, that allows us to correct the record and give our side of
the story. If there are those who oppose us, there are also those who stand up
for us – and in the last number of years, many
Christian and Jewish Americans have stood up for the rights of their Muslim
neighbors – to be treated equally and with respect. How
important is it that I am able to proffer these and other example of moral
courage and leadership that Americans have taken in the last few years? Without
these examples, it is so easy for others to state that American ideals are no
more than rhetoric. Americans have, perhaps, a greater responsibility to act
with ethics, courage and integrity than any other people in our time, not
because we are essentially better as individuals, but because as a nation, we
have been truly, that beacon of hope for a more just, democratic and free
future for people throughout the world. Our actions are magnified and amplified
like the actions of no other nation. We need to be, as much as humanly
possible, a shining example of justice, equality and rule of law. Our
sacred responsibility to the world is, therefore, to first come to know others,
to engage them in honest dialogue and interaction, and then, to live up to our
values of justice, equality and the promotion of human dignity, to give hope to
others and to undermine those who cynically magnify our mistakes to justify
their own oppression. Finally,
our sacred responsibility to the world is to confront injustice certainly – but
to do so – as someone [Barack Obama] said recently in his conversation in a
church – with humility. There is evil, no doubt. And it saddens me deeply that
there is much evil that is
being done in our time in the name of my religion. I not only have to
acknowledge that and
denounce that evil, but work, with other Americans to ensure our common
interests and security. This is why I am proud of the American Muslim
community, which is serving in this country in all areas – in public service,
in the Department of Homeland Security, in the FBI, in the State Department,
and in the US military; Muslim Americans have
fought and died alongside other Americans in Yet
when we confront evil, we need to make sure that we do not ruin the lives of
countless innocent people and destroy the planet – God’s creation – in the
process. The
Qur’an has an instructive story about King Solomon as he was marching his
armies out to battle. Solomon was a prophet, a righteous king, and a wise
ruler. When he employed force, he did so for the cause of justice. However, one
day, as he was advancing his massive battalions across the land, they
approached a valley that was inhabited
by ants – and here, the Qur’an takes the perspective of the ants – one of whom
calls out to the others saying, “O Ants, quickly get inside your homes so that
Solomon and his armies to not crush you without realizing it.” Whether
we are using military force, or simply employing power to run our cars and
factories, we can, without realizing it, do a great deal of damage. Our sacred
responsibility to the world is to learn that lesson in humility so that we can
do better. And we need to do better, because there are so many people in the
world who need our help.
We have magnificent researchers who have developed treatments for some of the
worst diseases from which so many millions of people are suffering. We have a
great scientific and technical sector that is capable of providing new
solutions to the energy needs of poor people around the world. We have great
wealth and other advantages in this
country. We will be welcome by the people of the world if we come to them with
respect and compassion. May God
bless you and may God bless |
