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February 6, 2008
By Jeff Sullivan
Copyright The Good 5c Cigar
02/06/08 - Representatives from Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths spoke yesterday at the University of Rhode Island Multicultural Center for the Can't We Talk panel to discuss the common beliefs these religions hold, the hurtful stereotypes often associated with each and ways to overcome obstacles to peace.
"The story of the great sage Hillel, which our organization here at URI is named for, tells of the Rabbi Hillel and his student who asked him to teach him the Torah," said Amy Olson, executive director of the URI's Hillel Foundation and Jewish chaplain. "He said, 'What is hateful to you, do not do unto your neighbor. All the rest is just commentary.'"
These words set the tone for the discussions, and the representative for each of the three faiths discussed the importance of honoring differences and celebrating similarities of each religious persuasion. They also discussed the damage of stereotypes and how they developed within each religion.
Assem Sayedahmed, an assistant professor of food microbiology at URI and the chaplain for the Muslim community of Kingston, discussed the media's generalized perception that all Muslims are intolerant and extremists.
"After Islam spread around the globe, some Muslims have mixed the religion with their inherited traditions," he said. "A lot of times these traditions are extreme and have nothing to do with Islam. Due to ignorance, the media found this a great opportunity to attack Islam; unjustly pointing fingers to things like Jihad and women's status in Islam."
Rev. Jennifer Phillips, of St. Augustine's Episcopalian Church on campus, said that extremists in the Christian world, which she referred to as literalists, also pose many problems for dialogue and peaceful interaction between the faiths.
"As it turns out, Christians are very diverse in their beliefs," she said. "We actually have about the same amount of debate and arguments within our own factions as we do with other religions."
She said that the faith's Greek roots created a belief that there was one singular truth, or message, God wants one to understand and it could be found if one studied the scriptures correctly.
"The person Jesus made the claim of being truth ... truth is not an idea, it's a person," she said. "However, for some Christians there is a very narrow sense of what Christ's truth is, it is very exclusive."
Sayedahmed discussed misconceptions about Islam, which he said are currently being exploited by Republican groups in the form of "Islamofascism."
"Praise be to Allah, who taught his prophet Mohamed tolerance with Muslims and non-Muslims as well," he said. "The Holy Quran states that disagreement is one of the divine norms of creation. If the Lord had so willed, he could have created all mankind as one nation. Differences and disagreements exist among people in one country, one community and even among members of one family; the success is to overcome that and spread peace."
Olson and Phillips both presented the idea that finding one's religion is "to wrestle with God" in order to form and develop one's own conscience through analyzing scripture and human interactions with God through everyday life.
"The thing that I find most personally rewarding and frustrating about Judaism is that Judaism does not provide you with any easy answers," Olson said. "The very word Israel ... means struggling with God."
Sayedahmed related a story of a Christian wife who wanted advice about her Muslim husband. She wanted to know if she should convert to Islam to help her marriage and please her spouse.
"I told her that she can still please him while you are a non-Muslim," he said. "I also told her she has the right to have a cross in her room, drink wine and eat pork." |
