By Dan Kersey

The main presentation was given by three panelists, each speaking in turn. The first speaker set the tone for the night. His presentation became a laundry list of America’s crimes; slavery, Jim Crow, the Asian Exclusion Act, Japanese internment camps, the dispossession of the American natives. The conclusion was then reached; White people hate all non-Whites, most Muslims are non-White, thus White people hate Muslims and Islamophobia is the latest manifestation of systemic White racism. So here I am, Mr. White Protestant sitting in the front row, right in front of the guy saying this! I guess if I showed up looking for excitement by way of flying sparks, I sure got it!

The second speaker accepted what the first said, without adding or subtracting from it, and built off of it in a more religious and less sociological manner. He encouraged his Muslim audience to fear God rather than man. Stick to Islam and God will see you through the dark night.

The third speaker, the only woman involved in the presentation, again accepted the foundation of the first speaker, but actually gave some good advice on how Muslims could take the bull by the horns and better their public image. She conceded that Muslims are often too insular, sticking in their own groups and not getting to know their non-Muslim fellow Americans; and advised Muslims to be more open to friendships outside their faith. I so doing, she reasoned, non-Muslim Americans would get to know Muslim Americans, and would learn that Muslims are okay people; pretty good reasoning.

After thee three panelists gave their prepared presentations, we then moved into Q&A. Of greatest import in this was that some of the “harsher” aspects of the earlier material were smoothed out. Upon being asked something to the effect of “Why do White people hate us?” the first speaker assumed a far more nuanced stance. He explained that not all White people are bad but that every group has its “problems” with intolerance and Whites are no different. He even pointed this out within the Islamic Ummah; “Most mosques”, he said, “are not really mosques, they’re community centers masquerading as mosques”, his point being that Muslims of different ethnic backgrounds tend to exclude each other, so that you get Pakistani mosques, Iraqi mosques, Yemeni mosques, etc.

Now we are at the heart of the matter; it is universal human nature to fear and be suspicious of the “other”, and the other does not even have to be that different; everyone has blood on their hands in this matter. This is the issue I feel is in greatest need of reflection from here on out, so here are my reflections…

First, it was eventually conceded by the first speaker that the average White person, or that America, is not that bad, but our leaders are; those trying to win an election or those who are otherwise in the power structure and profit from Islamophobia try to foment the issue for reasons of their personal gain. Okay, but did he not come into a mosque and label all White people as hating Muslims, only backing down during Q&A? He is a professional full time “leader” within the Muslim community yet he added to the divisive “us versus them” climate. How is Republican presidential candidate X saying in a stump speech in reference to Muslims “they are against us” any different than this Muslim leader telling Muslims in a mosque in reference to White Americans “they are against us”? So the lessons hold true, it is universal human nature to fear and be suspicious of the “other”, and leaders, both Muslim and non-Muslim play up the divisions so they can win elections or maybe just get more speaking engagements in mosques.

Also, I feel it is very important to consider that most people can navigate through complex nuances of their own culture or society but cannot do this with cultures and societies they do not understand. For example, I, the White guy, do not have any problems understanding that the KKK is an outlier in American society; I know who I am, I know my society, thus, I know the KKK’s relationship to it. Further, “White” is not a monolithic block. I am from Michigan. If it were 1861 I would be in a blue uniform. However, I cannot quite so readily do this with Islam or with cultures from the majority Muslim world. When I see the president of Iran leading a “death to America” chant or video of the jetliners going into the World Trade Center, I am stuck having to think in generalities. “Why do Muslims hate America?” “Why are they trying to kill us?” “Islam is a violent religion!” “Islam is incompatible with freedom and democracy!” Certainly, media sensation and hype does not help me come to moderate, reasonable, and even keeled conclusions as I generalize.

Maybe controversially,mI suggest that such generalization, and the resulting inaccurate hyperbolic conclusions, as unfortunate and undesirable as it is, is nevertheless natural and normal. As theorized by American philosopher Charles Sanders Pierce, belief is “comfortable” while “doubt” is unsettling or uncomfortable. If we believe something the comfort of believing tends to make us not want to question our beliefs lest we make ourselves uncomfortable by creating doubt where there was once peace of mind. Likewise if we doubt something, we seek to solve the dilemma and in so doing regain equilibrium and peace. It is not so important that we discover the truth of the matter as it is that we find something acceptable to us that will relieve the anxiety of doubt.

I have had to face this unfortunate reality in my interactions with agnostic and atheistic friends in regards to their inaccurate negative opinions of Christianity. They cannot get it through their heads, for example, that the Inquisition and the Crusades are not representative of modern American Evangelical Christianity. Now, Christian theology would suggest that what is going on here is, to paraphrase Romans 1:18-32, wicked men are suppressing the truth of God in order to pursue their wickedness, and that is very well true.  However, a big chunk of it is they are simply comfortable in their current beliefs and see no reason to “waste time” exploring further into an issue they have put to rest.

As much as I would like them to see they are in error in a great many ways, I have to accept that if they don’t care they don’t care and aren’t going to bother looking into it, and that this is not necessarily wrong of them. There are a great many things I am not interested in and have no intention of studying, or that may be of interest, but only passingly so, and thus only worthy of passing inquiry.

Bringing this back around to Islamophobia; Muslims may have to accept that the great majority of Americans are not motivated to look any further than the news headlines when forming an opinion of Islam. They have their own lives, families, jobs, and their own religions. Muslims may ardently wish for their non-Muslim fellow Americans to get a better understanding of Islam but that is not likely to happen. Though a bitter pill, Muslims have to be willing to accept that non-Muslim Americans are not “wrong” for forming opinions of Islam and Muslims based on X amount of information, becoming comfortable in those opinions, and seeking no further clarification.

So, just in case that sounded like I am justifying bias against Muslim Americans, and their unfair treatment based on that bias, because such bias it is to be expected and we can’t expect non-Muslims not to be biased, that is not my point. That is far too emotional and active for as dry and contemplative and article as this! My point is that Muslims and non-Muslims should soberly evaluate what it is we actually feel about each other and how we came to those beliefs. Muslims may realize they too have accepted inaccurate generalizations about non-Muslim America.

On a happy note, despite the divisive presentations, I spoke with a few Muslim guys at the mosque as to whether they had any personal experiences of Islamophobia; all said they had nothing bad to say about their treatment by non-Muslim Americans. Coworkers, neighbors, the waiter in the restaurant, the store clerk, everyone encountered in daily life has been as polite as typical for American culture and no one has been subjected to anti-Muslim grandstanding.

Hopefully, Islamophobia is not as rampant as the hype from both sides would have us believe.