This past week Natureman and I joined a live program with touted expert on Islamophobia, Todd Green, a Luther College associate professor of Religion speaking on "Rethinking Christian Responses to Islamophobia. "
Green characterizes the last two decades of our White Christian nation's dealing with Islamophobia as 'disappointment.' Prof. Green points out that it was under our watch the path was made for the exploitation of fear and hatred towards our Muslim brothers. Several candidates made Islamophobia part of their platform in the 2015-2016 election, using issues like registration and ID cards for Muslims, comments like "Islam hates us" and calling for a shutdown of our borders to Muslims. Trump's most ardent supporters were Christians, White Christians. So as a nation we need to reflect why White Christians were part of the problem rather than part of the solution to Islamophobia.
3 common contributing misunderstandings to combat Islamophobia. According to Green the 3 misconceptions are primarily driven by :
1. Misconception is driven by ignorance which is really racism.
2. Misconception is primarily the responsibility of Muslims to challenge whereas it should be the responsibility of Muslim allies to challenge specifically white christians
3. The misconception Islamophobia is our national response to 9-11 which is not natural but rather contrived for political and financial gain.
Very valid points but I think we also need to look at the role religion has always played throughout history. Has there ever been a time that church and state have ever really been separate? Think about what we all can do to not just help eradicate Islamophobia but to rethink our actions regarding nationalism, racism and yes, religion'ism'... There's a reason it's called white washing.
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