Promoting Tolerance: Lessons in Inclusion and Diversity

Rania Barazi

The world’s population of more than a billion Muslims reflects a diverse group.  This year’s sessions at the 48th Annual ISNA Convention highlighted this diversity. Attendees enjoyed seminars on interfaith dialogue, intra-faith unity, women’s leadership, including people with disabilities, and more.

Friday evening kicked off the Convention with a main session entitled, “Islam, Pluralism, and Social Harmon,” which instructed participants on ways to approach living in a pluralistic society. Professor of International Affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown, Dr. John Esposito, spoke about how the experiences of Muslim minorities make European and American Muslims more sensitive to the importance of equality and minority rights

Dr. Esposito described how the Muslim community faces a lot of the same questions as the Jewish and Christian communities.  Namely, he asked, “How do we think of ourselves but also recognize other faiths?” He shared a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad t in which the angel Gabriel exhorted him to be kind to his neighbors, so much so that he thought the angel might tell him to name them his heirs next.  Dr. Esposito emphasized the importance of treating Christian, Jewish, and neighbors of other faiths kindly.

“Pluralism is a positive attitude toward diversity. Diversity is a fact,” said Dr. Ingrid Mattson, former ISNA president.  She asked audience members to raise their hands if they were related to someone from another faith by blood or marriage to illustrate just how close interfaith neighbors are.  She explained that diversity brings a richer understanding of the world to our community, encourages competitiveness in goodness. “The US is more respectful of religious persons than other countries,” she added. The US political and legal environment of inclusivity allows Muslims to feel more comfortable as religious persons here than in any other state. “We’re embraced in different circles of community and faith,” Dr. Mattson said.

In addition, a session entitled “Taking the next Step: How to Improve Inclusion and Access For Muslims with Disabilities,” provided a forum for those who are most neglected in every community – the disabled.  Community organizer and interfaith worker, Debbie DePalma, who has worked with the disabled community for many years explained that the American Disabilities Act (ADA) does not extend to houses of worship. Therefore, Muslim communities must ensure on their own power that their houses of worship are accessible to people with disabilities. Many people with disabilities do not attend services, she laments, because they don’t have the supports they need.

DePalma encouraged leaders of mosques to contact the Pathways Awareness Foundation to assess how their religious facilities can become more accessible for the disabled. In this regard, DePalma says, “We Muslims are in the position of students rather than teachers. [People of other faiths] have a head start… We look forward to the day when we see people of disabilities as clergy members and board members.”
Change cannot come soon enough for some. “There are deaf people that crave God’s word like water,” said a deaf audience member at a women’s leadership session, bringing tears to eyes in the audience.

A session entitled “Inclusive Mosques of the 21st Century,” dealt with the issue of making mosques more open to welcome diverse groups and more friendly for women.  Akel Kahera, author of Deconstructing the American mosque: Space, Gender, and Aesthetics and co-author of Design Criteria for Mosques and Islamic Centers: Art, Architecture and Worship, explained as he displayed an image of the prophet’s mosque, “Women were not segregated in the prophet’s mosque. Women had uninhibited access to this building.” “If you’re involved in building a masjid, insist that they do not relegate women to a position of inferiority,” he advised.

“The countries that finance their mosques encourage their own culture,” said Maryam Eskandari, Research Associate for the Aga Khan Architecture Program. She conducted a long study of over 100 mosques looking for means to satisfy Islamic codes while at the same time including women, i.e. allowing them equal visual and physical access to the imam. If they’re dressed modestly, women feel no need for a barrier. She coined the term “women-friendly” mosques for those establishments without continuous barriers obstructing this access and which include women in program design and content and as board members.

“This issue continues to be understood as a women’s issue, and it’s not; it’s a community issue,” said Aisha Al-Adawiya, founder of Women in Islam, an organization for human rights and social justice. As the houses of Allah, mosques should not exclude anyone, yet women and young people do not feel welcome. She appealed to the women in her audience to take issue where they have remained silent. Refuse to sit behind the curtain. “Women will tolerate a lot, but for our children…Think of the dignity of your girls and your boys,” she said.

President of ISNA Mohamed Magid also believes the community can improve positively. He challenged audience members at Saturday’s main session to contact ISNA and let them know the strides they are taking to reach out to people of other faiths. Sponsor an open house, he said, send pictures, talk to neighbors. The consensus of panelists at the convention was to encourage local communities to do a better job at embracing diversity in our mosques.