In response to a summer of contentious religious issues ranging from Florida pastor Terry Jones's threats to burn the Quran on Sept. 11 to the heated debate surrounding the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero the Tucker Foundation hosted a panel discussion between campus religious leaders Friday afternoon. Four panelists, representing different faiths, discussed the importance of religious tolerance and agreed that misinformation in the media helps to perpetuate conflicts between religions.
Assistant Chaplain Kurt Nelson, who moderated the event, said he was concerned about the rhetoric used to describe religious issues, especially in relation to the events of the summer.
"This rhetoric is becoming increasingly political" he said. "It's becoming a political tool, and that to me is troubling."
The building of a mosque in New York City should not be up for political debate, panelist Richard Crocker, chaplain and dean of the Tucker Foundation, said, referring to the decision by the Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York to construct an Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan, not far from the site of the World Trade Center.. It should be an issue for the local zoning boards, he said, and should be allowed if it meets legal requirements.
The rhetoric surrounding projects like the mosque such as describing it as a "victory mosque" can be very harmful, according to Dawood Yasin, another panelist and Muslim life advisor at the Tucker Foundation.
The panelists agreed that the attention the media gives to interreligious conflict perpetuates the hostility. The media fails to give enough attention to improvements in relationships among religions, many panelists noted.
Yasin said he noticed a particular shortage of positive stories about Islam in the media.
"Just because you're not seeing it, doesn't mean it's not happening," he said.
The media and its consumers are rarely excited about leaders advocating that people "be calm," Crocker said.
"There are plenty of people who advocate a more moderate, more compassionate point of view," he said. "It's very hard for those people to get attention."
There is also a danger in associating a religious movement too closely with any particular political issue, since it leads to a narrower view of that issue and detracts from people's ability to respond effectively, according to panelist Edward Boraz, a rabbi and executive director of Hillel.
Christian Impact campus minister Ryan Bouton expressed concern in particular about the attention Jones' planned Quran burning received from the media, giving him an otherwise unavailable platform from which he could project his protest. The nature of Jones's protest was also wholly un-Christian in character, he added.
The "blatant misinformation" circulating in the public, according to Yasin, comes not only from the media's portrayal of recent events, but also from Americans' general lack of knowledge about other religions.
"You have to laugh to keep from crying," he said, describing his reaction to some of the myths he has heard.
The summer's events have led to a dangerous level of polarization among Americans, according to Bouton. Some Americans now seem to believe that one must either burn the Quran or participate in interfaith worship, he said.
One can maintain the integrity of one's own religion without seeking to destroy others', according to Bouton.
The panelists also discussed broader issues of religious freedom and tolerance in the United States. Crocker described the repeated incidents of "reactionary rhetoric" that he said occur whenever a new religious group appears. Often, groups advocate their own religious freedom without extending the same rights to others.
"We cannot advocate our own [religious freedom] if we do not grant it to other people as well," he said.
Boraz argued that simple tolerance of other religions is not enough. Society needs to move "beyond tolerance" to a deeper understanding and an "unconditional love and embrace" of one another, working together to relieve human suffering and show compassion, he said.
Within each religion, there exists variation in the response to social conflicts, Boraz added.
"I don't think any religion has a particularly monolithic view," he said.
