Reflections on Statewide Summit on Hate Prevention

By Najeeba Syeed, El-Hibri Endowed Chair and Executive Director of Interfaith at Augsburg

"I’ve been struck by the relationships that exist between religious communities of vast difference in what is often called fly-over country. My experience has been that these are not regions to fly over, but to learn from. 

When I first came to the US, in the 1970s my father landed in Bloomington, Indiana for his doctorate program. In those years, as immigrants we had little to no access to zabiha markets where we could find meat that was permissible to eat. My father heard that my school bus driver, Mrs. Anderson, had a farm and he proceeded to speak to her about going out to her farm and we found her open to our form of Muslim ritual slaughter of animals on her farm. 

It is a small example, let me share another from the same region I learned about when I went to a Quaker college. The headquarters of the Islamic Society of America was in Plainfield, Indiana. The campus minister at my college in North Carolina recalled how his extended family in Indiana would reach out to support Muslims when the sign for the organization had been shot at in the 80s. These are a few of the many stories of the central part of this country in which solidarity and just pure necessity created deep and lasting multi-faith relations. What I mean to say is this is not new."

Read more of this compelling reflection on Interfaith at Augsburg's blog!