Interfaith Insight - 2024
Permanent link for "Reflections in the new year" by Douglas Kindschi, Founding Director of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute, GVSU on January 9, 2024
These have been difficult times for interfaith discussions given the intensity of the conflict in the Middle East. It is hard to know how to respond. To be supportive of either side greatly offends the other side given the polarized positions. Even being critical is either not critical enough or not understanding the issue, depending on which side one stands. Not taking a position is interpreted as a moral failing, again depending on where one’s loyalties are.
While it is highly unlikely that any position taken locally will have any impact on the geopolitical crisis, what is clear is that we must do all we can to work to prevent it becoming a faith conflict. We must work even harder to keep it from developing into Antisemitism and Islamophobia. This is our mission as the Kaufman Interfaith Institute.
On many campuses, it has happened that the conflict has turned into faith conflicts and hate against persons who have a particular faith identity or commitment. Hundreds of synagogues and Jewish organizations have received bomb threats and physical damage as well as defaced building. Violence and threats have also been received as well by Muslim places of worship and by individuals. This even led to the violent killing of a young Muslim boy in Chicago. Individuals and facilities in these faith communities are under threat and must take extraordinary procedures to preserve safety.
These conditions will never contribute to resolution in the Middle East, but will only lead to increased conflict, hate, and even violence locally.
A friend and Muslim, who has worked for years on campuses and in Israel for peace between the religious communities, recently reported that three of his former Israeli Jewish students were killed by Hamas during the raid on October 7 and shortly thereafter five of his Muslim colleagues were killed in Israel’s retaliation in Gaza. The loss of innocent life on all sides is tragic and very personal for many. We must grieve with them while also doing what we can to see that this violence does not extend to hate and violence against faith groups in our own communities.
Religion News Service recently published an opinion essay by Baptist minister and president of the Interfaith Alliance, The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush. He urged faith communities not to retreat, but to work even harder to maintain our interfaith commitment to understanding and meaningful relationships. He writes:
“Those of us who work to bring understanding among people of diverse faith traditions, no matter our own faith, are horrified to to see the religious tapestry that makes up American democracy begin to fray and tear apart. Having worked for interfaith cooperation for almost three decades, I have never experienced a more challenging and heartbreaking time.
“Yet inaction and retreat are not the answer. I have never been more convinced that we can, and we must, continue to be in relationship with one another. We can feel passionately that our own views on the crisis are just, even as we acknowledge that others may have very different views. We must acknowledge the pain people are feeling on all sides and acknowledge the humanity of people we disagree with.”
That is our commitment at the Kaufman Interfaith Institute during this time of international challenge. Let us all commit to dialogue, understanding, and developing relationships, even if we have deeply differing views on how to resolve this tragic conflict.
Shalom, Salaam, Peace.