A lot of folks are talking about civility these days. But is anyone doing anything about it?

Well, yeah — er, I mean, yes. Yet it seems the busier folks in this arena are those promoting even more incivility in our national public discourse.

The poster child for the problem may still be Joe Wilson, a lightweight (See how easy incivility is?) GOP congressman from South Carolina, whose claim to fame is to have heckled President Obama during a joint session of Congress last year with: “You lie!”

I don’t think it uncivil to note that all our presidents likely have lied. That seems a requirement to win and to do the job. But now we have a backbencher shouting such claims for fun and political profit, with all the decorum of a kid in a sandbox.

Soon after that episode came the Anti-Defamation League’s report, “Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies.”

Examining “the groups and individuals” behind the alarming decline in our public discourse,” the ADL cited “the ‘birthers’ who claim the president is not an actual citizen of the U.S., to militia groups fearful that the government plans to forcibly disarm American citizens, to those who suggest that the health-care reform movement is akin (to) Nazi policies.

“There is a toxic atmosphere of rage in America being witnessed at many levels, and it raises fundamental questions for our society,” said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director. “While not all of American has bought into these conspiracies, they seem to be seeping more and more into the mainstream.”

We seem to have slipped further since, toward a nation that is losing all sense of civility — and, in the words of McDonald’s masterful ad campaign, lovin’ it.

Increasingly we give the most outrageous media and political demagogues the biggest ratings. Intuitively we know they’ll poison our national discourse, wreck the country, whatever it takes to advance themselves, which ultimately is what they’re all about. Yet we keep tuning in, voting them in, seeking to be “informed,” and comforted. Which underscores that ultimately, we are responsible for this situation.

And these days, of course we can’t overlook what is being called Islamophobia. It seems Muslims have become the new — er, for the sake of civility, let’s just say, “N word,” with anyone who resembles “immigrant” a close second. Shrill voices keep demanding that Muslims be lumped in one bag. Yet as one of them I can attest that rather than being monolithic, the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims are as diverse as human beings get.

The point seemed to have been lost on veteran news commentator Juan Williams, who, trying to placate Fox News extremist Bill O’Reilly, and have National Public Radio too, provided NPR execs an opportunity to do what they long have wanted: dump him.

NPR’s excuse was Mr. Williams’ statement that when he sees folks on airplanes wearing traditional (or, in his thinking, stereotypical) Muslim garb, “and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims,” he becomes fearful. So Fox just hired at $2 million this news analyst, who not only thinks terrorists would disguise themselves as … Muslims, but also thinks folks’ myriad cultural clothing identifies them as terrorists.

With the operative words, “and I think,” Mr. Williams at least acknowledged that the problem was in his head, and reminded us that blacks can be bigots too. Best line I saw on it all? Juan Cole, University of Michigan professor: “Next Williams will be announcing that he sympathizes with the white police officers who get nervous when they see people dressed like African-Americans traveling in automobiles.”

The situation has reached the point that friends increasingly say they are tuning out TV, talk radio and other mass media news in favor of more thoughtful information sources such as — OK, I’ll say it — this one.

“We have given up in my house,” is a typical comment. “Just too much mass hypnosis all day long by the warped media.”

Yet with so many choices, grabbing people’s attention costs more than money, “It costs interesting,” says blogger Seth Godin. “Thus, as media moves from TV-driven to attention-driven, we’re going to see more outliers, more renegades and more angry people driving agendas and getting elected.”

But is civility dead? Hardly. A friend just told me she will be participating next month in a Consultation on Civility, part of a major project the Jewish Council for Public Affairs is mounting “to help restore civility in our nation.” As part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, the National Endowment for the Humanities recently accepted proposals for “Civility and Democracy” grants.

Another friend said she’ll be heading next month to a weekend gathering of sisters of her Catholic congregation whose anti-racism team “meets twice a year to consider how to keep this reality and need for transformation in front of the whole congregation’s consciousness and actions.”

“We are greatly in need of turning down the rhetoric of both religious and political dialogue,” said Mitch Carnell of South Carolina, author of Christian Civility in an Uncivil World, in his April article at ethicsdaily.com, Breaking Point? Working to Restore Civility. “It starts with each one of us taking responsibility for our own actions.”

Like you, I’m sure, I’m not always as patient, or as civil, as I want to be. But civility dead?

Nah, we’re just witnessing the latest last gasp of the recalcitrance in our human spirit. Our progress through the course of history, and even in my brief lifetime, renders me hopefully optimistic (which some friends translate as: optimistic fool).

Thus this ode to you who are trying to do the civil thing. You know who you are. With more of us than ever, of so many different stripes, learning from, sharing with and better appreciating each other, we still might lose, humanity.

But ultimately, the professional haters for fun and profit can’t win. 

— My gratitude for all the kindness from those of you who were readers of more than two decades of my editorials and columns for The Palm Beach Post. I’m still rooting for my friends there. But for those who have wanted more of my offerings, welcome. I’m going to love sharing on the issues and goings-on in our community, if not our galaxy. Thanks for joining me on this latest journey.

— C.B. Hanif

Lost in the furor over the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero is a simple fact: The opposition to the center is the strongest argument in favor of it going right where it is planned. By most accounts, much of the opposition is based on an inaccurate conflation of Islam with terrorism, stemming from ignorance about the Muslim religion, culture and people. While troubling, this is hardly surprising in a nation in which a significant minority of Americans believe that our Christian president is Muslim (and so what if he were?).

Jones, a public affairs and government relations strategist, and former executive director of the National Urban League Policy Institute from 2005 to 2010, is refreshingly clear:

Exiling the center to another part of Manhattan will expand and deepen the gulf between the Islamic community and its neighbors. The best way to bridge this gap is to help people understand that their trepidation is based not in reality but born of a myth that has been cruelly exploited. The Islamic cultural center can help span this chasm.

Of course, it’s not fair to expect a minority community to educate the majority, especially when the majority is so hostile to it. Sadly, minorities have long shouldered the burden of proving to the majority that they pose no threat, that they are not inferior and that they, too, deserve everything the majority takes for granted as its due — while patiently enduring misunderstanding and even abuse. They do all this in the face of demands that they are going too fast, pushing too hard and making life too uncomfortable for others.

That was the case in 1963 when white ministers in Birmingham, Ala., accused Martin Luther King Jr. of exacerbating racial tensions by leading protests against the city’s segregation laws. They called his actions “unwise and untimely.” Dr. King responded with his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in which he wrote: “Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ “

Perhaps because I am a longtime professional news journalist, including the world’s longest serving news ombudsman, I have long seen this as a sad media story, as indicated by recent posts. But we should note that some news organizations, having been swiftboated again by the far-right, are trying to catch up. Also from WaPost:

Mosque debate: New Yorkers take dim view of rabble-rousing outsiders

The story even has this from Republican Rep. Peter King:

“When people say it’s a battle between cultures or it’s about the violence in the Koran, I never buy any of that. You can find as much of that in the Old Testament and the New Testament; for me that is not the issue at all.”

Also Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler:

“It’s only a slap in the face if you think that the people in the congregation are responsible for al-Qaeda,” Nadler said as he sat in his office, where outdated posters, some featuring the Twin Towers, hung on the wall.

A staunch defender of Israel, Nadler said that it is logical that he is fighting for the rights of a Muslim congregation that he said he might very well vehemently disagree with. “Jews, of all people, should know that we have to support religious liberty,” he said. “Because if you can block a mosque, you can block a synagogue…

“I tend to think that Sarah Palin probably doesn’t [understand the Constitution],” Nadler said. “I think that Newt Gingrich is a very bright man; he probably understands it, at least intellectually. But he doesn’t agree with it or care about it enough to avoid trashing the Constitution for political advantage.”

With regard to the Cordoba Initiative’s Manhattan community center: Aside from the fact that, as someone noted, we Americans do not want government (much less Palin or Gingrich) dictating whether we can build houses of worship that are properly zoned, the New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg underscored some essential but sadly overlooked elements:

Ah, the “Ground Zero mosque.” Well, for a start, it won’t be at Ground Zero. It’ll be on Park Place, two blocks north of the World Trade Center site (from which it will not be visible), in a neighborhood ajumble with restaurants, shops (electronics, porn, you name it), churches, office cubes, and the rest of the New York mishmash. Park51, as it is to be called, will have a large Islamic “prayer room,” which presumably qualifies as a mosque. But the rest of the building will be devoted to classrooms, an auditorium, galleries, a restaurant, a memorial to the victims of September 11, 2001, and a swimming pool and gym. Its sponsors envision something like the 92nd Street Y—a Y.M.I.A., you might say, open to all, including persons of the C. and H. persuasions.

Or as reported by Ericka Werner:

The group behind the $100 million project, the Cordoba Initiative, describes it as a Muslim-themed community center. Early plans call not only for prayer space but for a swimming pool, culinary school, art studios and other features. Developers envision it as a hub for interfaith interaction, as well as a place for Muslims to bridge some of their faith’s own schisms.

Opponents, including some Sept. 11 victims’ relatives, see the prospect of a mosque so near the destroyed trade center as an insult to the memory of those killed by Islamic terrorists in the 2001 attacks. Some of the Sept. 11 victims’ relatives, however, are in favor.

I suspect that one reason for the opposition from some folks still fighting the Crusades is that the center’s healing & reconciliation premise — indeed its very name — undermines the culture warriors by invoking the spirit of the 800-year period in Cordoba, Spain during which Jews, Christians and Muslims enjoyed unparalleled understanding and cooperation, and thrived together in a way the three Abrahamic faiths have not enjoyed since.

Michael Rowe may have said it best, in his “Thoughts on the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ and the Better Angels of Our Nature“:

The ugliest part of fear mongering is that the “they” and “them” being referred to are other Americans.

Last, for those who didn’t see, here’s Keith Olbermann. Also, Jon Stewart, nailing it all down better than any news organization yet, here, here and here.

— C.B. Hanif

First, let’s get some real information on board. Such as the actual facts.

Meanwhile, no swiftboating on his watch: President Obama, during the annual Ramadan Iftar Dinner at the White House, lighting another candle against the darkness: The video. The transcript. WPost story. NYTimes report. HuffPost story.

Mayor Bloomberg won’t be fooled again? He remembers falling for the last such trick, when he failed to stand behind the principal of the city’s first Arabic-language public school.  A federal employment commission determined that the Bloomberg administration “succumbed to the very bias that creation of the school was intended to dispel.”

Meanwhile, back in Reality USA, a couple of real mosques, Masjid Manhattan and Masjid al-Farah, “have existed for decades, largely unnoticed, blocks from the World Trade Center site”:

One mosque is conservative, and the other is reputed to be among the most progressive in the city — making the downtown Muslim community a quintessentially New York combination of immigrants and native New Yorkers, traditionalists and spiritual seekers.

Perhaps the best for last:  Jon Stewart on the absurdity of it all.

— C.B. Hanif

President Barack Obama

“In the weeks to come, let us each reaffirm our commitment to the core values of all faiths: advancing justice and pursuing peace; giving to charity and working toward the common good; and treating others with dignity and respect.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

American Muslims make valuable contributions to our country every day and millions will honor this month with acts of service and giving back to their communities. Along with dozens of our Embassies, I will host an Iftar in Washington, DC, for Muslims and non-Muslims to join together and reflect on our common values, faith and the gifts of the past year.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

President Obama also released a statement to mark the end of Ramadan (which occurred Saturday night) and the beginning of Eid-ul-Fitr:

“As Muslims in the United States and around the world complete the month of Ramadan and celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, Michelle and I would like to extend our personal greetings on this joyous occasion.

“Eid is a time to celebrate the completion of 30 days and nights of devotion,” the president continued. “But even on this festive occasion, Muslims remember those less fortunate, including those impacted by poverty, hunger, conflict, and disease…

“On behalf of the American people, we congratulate Muslims in the United States and around the world on this blessed day. Eid Mubarak.”

May our Most High Creator reward the fasters and grant all your Ramadan prayers.

And to borrow a line from a friend and rabbi, insha’Allah — or G-d willing, let’s make it a good year full of blessings.

–30–

(Video)

Remarks of President Barack Obama

(Text)

Ramadan Message

Washington, DC

On behalf of the American people – including Muslim communities in all fifty states – I want to

extend best wishes to Muslims in America and around the world. Ramadan Kareem.

Ramadan is the month in which Muslims believe the Koran was revealed to the Prophet

Muhammad, beginning with a simple word – iqra. It is therefore a time when Muslims reflect

upon the wisdom and guidance that comes with faith, and the responsibility that human beings

have to one another, and to God.

Like many people of different faiths who have known Ramadan through our communities and

families, I know this to be a festive time – a time when families gather, friends host iftars, and

meals are shared.  But I also know that Ramadan is a time of intense devotion and reflection – a

time when Muslims fast during the day and perform tarawih prayers at night, reciting and

listening to the entire Koran over the course of the month.

These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing

justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.

For instance, fasting is a concept shared by many faiths – including my own Christian faith – as a

way to bring people closer to God, and to those among us who cannot take their next meal for

granted. And the support that Muslims provide to others recalls our responsibility to advance

opportunity and prosperity for people everywhere. For all of us must remember that the world we

want to build – and the changes that we want to make – must begin in our own hearts, and our

own communities.

This summer, people across America have served in their communities – educating children,

caring for the sick, and extending a hand to those who have fallen on hard times. Faith-based

organizations, including many Islamic organizations, have been at the forefront in participating

in this summer of service. And in these challenging times, this is a spirit of responsibility that we

must sustain in the months and years to come.

Beyond America’s borders, we are also committed to keeping our responsibility to build a world

that is more peaceful and secure.  That is why we are responsibly ending the war in Iraq. That is

why we are isolating violent extremists while empowering the people in places like Afghanistan

and Pakistan. That is why we are unyielding in our support for a two-state solution that

recognizes the rights of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. And that is why

America will always stand for the universal rights of all people to speak their mind, practice their

religion, contribute fully to society and have confidence in the rule of law.

All of these efforts are a part of America’s commitment to engage Muslims and Muslim-majority

nations on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect. And at this time of renewal, I want to

reiterate my commitment to a new beginning between America and Muslims around the world.

As I said in Cairo, this new beginning must be borne out in a sustained effort to listen to each

other, to learn from each other, to respect one another, and to seek common ground. I believe an

important part of this is listening, and in the last two months, American embassies around the

world have reached out not just to governments, but directly to people in Muslim-majority

countries.  From around the world, we have received an outpouring of feedback about how

America can be a partner on behalf of peoples’ aspirations.

We have listened. We have heard you. And like you, we are focused on pursuing concrete

actions that will make a difference over time – both in terms of the political and security issues

that I have discussed, and in the areas that you have told us will make the most difference in

peoples’ lives.

These consultations are helping us implement the partnerships that I called for in Cairo – to

expand education exchange programs; to foster entrepreneurship and create jobs; and to increase

collaboration on science and technology, while supporting literacy and vocational learning. We

are also moving forward in partnering with the OIC and OIC member states to eradicate polio,

while working closely with the international community to confront common health challenges

like H1N1 – which I know is of particular to concern to many Muslims preparing for the

upcoming hajj.

All of these efforts are aimed at advancing our common aspirations – to live in peace and

security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and

our God. It will take time and patient effort. We cannot change things over night, but we can

honestly resolve to do what must be done, while setting off in a new direction – toward the

destination that we seek for ourselves, and for our children. That is the journey that we must

travel together.

I look forward to continuing this critically important dialogue and turning it into action. And

today, I want to join with the 1.5 billion Muslims around the world – and your families and

friends – in welcoming the beginning of Ramadan, and wishing you a blessed month. May God’s

peace be upon you.

]]> http://www.interfaith21.com/president-obamas-ramadan-message/feed/ 0 http://www.interfaith21.com/president-obamas-interfaith-speech-in-cairo/ http://www.interfaith21.com/president-obamas-interfaith-speech-in-cairo/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:09:19 +0000 admin http://www.interfaith21.com/?p=151 this month’s InterFaith21 column, is at The Coastal Star:

…latest InterFaith21 column at The Coastal Star:

There he was in Cairo, our president, stealing our lines: Uniting people of faith, or no particular faith, in the 21st century. President Barack Obama bestrode multiple worlds, representing Americans in ways that hasn’t happened since … ever. He not only explained Islam to Americans, and America to a billion-plus Muslims, but also Islam to Muslims…

He affirmed that Islam and America “share common principles — principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

He made clear that extremists and certain cultural practices no more represent Islam than cross-burning, lynching Ku Klux Klansmen represented all Christians; or Dr. George Tiller’s assassin represents all abortion opponents; or the murderer of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum guard Stephen Johns represents all whites.

In last year’s epic speech on race, candidate Obama reminded whites they cannot just ignore the generations of brutally enforced servitude and institutionalized second-class citizenship whose legacy impacts Americans of African descent. He also reminded blacks that “a similar anger exists within segments of the white community” among those who “don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race.”

But now, as then, his message in Cairo was: “If we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward.”

President Obama noted “civilization’s debt to Islam,” for “paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment,” and demonstrating “the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

He said Western countries “cannot disguise hostility toward any religion behind the pretence of liberalism,” as in dictating Muslim women’s choice of dress.

Yet he not only explained Islam to Americans, and America to a billion-plus Muslims, but also Islam to Muslims, for example citing the Quran:

“Whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind.”

Before a university audience, he illuminated for the world the fact that individuals and governments are claiming the mantle of Islam yet disrespecting its principles.

He also invoked a key asset against extremism: America’s Muslims.

They include millions who reverted to the faith of their forebears snatched into slavery generations ago; who maintain constructive ties with fellow citizens of whatever stripe; who rather than getting even, are helping stem man’s inhumanity to man.

Thus a Christian, whose father “came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims,” conveyed in that timeless city “the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my county.”

He began and ended with, “As salaam alaikum,” or “may God’s peace be upon you” — no doubt knowing the classic greeting obligates the recipient to respond in word and deed that is equal, if not better.

It’s like this, Humanity:

We’re not where we want to be.

But we ain’t where we was.

In today’s episode we visit more encouraging evidence.

One definition of interreligious dialogue is cooperation and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions.

Nobody does that better, in my experience, than the members of the Catholic lay movement known as the Focolare.

Consider the relations between Focolare members and their friends of other faith traditions, or even no faith tradition, around the world.

Eyebrows invariably rise when I mention that for decades, Focolare members have participated in constructive dialogue with other traditions, just as our Muslim community has under the leadership of “America’s Imam,” the late W. Deen Mohammed.

Moreover, for years in their cozy facility at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, the movement has hosted international meetings such as with the Muslim friends of the Focolare.

Last year my wife and I were among the American delegation invited to that meeting. (Here’s the Focolare photo slideshow from our sessions). As always is the case with the Focolare, we were treated like royalty. The only honorable response? To reciprocate even better. It’s all a reminder of how our Creator has ordained we should treat all our fellow human beings.

I’m hardly any great interfaith guru. But when the Golden Rule is expressed, whether in action, language, thought or spirit, I want to gravitate toward it, to share it, to keep the Good spreading. Thus, this InterFaith21 blog.

In addition to acknowledging my parents and countless others, I wouldn’t be here — in this spiritual place to which I have been blessed to grow — without the sacrifices of Imam Mohammed. His unique contributions include introducing our community to the late founder of the Focolare, the Blessed Lady Chiara Lubich, and to her community.

Although they both passed last year, we can see President Barack Obama following their lead. More of us should join in. Rather than arguing and disuniting over the relatively few items on which we (all too often strongly) disagree, let’s change the paradigm to focus first on unifying around the areas where we do agree.

It is in the spirit of learning from each other that I have come to know Focolare members on a local, national and now international level. We have joined countless others who are seeking in sincerity the best of our common human inheritance. “That all may be one,” is how Chiara often expressed the sentiment found in the Bible, Quran and other holy books.

I often have described my dear Focolare friends as followers of Jesus who truly live what that great teacher, on whom we pray peace and blessings, talked and walked.

Recently a friend overheard my description, and identified them even more succinctly: “Gen-u-wine Christians.”