City of Residence:
Duluth, MN
Occupation:
Management Information Systems professor at University of Minnesota-Duluth / Homemaker
Excerpt:
“I do not doubt that there are elements within the Muslim community that have decided that they are the only ones that have the monopoly for the truth, they are the only ones that have monopoly for what is right and what is wrong and the law. So it’s an exclusive kind of approach to religion, and these are the ones that have become radicalized, perhaps, or have decided that if you’re not with me, then you’re against me kind of attitude. I have no doubt that that’s happening. I think the problem is that brushing everybody with the same brush is a dangerous—is a dangerous act because then it’s easy to demonize, it’s easy to look at somebody as being less human than you. And the moment you do that, then we have a problem.
A lot of people understand Muslims as a group of people that worships some other deity, you know, some other god. And they—and of course, they have no idea of what we aspire for, what we look for, and what we see, you know, as a purpose in life and things like that. And what I think I’d like to say, if this is of any use to the audience here, is that number one, if we believe that this is the same God, right, that all everybody worships, it obviously is God. It has to be a good God, a wise God and all-powerful God and all that. And so the same things that we aspire for or that we should work towards—the things that we should work towards are common. There’s a lot of the same values and the same aspirations we share. So if, for example, if somebody says, OK, you have to be fair or you have to be just, then everybody should benefit from that justice. So my sense of justice is the same sense of justice that you have.”
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