A Decade of Working Shoulder to Shoulder with Muslim Americans

A Decade of Working Shoulder to Shoulder with Muslim Americans to Advance American Ideals A growing and expanding effort to counteract Islamophobia and anti-Muslim political rhetoric and actions

BY CATHERINE ORSBORN

In 2010, anti-Muslim sentiment and initiatives, including Ramadan gatherThis year, faith communities are reflectfilled the country’s airwaves as controings, workshops, dinners and trainings, to ing on their accomplishments while renewversy raged over New York City’s “Ground help Americans come together across difing their steadfast position against fear-monZero mosque” and Florida pastor Terry ferent religious backgrounds to build more gering and hate, as well as recommitting Jones was threatening to publicly burn the inclusive communities for all. to working together for an America that Qur’an. Reports of anti-Muslim values and respects people and discrimination and violence communities of all faiths and across the country were also at backgrounds. an all-time high. The following are just a

This level of rhetoric, disfew highlights of Shoulder to crimination and violence was Shoulder’s work. unprecedented. Thanks to strong • Spring 2011. Rep. Peter interfaith partnerships with King (R-N.Y.) held a series of ISNA’s Washington, D.C. Office Congressional hearings ampliof Interfaith and Community fying misinformation, fear and Alliances, on Sept. 7, 2010, nearly discrimination against Muslims 40 senior religious leaders conin the U.S. In protest, Shoulder vened an emergency interfaith to Shoulder organized the leaders summit at the National Press Pastor Bob Roberts speaking at the Beyond Tolerance event at of several Christian, Jewish and Club. Standing in solidarity with Washington National Cathedral, organized by Shoulder to Shoulder, Muslim organizations for a press Muslim Americans, these faith Oct. 23, 2015 (Photo © West End Strategy Team) conference near the hearing room, leaders released a powerful joint emphasizing that such attacks statement and held a press conchallenge the country’s claimed ference broadcast live by C-SPAN DESPITE THE ORGANIZATION’S ideals of religious freedom and and CNN, covered by multiple national and international media IMPORTANT GROWTH IN NUMBERS mutual respect. • O ctober 2015. In response outlets and attended by Obama AND IMPACT, ANTI-MUSLIM to anti-Muslim rallies around the White House staff. Ten years later, there is a continued urgency to address DISCRIMINATION REMAINS A CRITICAL PROBLEM. WE HAVE SEEN THE country, we helped engage religious denominations and communities in person and on social the harm that anti-Muslim disGROWTH OF HATE CRIMES, BIGOTED media. We directly organized crimination is doing to Muslim communities and to our country as a whole. The Shoulder to RHETORIC, BULLYING AND ANTIMUSLIM LEGISLATION SUPPORTED BY interfaith partners in Tennessee, Texas and Arizona; used email and social media action alerts Shoulder Campaign (www.shoulA POLITICAL LEADERSHIP THAT SEEKS to encourage others to reach dertoshouldercampaign.org) now comprises 34 national religious TO KEEP THE COUNTRY DIVIDED BY out and support local Muslims; and worked with the Huffington denominations and organizations FEAR AND HATRED. Post and the Christian Science and 60+ affiliated local commuMonitor to tell these stories nity membership organizations nationwide. Despite the organization’s important of interfaith solidarity. The title of one It continues to help mobilize supportive faith growth in numbers and impact, anti-Muslim Huffington Post piece summarized it well: voices at the national level, in congressiodiscrimination remains a critical problem. Sorry, Islamophobes, Your Anti-Muslim nal briefings and hearings, in major media We have seen the growth of hate crimes, Rallies Ended up Inspiring Acts of Love outlets and through joint statements and bigoted rhetoric, bullying and anti-Muslim and Service. advocacy efforts. We train local faith leaders legislation supported by a political leader• October 2015. In partnership with the to address anti-Muslim bias more effectively ship that seeks to keep the country divided Sterling, Va.-based ADAMS Center, Shoulder in their communities and convene programs by fear and hatred. to Shoulder and the Washington National

Meet The Shoulder to Shoulder Team

• Dr. Catherine Orsborn – Executive

Director • Nina M. Fernando – Program Director • Cassandra Lawrence –

Communications & Project Associate • Gary Sampliner – Senior Consultant,

Advocacy Learn more about the Shoulder to Shoulder Staff at www.shouldertoshouldercampaign. org/staff ih

Cathedral convened religious leaders and community members at the Cathedral for a multi-religious service, “Beyond Tolerance: A Call to Religious Freedom and Hopeful Action.” This was followed immediately by a press conference introducing the Religious Freedom Pledge. Media coverage included PBS, Religion Dispatches and Religion News Service, among others. In July 2016, partners from multiple national faith organizations delivered the Religious Freedom Pledge to all House and Senate offices. • From 2014-2016, we brought cohorts of seminary students and emerging faith leaders to the ISNA Convention through the Emerging Religious Leaders Seminar. This helped them learn about the roots and manifestations of anti-Muslim bigotry in the country and to develop resources for engaging themselves and their faith communities in fostering positive inter-religious learning, relationships, solidarity and activism. • December 2015. Responding to the presidential campaign’s growing anti-Muslim rhetoric, Shoulder to Shoulder collaborated with the Aspen Institute’s Inclusive America Project to write and organize an open letter. Signed by 50 faith leaders and placed as an advertisement in the Washington Post, it expressed alarm and opposed the growing levels of anti-Muslim campaign rhetoric. The Post followed it a day after (Dec. 22) with a feature piece —“Religious leaders are especially alarmed by anti-Muslim rhetoric.” • During 2016. We began our Interfaith Iftar mapping project to connect individuals with communities. Every Ramadan we

Faith over Fear Trainings

BETWEEN JANUARY 2018 AND THE present, Shoulder to Shoulder has run Faith over Fear training in 12 locations, ranging from large cities to rural towns. These sessions, which seek to equip faith leaders with effective strategies to better advocate against anti-Muslim bigotry and discrimination, draw upon the most up-to-date research, tools and strategies. We worked closely with partners at ReThink Media, OverZero and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding to develop and refine the curriculum.

Each training is centered around three core content modules: (1) helping participants understand and contextualize Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry by exploring the relevant facts, figures and complexities; (2) discussing effective strategies for messaging and communicating for change by reviewing the underlying dynamics of why negative speech resonates so deeply with some individuals and communities, as well as specific recommendations on how to respond; and (3) exploring strategies for engagement and change. More specifically, they are encouraged to identify concrete ideas and tactics for educating others.

As one participant stated, this training offered a “powerful experience [that] shifted my understanding and awareness.” This training program has engaged hundreds of faith leaders and is still being bought to communities, virtually and in-person, to further equip both of them to more effectively address anti-Muslim bias within their own congregations, cities and beyond. ih

work to identify, uplift and connect people to attend iftars to help build local relationships among communities. This list has grown from a few dozen locations to over 500 iftars in 38 states. • Following the November 2016 elections. Shoulder to Shoulder issued “What you can do to stand with American Muslims.” We quickly brought faith leaders together to hold a press conference at Masjid Muhammad in Washington, D.C. and released a sign-on statement from heads of faith denominations and organizations. The New York Times, Washington Jewish Week, the AP, PBS, the Huffington Post and several local news outlets covered this event. • January 2017. When the “Muslim Ban” was announced in January 2017, we immediately began working with national Muslim and interfaith partners to push back. This included issuing a faith letter in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2018, numerous visits during the fall/winter of 2018 and the spring of 2019 to members of Congress expressing our continued concern about the ban and expressing the faith community’s support for the No Ban Act. We also worked with Church World Service to lead both a faith letter (300+ signatures from faith leaders and institutions) and a faith petition (nearly 1,000 signatures from clergy and lay individuals). The work to repeal the ban continues, as we advocate for Congress to pass the No Ban Act. • January 2018. We held a pilot training program to support and equip faith communities to address anti-Muslim discrmination and violence in their own communities. This program, created in collaboration with local organizations in the Seattle area and members of our national coalition and experts, addressed these two issues. Our Faith over Fear training built on that pilot and has been convened in 12 cities and engaged 500+ community members. We are now developing a fully online version. • August 2018. Shoulder to Shoulder, along with Muslim Advocates, MoveOn. org, Credo and Emgage, pushed back against Hyatt Hotels for hosting the annual ACT for America conference. We sent a faith letter

Shoulder to Shoulder’s Ramadan Campaign

EACH R A M A DA N, S H O U L D ER TO Shoulder runs the Ramadan Supper Series: United States of Love over Hate. Through this initiative, we create and publicize a national listing of iftars open to the public to help facilitate local relationship-building among all communities. In 2019, this listing included over 528 iftars in 38 states.

Unable to run this campaign in 2020 as usual, we instead offered a virtual iftar Welcome to My Table matching campaign. Sabeeha and Khalid, a Muslim couple who live in NYC, joined a virtual meal with Mandy and Kelly, Lutheran (ELCA) pastors in rural Minnesota. Mandy noted that, “We live in a small rural town … with a population of 1,000. The nearest house is a mile away.” Meanwhile, Sabeeha stated, “We live in a city with a population of 8 million, and the nearest resident is across the hall.”

Mandy and Kelly have worked in their own congregations to dispel myths about Islam and Muslims and to encourage them to engage with people of other faiths. Sabeeha, after reflecting on their conversation, said that meeting the couple “restores one’s belief in angels.” ih

directly to its CEO and participated in a press conference held outside a major Hyatt hotel in Washington, D.C. In turn, Hyatt Hotels issued a statement in the following months outlining a new policy against hosting hateful events. Shoulder to Shoulder responded with a statement of gratitude. • Summer 2019. The organization visited five southeastern cities during its Ramadan Road Trip and collected stories and documented experiences from people building a country in which people of all faiths and cultural backgrounds are treated respectfully, fairly and with dignity. After 50+ interviews and story booth conversations in Raleigh (N.C.), Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, Clarkston (Ga.) and Washington, D.C., our team developed a mini-documentary, a series of videos with accompanying video discussion guides that highlights the overall experience, along with a collection of conversations and stories about Ramadan, being Muslim in the U.S., the importance of

Meet Shoulder to Shoulder’s Executive Committee

Kathryn Mary Lohre, campaign co-chair, is an assistant to the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and executive for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations and Theological Discernment. Rev. Ron Stief, campaign co-chair, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), an interfaith organization of 300+ religious organizations and tens of thousands of Americans of faith committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture forever. Rabbi Esther Lederman is the Union for Reform Judaism’s director of congregational innovation and sits on the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ taskforce on the experience of women in the rabbinate. She is a board member for T’ruah. Rev. Margaret R. Rose is deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations for The Episcopal Church. Dr. Tony Kireopoulos is associate general secretary for Faith and Order and Interfaith Relations at the National Council of Churches. Rev. Richard L. Killmer, co-founder, is a Presbyterian minister and founding executive director of NRCAT. Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi, co-founder, is director of the Secretariat of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, a global network initiated by the UN Mediation Support Unit, the UN Alliance of Civilizations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Religions for Peace, the KAICIID Dialogue Center and Finn Church Aid. ih

Interfaith in Raleigh, N.C.

interfaith community building, how to be a better ally and more.

Despite our efforts, there is much more work to be done. Anti-Muslim discrimination and bias continues to impact Muslim communities and those perceived to be Muslim. Anti-Muslim policies and experts are now institutionalized in the halls of power at the local, state and national levels. And yet people of faith and conscience have committed themselves to working alongside Muslim Americans to advocate for the country that we want for ourselves and our children — a country in which no one lives in fear because of how they look or worship.

Religious denominations and faithbased organizations have reaffirmed their commitment to Shoulder to Shoulder’s work, as this excerpt from their statement of solidarity shows: “We take seriously the responsibility and necessity to speak up and take action, especially when the voice of hate and exclusion comes from our own communities. We must equip our own communities with the proper spiritual and educational grounding to be emboldened to build bridges of understanding between our communities and our Muslim neighbors. And we must continue to counter harmful rhetoric and policies that negatively impact our fellow Americans who are Muslim or who are perceived to be.

“Silence or inaction in the face of hate, discrimination, and violence is not an option. As faith leaders representing different backgrounds and beliefs, we reaffirm our active commitment to Shoulder to Shoulder so that we may live up to our American ideals and build a nation where all people are treated with dignity and fairness. Only by taking this stance, and continuing to act together, can faith leaders fulfill the highest calling of our respective traditions, and thereby help to create a safer and stronger America for all people.”

We envision a U.S. in which people of all faiths and cultural backgrounds are treated respectfully, fairly and with dignity. We advance our vision by directly engaging faith leaders to be strategic partners in countering discrimination and violence against Muslims. Onward in faith, hope and love. ih