A standing-room-only crowd of nearly 75 students, faculty members, and staff turned out last Thursday afternoon at the HUB on the Fairfax Campus of George Mason University for a town hall conversation about religion in the crosshairs of contemporary culture, and what might be done to temper the volatile issue, particularly on university campuses.
The two-hour, cross-discipline forum was titled “Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Discrimination in the Name of Religion” and was hosted by the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program at Mason.
“This is not a lecture, this is an open discussion,” said Bassam Haddad, a professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government and director of the sponsoring center, as he introduced the panel of two Mason deans and eight professors. “You are welcome to say whatever you like. Feel free to argue but be respectful.”
Each of the deans and professors was allotted a challenging two minutes to express their thoughts on the issues and what might be sensible steps in alleviating pressures that keep religious controversies in the headlines, including mass shootings in churches and synagogues and the normalization of white supremacy and nationalism around the world.
Opening remarks by Ann Ardis, dean of Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Mark J. Rozell, dean of the Schar School who studies the intersection of religion and politics, were followed by comments by professors Maria Dakake, Department of Religious Studies; history and art history chairman Brian Platt; director of Global Islamic Studies Huseyin Yilmaz, film and media studies’ Hatim El-Hibri; School of Integrative Studies’ Noura Erakat, who is also a human rights lawyer; and Global Affairs’ Lisa Breglia.
The audience, seated in a three-deep semi-circle, addressed several points made by the professors as well as a few not made. One student offered that discrimination is a response to an apparent “loss of culture”; another suggested that knowing more about other cultures and religions paves the way to peaceful cohabitation; another suggested campus clubs should advertise their meetings to encourage participation by those not affiliated with their causes.
The takeaway of the forum, at least for some in the audience, was to have more discussion.
“I wanted to hear from every group what their problem is in their communities,” said computer science major Elham Abdurahman after the program. “Everybody has a lot to say about religious discrimination and what we need to do is talk about it and discuss and find ways to solve this problem.”
Holden Spence, former student government executive secretary for diversity and multicultural affairs and a global affairs major, said there should be a sequel to the forum.
“We need to do it again,” he said, suggesting in a larger room. “There’s a lot of work to do still.”