Muslims are in a state of relative weakness, College of the Holy Cross Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies Caner Dagli argued at a lecture on Islam in current affairs on Wednesday.
“We need to rebuild our intellectual and cultural institutions,” he said. “There was once a definite intellectual culture, a culture of interacting that was healthy.”
Muslim Life Program Coordinator and Chaplain Imam Sohaib Sultan, who hosted the event, noted that Dagli has been at the forefront of addressing many pressing issues that have arisen in the past decade for the Muslim community.
According to Dagli, a controversial article published in The Atlantic electrified the culture of misunderstanding and hate in America against Muslims when author Graeme Wood wrote, “The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic.”
Dagli said that Wood’s emphasis on ISIS being strongly associated with Islam is problematic because his use of the word “Islamic” is ambiguous. ISIS may be considered Islamic, but does not represent Islamic values, he said.
“You can’t be an Islamic studies professor these days without someone not wanting to talk to you about ISIS,” he said. “You just can’t.”
Dagli called for an emphasis on strengthening Muslims themselves because they are in a state of “relative weakness.” He mentioned the successes of black movements, saying that Muslims can do better to counter Islamophobia.
The fact that questions such as “Does Islam promote violence?” continue to appear in popular media is very problematic, Dagli noted.
“Why are these questions being constantly posed all the time?” asked Dagli. “It’s astounding. If you view the question in light of the other communities, you can see just how insulting it is. Just imagine if someone were to write, ‘Does Judaism make Jews greedy?’ It’s unthinkable in our culture.”
Dagli said that there is a power relationship in the United States in which Muslims are in a “powerless” state as a result of the questions Muslims feel they are pressured to answer. Dagli added that Muslims should push back against these questions because trying to answer them would not solve the problem.
Dagli was one of 138 Muslim signatories in A Common Word Between Us And You, a 2007 letter addressed to Christian leaders in an attempt to alleviate tensions and encourage cooperation between the two religions.
Dagli said that what made A Common Word effective was that it was premised on the idea that there would be no attempt to change any religion. Instead, it explicitly said that Muslims are going to remain Muslims and Christians are going to remain Christians; nothing was going to change.
The document emphasized two prominent ideas, love of God and love of the neighbor, that both religions promote. Dagli added that A Common Word was a very fruitful way for people to have positive dialogue.
Dagli said that the Amman Message is a document that attempts to define Islam and encourage people to agree to “be more civil to one another across sectarian lines.”
Titled “Interpreting Islam in Turbulent Times,” the talk formed part of the “Islam in Conversation” series. The Sultan said the series believes in the exchange between various thinkers and artists on issues affecting the Muslim community. He noted that the mission of the Muslim life program is to provide a forum through which people can come together and have meaningful conversations.
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