Religious Freedom and its Implications - Harvard University
By Yasir Qadhi | 2026-01-08T06:00:19.682972+00:00 | Topic: Youth
Religious Freedom and its Implications - Harvard University
Dr. Yasir Qadhi | 1st May 2014
Speaker Introduction
Sheikh Dr. Yasir Qadhi is Dean of Academic Affairs at the Al Maghrib Institute and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College. Dr. Qadhi has written a number of books and has lectured on Islam and contemporary Muslim issues. A 2011 New York Times Magazine essay described Dr. Qadhi as one of the most influential conservative critics in American Islam.
Sheikh Dr. Yasir Qadhi is one of the most influential conservative critics in American Islam. Oh, beautiful, beautiful. The sounds of religious difference but the sounds of religious similarity, very beautifully done.
Panel Introduction and Question
I ask each of the three panelists to prepare a response, which will take five to seven minutes each, to the following question. In your roles as faith leaders, you're on the front lines of the American conversation about religious freedom in a pluralistic society. I think everyone gathered this evening in this room will be interested in how we can go about building bridges between diverse religious groups in the United States.
So would each of you talk for a few minutes about the role of faith institutions and faith leaders in building these bridges? How could faith leaders and institutions work with civic leaders and institutions to build these bridges? And I've invited each to speak from their own experiences in answering these questions. And I've asked them even to consider how the American landscape has changed since they were a young person growing up in the United States to what it looks like now. Are there new challenges, despite our increasing multiculturalism? In what ways is American life more attuned to different religious cultures now than it used to be? Sheikh Yasir Qadhi.
Dr. Qadhi's Response
Thank you. It's a great honor to be here. And I'm going to center my talk around three points about my own experiences with interfaith.
First Point: The Participation Paradox
The first point, or the first, if you like, maxim that I have for this talk: groups that most need interfaith dialogue are typically the least involved in such efforts. Groups that most need interfaith dialogue are typically the least involved in such efforts. In other words, what ends up happening in interfaith dialogue typically is that like-minded individuals from different faiths with similar views on religious freedom, similar views on religious tolerance, come together and talk, and they're pleasantly surprised and amazed at how similar their views are on religious freedom and tolerance.
In the meantime, churches, mosques, and synagogues where uncomfortable rhetoric, negative stereotypes, and perhaps even hate speech is being propagated, are loudly absent from such interfaith dinners and dialogues. Now, I've been in Memphis, Tennessee for the last four years. I was raised in Texas. I did my Ph.D. from the other institute. So I've been in Memphis. I had to do something.
Where's your loyalty? Skip. There are three Aileys up here. And our mosque in Memphis has been involved with a lot of interfaith work.
Presbyterians, Catholics, Lutherans, the Reform Synagogue. But remember, this is Tennessee here. And Muslims in Tennessee don't have problems with their Episcopalian neighbors.
The largest demographics, I'm not going to mention it here, but the largest demographics, the community from which quite a lot of uncomfortable rhetoric and sentiments have been heard, is simply not involved in our interfaith activities. And there's so much negative sentiment about the other that many of that demographics actually feels that merely participating in such events waters down their own understanding of religion and legitimizes the existence of the other. And I don't mean to pinpoint any one religion here.
There are five mosques in Memphis. And not coincidentally, the mosques that are most involved in interfaith are also the most tolerant and the most open-minded mosques. Now unfortunately, that's the maxim that I have.
But I don't have a solution yet for this problem. But here is where I do believe that civic leaders, elected officials, they can play a very important role and act as conduits between these various demographics. We have reached out to the largest churches in Memphis.
As of yet, they have ignored us. However, if the mayor had reached out to the both of us, if a local congressman, if the state senator were to facilitate an interfaith dialogue, were to facilitate interfaith dinner, it would be far more difficult to say no to such a civic leader.
Second Point: Acknowledging Difficult Realities
The second of the three points: acknowledging the elephant or the elephants in the room makes the room easier to navigate.
Now typically, many interfaith projects attempt to stress the commonality of our faith traditions, love of God, love of neighbor, doing good unto others, etc. And of course, that is great. But at some point in time, we do need to move beyond the positive platitudes, if you like, and do concentrate on the very real differences.
Let's be honest with ourselves and honest with each other. In some ways, each one of us that is a part of a religious tradition believes in the exceptionalism of our own faith tradition, or else we would not be a part of those faith traditions. There are very uncomfortable questions that are lurking in the background.
If not in my mind and our minds as educated clergy, definitely in the minds of our constituents, in the minds of those who come to our mosques and churches and synagogues. And let me give you another example that took place recently in Memphis, the last Thanksgiving. For the first time, there was a massive interfaith Thanksgiving dinner at the Reformed Temple, the Reformed Synagogue in Memphis.
Fifteen different clergymen and clergywomen were invited. For the first time, a Muslim, myself, was invited as well. So one after the other, imagine 15 sermons, one after the other.
I had to sit there. So one of the pastors walked up and in a very difficult lecture, he ended up on the note of, I wouldn't be doing justice to you and to what I believe in and to my love for you if I didn't tell you that unless you believe in the Lord, Savior, Jesus Christ, you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven. And because I love you all, I have to tell you this.
Now, it was very awkward and I could literally see a huge weight off of his shoulder. Next morning, I received a call from the senior rabbi of the synagogue, the one who had invited me, apologizing if I had felt uncomfortable for what had happened. And he said he had received complaints and whatnot.
By the way, there's got to be a joke in there. The rabbi calls the imam to apologize to the pastor. Anyway, so I told him, I told him I wasn't offended in the slightest.
And in fact, after that sermon, the pastor was far more friendly with me and engaged in a nice and fruitful conversation. In other words, after he's told me that he thinks I'm going to hell, he can actually have a conversation on a more fruitful topic. So my point here with the second maxim is, we really do need to let these elephants out and just get it off of our chest and then perhaps move on to something more fruitful.
Third Point: Intra-faith and Non-faith Dialogue
The final point: as we emphasize interfaith dialogue, let us not forget intra-faith dialogue and also dialogue with those of no faith. Sometimes it's more awkward to engage with intra-faith than with interfaith. At least with interfaith, the other is truly another.
But with intra-faith, what happens when the vernacular is shared yet different, the rituals are similar yet dissimilar, that is when true awkwardness sets in. And again, we had an issue in Memphis between the Sunni and the Shiite mosque because of a cemetery issue. It was far more awkward for me to navigate through that dispute than it was to be at any interfaith dinner.
So let's not forget about the intra-faith and also, as we said, with those with no faith, especially in light of the fact that a Pew survey last year said that 30% of Americans above the age of 30 do not identify with a religion. 30%, that's one out of three obviously around, and that's a statistic that is very interesting to say the least.
Concluding Thoughts
Let me conclude on a lighter note. There is simply no denying that modernity has forced all of us not only to get along but to change and modify our vernacular, our traditions, and even our sermons. We're all preaching the same message now. Every single denomination of every single Abrahamic tradition in every single mosque and church and synagogue across this great land begins its services with the same holy invocation.
Please turn off your cell phones. Thank you very much. Oh, wonderful.
Follow-up Discussion on 9/11's Impact
Sheikh Yasir Qadhi. I also had the privilege of tracing the Sheikh's family tree and it gave us the opportunity to speak in depth about what you've seen as an evolution in the presence of Islam in this country and, of course, 9-11's impact on that. Can you speak to us this afternoon about the transformations wrought by 9-11 on the growing population of Muslims in this country?
The Double Tragedy of 9/11
Absolutely. For Muslims, 9-11 was really like a double tragedy. Firstly, it was a tragedy because, obviously, as Americans, as fellow Americans, we mourned the same loss, loss of life and loss of honour, loss of dignity. There were at least 75 Muslims who died in the Twin Towers.
Which nobody ever talks about. Nobody ever talks about that. We actually did in our PBS documentary, we talked about that.
But, yeah, that's a neglected number of 75 Muslims that were working in the Twin Towers when they came down. And then, obviously, the backlash that resulted, the Islamophobia, the draconian laws, what happened because of that was that the American Muslim community was galvanised like no other event.
Two Segments of American Muslims
And immigrant Muslims, because by and large, American Muslims are comprised of two segments or sectors. The first is immigrant Muslims who have immigrated the last 40 years, 50 years. And the second is African-American converts. Now, what 9-11 did was, number one, build bridges between the African- American convert Muslims and generally their inner-city Muslims.
And then the suburban immigrant middle-to-upper-class Muslims, which by and large was not connected with the inner-city African-American movements of Islam. 9-11 made the two communities realise that we need each other. And each community has resources the other does not have.
Political Awakening
And so 9-11, for the very first time, brought about this type of building bridges between these two very different demographics of American Islam. Additionally, immigrant Muslims in particular were galvanised to start becoming engaged in civic and in political action. By and large, most immigrant Muslims were very apolitical.
They hardly voted. They simply minded their own business and went about earning their money and living the American dream. Well, obviously, after 9-11, so many different laws were put into place.
Immigrant violations, draconian terror laws, and Sharia bills were trying to be passed in many states banning the practice of Islam. Islam was demonised in the media. And for the very first time, Muslims realised we need our voice in the media.
We need our voice in politics. We need our voice everywhere else people's voices are represented. Why should somebody else speak for us on the table? We need to be there ourselves.
The Americanization Process
And so, I remember growing up in the 70s in Texas, we never talked about voting in the mosque. We never talked about getting involved in the civic affairs of the city. We never talked. This is just not a part of our vernacular. Because our forefathers, I mean, I'm a first or second generation American. My father came to America in 1963.
And most American Muslims of my heritage are similar. Their fathers came, not their great-great-great- grandfathers. Generally speaking, we were born here. Our parents came here. So, our parents coming here meant they didn't really view themselves as being fully integrated into America. The problems are the problems back home.
But that's not my problem, right? Those are not my issues. And so, what 9-11 did is that we as a second and third generation realised we need to now start taking over. So, for the very first time, we're having mosques organising voting issues.
We're having sermons talking about civic engagement. And throughout all of this, what happened was 9- 11 resulted in the quintessential Americanisation of Muslims. Because what does America mean? It means you fight for your rights.
It means you fight to be integrated as a part of your society. Every single minority went through the exact same battles, if you like. And 9-11 was our defining moment for us, and we're still battling.
It's not a done deal yet, but we're still battling. But for us, by and large, this was one of the positive effects, really, that it forced us to realise we are a part and parcel of this land. We belong here just like anybody else does.
And if anybody is going to take that away from us, well then, we're going to go through the same system, the same courts, the same issues that other minorities have, and we will claim our rightful place in this fabric of this country.
Secularization and Tensions
So, it made Muslims more secular. Exactly. Is that a good thing? A good thing or a bad thing? I think it's a necessary part of being a part of this great land of America. You can't possibly be isolationist and get anything done. Has it produced tensions within the faith? Of course it has.
It has produced, because we still have some segments that are still attuned to the politics back home, the problems back home. But I do believe that second and third generation Americans, by and large, are going to leave that type of baggage. I don't see this basically going on beyond this generation.
And can you ever imagine yourself occupying political office yet? Whoa, busted him on that. No, I can't, because I still think the climate would not tolerate that. But maybe my son, maybe my grandson.
But I don't think, at least I don't see this, but I could be wrong and I hope to be proven wrong. I hope so too. Thank you.
Questions on Religious Attacks and Community Response
Yes, sir. Attacks on Muslims and Jews and black church burnings haven't, of course, to our great heartbreak, disappeared in this country. And I don't think they're about to disappear.
Despite our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and despite the strides that we've made, tremendous strides toward tolerance, there are not only three religions in this country, but scores. We mustn't overlook the horrific attack on the Sikh temple in Milwaukee in 2012. The most recent example that we've all heard about is, of course, the murder of three Christian people at a Jewish community center in Kansas City.
Now, I find this tragedy to be filled with complexities that resonate with the issues of religious pluralism, tolerance and freedom that we're addressing here this afternoon. So, Sheikh Qadhi, can you tell us your community's response to this event and how you, as a spiritual leader, lead them through the questions that these events raise?
Political and Local Responses
Well, firstly, let us realize that these events aren't just on the social scale. They're also on the political scale as well.
And speaking to my own experiences, when I just moved to Tennessee in 2010, straight off of Yale again, so when I just moved to Tennessee, the Tennessee State Senate was actually trying to ban the practice of Sharia. 22 states in America have attempted to ban Sharia. Now, Sharia for Muslims is like the halakha for Jews.
That's exactly, in fact, the term means the same thing. It's a path, right? Halakha means a path, right? Sharia is a path. And for a Muslim to not practice Sharia means they're not a Muslim. Tennessee was banning the Sharia, and the state legislator was about to vote for it. We lobbied, I had just moved there to Tennessee, we lobbied all of the mosques across the state. We, you know, carted busloads of people to the state capitol.
And on a very rainy day, 250 Muslims were petitioning outside the state capitol. We walked into one of the state congressman's office who wanted to see us, and we learned the hard way that it was basically too late to change that bill. But he did tell us some very important information.
He said, where were you when all of this was building up? You're coming to me at the 11th hour. And you're trying to now, you know, influence us. You are 250 people. You could have caused an impact and change.
Community Safety Protocols
So we're lobbying, obviously, at the political level. At the local level, I remember when the Boston tragedy happened, and again, this is another problem for American Muslims, when the bombers, the two Tsarnaev brothers, when they did their bombing.
So our mosque was basically threatened. And so I had to give a sermon the day after, I think it was a tragedy, in which, at the same time I'm sending my condolences as an American to what's happening, we dissociate from the terror, we say there's nothing to do with us, and then we have a protocol about safety, about mosque safety, about women might not want to wear their headscarves, you know, for the next few days. So it's this dual, you know, balancing act that we have to negotiate.
The Sikh Temple Attack
When the Sikh temple was attacked, now, in all likelihood, that was meant for Muslims. In all likelihood, they thought the Sikhs were Muslims, you know. We actually visited the Sikh temple in Memphis and gave them our condolences.
But once again, a part of what we said was, look, we're sorry, I know it was meant at us, but they came at you guys. Like, that's what we're basically telling the Sikhs, right? We're sorry, we know they wanted to kill us, they ended up killing you guys, whatever we can do to help out. So we're really being put in a kind of awkward situation.
And I don't think there's an easy, you know, one-line answer to this. It's just an ongoing process, ongoing. Education, talking, lecturing, action, it's just a lot of work. And if that's what God wants us to do, well, then that's what we're going to do.
Final Questions on Interfaith Action and Role Models
OK, a final summing up question for all three, and then we'll open it up to you guys. Now, in the divide between the culture wars and the struggles for social justice, how can our religious leaders and communities do a better job working toward common goals to help common people instead of being viewed as one more channel for reinforcing differences? Do you guys see specific debates over the next few years in which you hope to see a broader interfaith movement mobilized to affect change? And more personally, who are your role models on the world stage who are the best practitioners of interfaith dialogue and action? And how do you try to emulate them in your own work?
From Dialogue to Action
I'm a firm believer in changing the term interfaith dialogue into interfaith action, because talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words.
And in Memphis, we realized that we're getting together every year for an annual interfaith dinner and banquet and whatnot, but we're not doing anything. And so we decided we're not just going to talk. We actually decided to have an interfaith initiative together.
And for the last two years, we've had a joint project where we go and feed the homeless, and we have a system where there's elderly groups that can't shop for themselves. We deliver the supplies to them. And so we basically alternate.
One week, one church will do it, another week, the mosque will do it, and we deliver the supplies to them. And so I think it's very easy to actually demonstrate to the world the power, the positive power of religion. Dialogue with your co-religionists.
Find out common good that everybody wants to do. And I think, honestly, I have to say this. It's a shame that anybody in this great land goes to sleep hungry. It's a shame that any child does not have a roof over their heads. It's really a shame no matter what your religion is. It doesn't matter.
And there's common ground. I mean, and I actually told this to the pastor who had that conversation. They actually said, you know what? It's even if you think whatever the verdict is in the next life, in this world, we can all agree that we don't want a child to be hungry.
Can we do something about that in the meantime? Even if you think whatever is going to happen to you in the next life, in this world, Memphis has a serious problem. Our cities have serious problems in crime, in poverty. And so, you know, we actually did begin this initiative.
Role Model: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
And so really, my whole philosophy is a lot less talk and a lot more action. As for who I look up to, I have to say the one person that I genuinely admire immensely is Archbishop Desmond Tutu, that obviously he's from a different faith tradition than mine. And that's the whole point of interfaith dialogue and respect.
Firstly, he's got the coolest accent in the world. Secondly, he's not just a theologian. Religion isn't just abstract. It's really changing the world in a positive manner. And I have been following his works and listening to his lectures, and I haven't had the pleasure of ever meeting him. But you want to know my hero in terms of interfaith dialogue and work? It's somebody like, you know, Desmond Tutu.
He's a cool dresser, too. That's true. He likes that Easter purple thing. You know, it really works. It's great. Great.
Thank you. Let's give it up for our panelists, ladies and gentlemen. Excellent job.
Audience Q&A Session
Now the floor is open. Questions? No speeches, just questions. Yes.
Question on Divine Unity and Religious Diversity
Reverend Ken Turley from the Swedenborgian Church. I'd like to ask you, as individuals and representing your faith traditions. Could you speak into the microphone? It's just for the recording that's being made, which we'll have for sale on the way out.
I would like to ask you, as individuals and representing your faith traditions, if you believe that the divine is and the diversity of faith traditions is a result of the diversity of human response to divine, or if, in fact, Yahweh and Allah and God are different?
Dr. Qadhi's Response on Divine Unity
Well, the Holy Book of the Muslims, the Quran, is actually very explicit on this point that the God of Islam is the God of Judaism and Christianity. It is the God of Abraham and Moses and Jesus and Muhammad. And the Quran is very explicit.
"Our God and your God is the same." That's the verse in the Quran. So Muslims have never had this issue of is it the same deity or not? And as for the diversity, this, too, is mentioned in the Quran as being something that God has ordained:
"If God had willed, you'd all be the same."
So the diversity goes back to God wanting people to be diverse. That is not a legitimization of every single belief out there. Rather, this is a part of the manifestation of divine wisdom that things are not the same.
"People have different, God says, you have different skin colors, different languages, different ethnicities. God said, I'm the one who, in the Quran, that I'm the one who made you into different races and different tribes. You're not all the same, you know, skin color and whatnot."
So diversity is viewed as being a part and parcel of this human life. And these are choices we all have to struggle with. So the whole point of having the option of going down path A and path B and path C and path D and then you figuring out which option is the best for you in this world and if you believe in the next.
So it's all a part of God's plan. And I don't think that that is should stop us in appreciating the diversity. And I also want to piggyback off of what Brett said as well, is that, yeah, that doesn't mean everybody's right.
It does mean there's a lot of opportunity for us to think about various paths that God has basically given us to choose from.
Question on Separation of Church and State
Hi, my name is Sharon Kelleher. I'm a senior at the college. And I was wondering, so we've talked a lot about Roger Williams and the separation of church and state and how I believe that separation of church and state means a lot of things to different people and different faiths. And I was curious as to your thoughts on if political leaders can, in fact, separate their own personal religious beliefs from their public role and their, you know, constituents' desires and if so, if that's ideal for a political, someone in political office.
Historical Context and Personal Response
Who would like that? And obviously, you're much too young to know this, but it was the issue at the heart of John Kennedy's, particularly the primary campaign, because he had to win in Fundamentalist West Virginia against, and West Virginia voted for Roman Catholic.
It was like unheard of, but he had to answer that question head on. Who would like to answer her question? I mean, I won't answer it. I'll share my thoughts on that because I actually took a course at Yale with, there was a course on faith and globalization with Tony Blair being the politician and then we had a number of leaders.
So it's about Roman Catholic? Yeah, that was the development. He was teaching for three semesters and they would bring in academics and then he would be the politician. And this was one of the main questions of that seminar.
Dr. Qadhi's Philosophy on Religion and Politics
And in the end, the conclusion that I reached attending that seminar is that it's impossible and unfair to ask a human being to dissociate from who he is, but every human should be cognizant of his or her own biases and try his or her best not to impose those biases on others. So I think there's a difference between telling a politician you should keep religion out of your worldview and saying you should not impose your religion on other people's worldview. And I think that the answer to the first question should be you can't.
You have to be looking at the world through your own worldview. But for the second question, every politician should try his or her best not to force others just because of a personal belief. And you can talk about Rawlsian, if you like, overlapping consensus.
Maybe he can try to work to do that. But simply imposing what he or she believes because of his or her faith, I think that is where it's going to get detrimental. Thank you.
Practical Examples and Ongoing Challenges
So the question is, you know, what's the definition of separation of church and state? How far do we take it today? Where do kids tomorrow learn about religion? Do we learn it in a public school, in a classroom? Do we take out on our God in the, you know, in our speeches today? Do we, are edifices still tax-exempt? You know, do we grant churches and synagogues and mosques tax exemptions today? How far do we take separation of church and state? I think it's an ongoing conversation that all Americans are going to
Closing
Ladies and gentlemen, let's thank John and Sharon for their generosity. And please give it up for our brilliant panelists. Thank you.