Religious leaders call for interfaith action to combat hate and bigotry

A sign on the front yard of an Annandale home.

Leaders from several different religions came together Sunday to talk about one thing they agreed on: Interfaith action is critical in combating hate and bigotry – and it’s harder to hate when people have a personal connection.

The Community Interfaith Forum on Hate and Bigotry, held at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, was organized by the Fairfax County NAACP.

From the left: Fazia Deen, Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe, a representative of the ADAMS Center, Ronald Halber, Rev. Michelle Thomas, Rev. Angela Martin, Andrea Miller, Randall Robinson, Ramona Carroll, Stuart Scott, Imam Syed Omair, and Kofi Annan.

Hate crime incidents are up 50 percent over last year – in both the county and the nation as a whole. “It’s not an accident. Leadership does play a role in that. Our political leaders not inspiring the best in us,” said Kofi Annan, Fairfax County NAACP president. He called on religious leaders to play a more active role in forming interfaith alliances.

“What’s happening is ripping at society,” said Ronald Halber, director of the Jewish Human Relations Council of Greater Washington (JCRC). Attacks on houses of worship “will happen again unless we turn thoughts and prayers into a set of actions.”

The forum should be reframed as being about “the absence of love and light,” said Rev. Michelle Thomas of the Holy Life and Whole Life Changing Ministries and president of the Loudoun County NAACP.

And Randall Robinson, a representative of the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Falls Church, said, “We’re here to talk about love and unity, rather than hate and bigotry.”

When attacks occur

The moderator, Fazia Deen, deputy outreach director at Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Seven Corners, asked the panelists what the faith community should do if a white supremacist rally is planned.

The first things to do are to unite and come up with a plan of action, said Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe of Temple Rodef Shalom. It’s important to unite, because “If it’s about white supremacy, they’re after all of us.”

“We need to make sure these threats are credible and vet them with the police,” said Thomas. We also need to “understand the power of negotiation.” When she heard a white supremacist group was planning to come to Loudoun County a year ago, she met with the organizer, and “we both agreed it would not be a good idea.”

“We have the ability to negotiate and dictate the terms under which outsiders come to our community,” she said.

For the JCRC, “it has to be a calculated decision when to be publicly opposed,” Halber said. “You have to be careful to not give oxygen to people,” so the first thing to do is see how active they are on social media. If the group is small, they would be elevated by an outsize response.

The response should not be to them, however, Halber said. “We’re responding to society as a whole.”

“We really need to stand united in our condemnation and our actions,” said Imam Syed Omair of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center. Those who espouse hate need to realize that “if they pick on one group, they’re attacking all of us. We need to build stronger bonds of what it truly means to be interfaith.”

“We’re very good at responding to attacks,” said Omair, who noted that more than 700 people came to a vigil at Dar Al-Hijrah after the terrorist attacks at two mosques in New Zealand in March. “We should be more proactive in dispelling the fear that leads to these attacks.”

When he was invited to that vigil, Saxe said, “it sent a message that Jews and Muslims can be allies.” He called on houses of worship to bring people of other faiths to talk to their congregations.

“We are good at vigils, but we don’t follow up with policy and actions,” said Thomas. She urged governments to designate these attacks as “domestic terrorism.”

“Instances of hate can be used as a teaching tool, for us and our community of faith,” said Rev. Angela Martin of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a leader of the Poor People’s Campaign in Maryland. “We can also look internally and have a real conservation about hate that exists in our midst.”

“Hate often comes from a place of pain,” said Andrea Miller, executive director of People Demanding Action and a co-founder of the Virginia Poor People’s Campaign. “If you are trying to ease pain, there is the possibility you can ease the hatred.”

Personal connections

For Omair, “the solution to hate is to get to know one another.”

The most important thing is to “build relationships that go across racial and religious lines, that are true and authentic,” said Ramona Carroll, interfaith coordinator for the Fairfax County government.

“We have excellent, committed leaders of faith. What we need more of is for the people in our congregations and community to engage with each other,” Halber said.

Halber warned against allowing “the current times we’re living in in America to become the new norm.” Because there is “an absence of moral leadership,” he said, “people feel free to spread a message of hate with little pushback.”

If anyone hears a joke or comment at a watercooler that is racist or sexist or otherwise hateful, they should confront it, Halber said. “Don’t allow these things to go unnoticed. And when people do the right thing, thank them.”

What’s happening here is also happening across the globe, with the rise of authoritarian leaders, Robinson said, It’s a “spiritual sickness, not an American sickness,” and it requires “a spiritual solution.”

Community outreach

To change the climate in America, “we need to start with education,” said Omair. And it can’t be left to the school system; it should start in the home, to teach children “we are all one family.”

Stuart Scott, a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Richmond, urged faith communities to work together not just to combat hate but also to collaborate on projects like feeding the poor.

“As valuable as talking is, it’s more important to find shared interests and act on them together,” Saxe said, such as working to make lives better. “That will help build relationships.”

It’s important to “build purposeful, intentional relationships, not just with the clergy, but with congregations,” said Thomas. We need to educate people on “what it means to be a multifaith community.”

“We need to add feet to our faith, and we need to add policy to our prayers and tenacious commitment to our thoughts,” she said.

Several elected leaders and candidates attended the forum, including Del. Marcus Simon; Alicia Plerhoples, who is running for chair of the Board of Supervisor; school board member Pat Hynes; school board member Dalia Palchik, who is running for supervisor (Providence), and Erica Yalowitz, who is also  running for the Providence seat on Board of Supervisors.