Mak Hussain - Visions Realized: Flashes of the Future of a Pluralistic American Society

I came to iBelieve looking for the same as I had gotten from my previous interfaith experiences (being both interfaith dialogue and interfaith action). I was very active in interfaith work in high school and community service. For me, interfaith previously presented itself as one of the few opportunities I had in my life to share my faith with others. My faith has always been a big part of my identity, but it’s rare in our society for religion to play a major part of one’s public self-expression. Interfaith was just a chance to share that part of myself with others and to teach them about my faith, with underlying intentions of both stereotype fighting and proselytism. With iBelieve, I was hoping for the same, with the added benefit of community service, which is something that had also been missing recently from my life.

However, upon completing the course, iBelieve has opened my eyes to interfaith and pluralism as immensely beneficial myself as an individual and incredibly important to the development of our society.
From the course, I have experienced what I consider to be a microcosm of what American society can become. Interfaith is more than just a forum to express our individual identities. While important, beyond expression, interfaith activities provide opportunities for individual and communal growth. Individually, I went beyond merely learning about others’ religions in terms of facts, information, and practices. Rather, this course emphasized perspectives, experiences, and intellectualism. Rather than learning the basics of different religions, academically, we struggled together to grapple with the fundamental questions surrounding the place of religion in our society. By learning from others’ thoughts, experiences, and perspectives, and in having to share my own, I found myself deepened and enriched.

In my past experiences, I have learned about other religions. In iBelieve, I learned about people, and how their religions intersect with the rest of their lives. Religions, presented as crystalline ideals, do not mix well in most situations, and as such, learning facts about other religions did little more for me beyond addressing the stereotypes and misconceptions I had about other faiths. But people, in their complexity, diversity, and similarities, do mix. Ideals were not brought into conversation, but rather lived realities, causing me to grow immensely. Further, as someone who is passionate about the role of religion in America, hearing others’ opinions on the questions surrounding it gave my own thought much greater depth.

And so, iBelieve presented to me another level to interfaith dialogue and action. Much of the time, interfaith is viewed as a way to make sure we don’t all hate each  other. Our service together often comes in spite of the fact that we are of different faiths. In American society as a whole, religion is seen as a divisive force, and as a negative in diverse environments. We must work to prevent unrest within society caused by religion. Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, describes the need to create a “public language of faith” as a means to express religion in an appropriate way in the public sphere. However, often times, we interpret this as an expression of faith that is amenable to the world view and understanding of the secular public. It is an expression of faith that does not contradict or agitate the secular status quo. Again, religion is understood as something “negative,” as perceived by the greater American conscious, that need to be mitigated.

iBelieve has highlighted for me the contradiction in this understanding. For individuals with any degree of religiosity, faith and religion are positive forces in their lives. So why do we view religious diversity as negative more than a positive, and why must these individuals forsake their understanding of “benefit” when they enter the public sphere? In iBelieve, we have been able to create a community founded on our religious diversity. That diversity contributes to our community as a positive force, rather than as a source of division. Rather than multifaith, merely coexisting as religious individuals, we are pluralistic. Our service is founded on our differences, not in spite of it. Beyond just not hating each other, our religious diversity has been a cause for fraternity and friendship. I was not forced to be a representative of a faith, or to have my entire identity reduced to my religious identity. Instead, I was open about that part of my identity while coming to the table as a multi-faceted individual, as did everyone else. I have never conveyed such little information about Islam in an interfaith setting before, and I honestly feel I gained far more from this experience because of it. I’ve formed real bonds with real people, who, because they are so different from me, have been able to teach me about myself.

With these bonds formed, we more effectively worked together to have a positive impact. Although we were all individually motivated by different reasons to serve and give back, we did so together, with a common mission. Our community and its work relied not just on our difference, but also on our similarities. Rather than any one facet of our identities dominating, we were successful because as connected to one another as complete individuals, successful in forming a pluralistic community and in positively benefiting the world around us. It took weeks of honest and open conversation intentionally focused on, but not exclusive to, religion, and even living together for a few days to get to this place, but these were small investments for what we created.

I now understand what it means to have a pluralistic society, a society where differences are not just tolerated, but encouraged, with the understanding that we all benefit from this diversity. For interfaith to truly have an impact, it cannot be a project merely at the periphery of society for those few who find benefit in it. Diversity is a reality of the world we live in, and we need to understand how to not just live in that world, but benefit from it and contribute to it. If we fail to do so, as a society we are cutting ourselves short. I have personally benefited from such a community, and I am personally motivated to bring this experience to a broader sphere. The maturation of our diverse society to a pluralistic one is incredibly overdue, and I hope to be a part of that process.