LILY RESLINK
Staff Writer
Najeeba Syeed, Augsburg University religion professor, Inaugural El-Hibri endowed chair and executive director of Interfaith Institute, speaks Tuesday in the Hall of Philosophy.
Najeeba Syeed views interfaith peace from the mind of a religion scholar and what she stated as her lecture’s topic: “from the broken heart of democracy.”
In the Muslim tradition, Syeed said it is important to think about abstract terms through metaphors. As a spiritual scholar, Syeed said this tradition informs how she thinks and teaches about peace and democracy, terms she said are among the most abstract.
The inaugural El-Hibri endowed chair and executive director of the Interfaith Institute, tenured and full professor of religion at Augsburg University and senior fellow at Oxford Interfaith Forum delivered a lecture at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Hall of Philosophy in which she incorporated the tradition of “symbolic embodiment” to explain her view of what democracy, in reality, looks like.
“Democracy is not a religious act; it is a spiritual struggle,” Syeed said. She structured her lecture on the teachings of Christian ethicist Glen Stassen, who mentored Syeed, and U.S. religion sociologist Robert Bellah, who Syeed considers a mentor through her engagement with his writings.
“I wanted to offer their voices,” she said, “because I desperately need their voices in this moment, and maybe you do as well.”
Formative to her beliefs, she said Stassen’s idea of a peacebuilder means being one who finds conditions of unity between groups. She said democracy is the choice of an individual, and each person can take on the future of this country.
In addition to the lenses of the two scholars she named as mentors, Syeed said she brings the voice of mothers to this conversation and to her work. Looking at conflict across the globe, Syeed said “it is mothers who have lost their children to violence that are the first to cross the line of difference.”
To address threats she identified to peace and democracy today, Syeed said what society needs is “rehumanization.”
“Dehumanization comes in so many forms. So, I want to remind us that democracy is a spiritual act and one of constant rehumanization,” she said. However, she said rehumanization does not imply ease and comfort.
Syeed said interfaith relationships are democratic acts that reject the notion of conflict as an inevitable and perpetual state of the human condition. She called for the publicity of these friendships because of their power to rehumanize dehumanized individuals.
Syeed also called for people to incite change through “intrafaith dialogue,” which said may mean “having a conversation with those in our own community and tradition that are seeking to utilize religion for dehumanization.”
Whereas Syeed said “safe spaces” breed conversations that are merely “transactional,” she advocates for “awkward spaces” where conversations are “transformational.”
“To be in community is to be in conflict,” Syeed said, adding that embracing this component is necessary to build and grow.
She said democracy inclusive only of those in the same faith or cultural tradition is counteractive to the goals of the societal concept.
“Rehumanization is not possible when borders are constructed with barbed wire that says ‘only the right papers allowed for humanity.’ Rehumanization is not possible when the only value a person has is the amount of money they bring to the table or our economy. Rehumanization is not possible when the decisions made prefer a form of physical ability … or mental ability or acuity that is described as ‘the right one,’” Syeed said.
She spoke on the concept of “suicidal apathy” in reference to those who “are able to be comfortable” or “live in a way that is unchanged” amid contemporary societal conflict. She said tyranny is just as reliant on those who stay quiet as those who contribute directly.
From times of recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Minneapolis, Syeed shared anecdotes about relationships formed and strengthened when she and others felt scared to step outside.
“I want to share those stories, because I do think that it is important that we think about ways in which people are showing up for one another … and also address the vast difficulty and realities of what dialogue looks like in this moment,” Syeed said.
Whereas Syeed said ego-related motivations weaken democracy, she said altruism and mutual care are foundational to it.
Closing her lecture, Syeed said, through struggle, she wants the best of each cultural tradition to show up. “I will struggle with mine. I ask if you will struggle with yours.”
