Reflection: Week Nine

This weekend I had the honor of attending the Interfaith Leadership Institute at the White House. This was truly a transformative experience for me. Through out the weekend, I couldn’t help but reflect on the close reciprocal relationship between national security and preserving our true American ideals.

I became heavily involved in interfaith youth service organizing in high school through my interest in Middle Eastern politics and U.S. foreign policy. Through studying terrorism tactics, I learned that these small non-state actors can compromise our national security largely because we allow them to divide our society. By planting horrifying, fear-inducing attacks, terrorists force national governments to react strongly by cracking down on individuals in this same marginalized group. Knowing that the government will react in this harsh manner, terrorists can then generate more sympathy for their cause and increase their recruitment pool. Through getting young Muslims, Jews, Christians and many other religious youth involved in high profile projects and fostering mutually beneficial relationships, we are seeking to change the narrative about religious division and anti-Islamic sentiment in America. In this way, we seek to strengthen our national security by refusing to allow our nation to compromise our principles and our long history of religious cooperation and multiculturalism.

With all the anti-Islamic and divisive religious rhetoric in the media lately, there is a serious need for an alternative narrative about not just religious toleration but religious cooperation in our generation. We need to start making the connections between these small movements and their ability to strengthen the security of our nation. Look out for an interfaith campaign coming your way in the next few months. The White House and the Obama administration has asked for our involvement, and I will be making sure that AU is one of the first campuses to answer this call to action.