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April 8, 2010

Islamic society head describes changing Muslim community engagement

by Deb Christian

CHICAGO (RCCongress 2010), April 9 — Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Director of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary told a story of how change involves communication to participants gathered in Chicago for Religion Communication Congress 2010 (April 7-10).

The congress is the once-a-decade gathering of communications professionals from different from different faiths, different countries, and different areas of faith. More than 500 participants in this decade’s event explored the theme “Embracing Change: Communicating Faith in Today’s World.”

Using the example of a film documentary planned to help explain Muslim beliefs, Dr. Mattson described the difficulty innate in a medium requiring images, when Islam forbids the creation of images of the prophet Mohammed.

To assist the filmmakers, Dr. Mattson suggested the best way to represent the prophet was to look at the life of his followers, then found herself a reluctant participant in the often intrusive filming process. She found this experience a good metaphor for American Muslims because it illustrated the tension between the cultural emphasis on “I” rather than on God.

Dr. Mattson spoke at length on the affects of the 9/11 attacks on American Muslims. “How do you respond to injustice when you are persecuted because someone hijacked your religion? We had to divert money, human resources, creativity, thoughts, strategy to keep the Muslim community safe,” she said. “God has a purpose and we are only responsible for our own response.”

These difficulties led more Muslims to better understand the need for interfaith involvement. That involvement now is much more a part of the mainstream Muslim life. Another response that grew from 9/11 was a push to define more globally “who is a Muslim” Since religious authority is decentralized in Islam, in 2005 King Abdullah of Jordan called together a group of scholars, who issued the Amman Declaration to stop sectarianism within the Muslim faith.

These events and others have been instrumental in helping the Muslim community to find new partners, become more open to change and learn to use change as the basis for new opportunity.

Dr. Mattson also is President of the Islamic Society of North America. She is the first woman and first convert to Islam to lead the organization.