Eastern Michigan University’s Center for Multicultural Affairs teamed with Hillel at EMU, the Holy Trinity Student Parrish and the Muslim Student Association last Wednesday to present “Thou Shall Not: an Interfaith Discussion.” The event sought to answer the question, “Is religion inherently violent?”
Heather Neff, an EMU English language and literature professor, moderated the discussion, which was led by six panelists representing the three major Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
Two panelists represented each faith. All of the panelists were initially given 5-7 minutes to speak on the question of whether or not religion is inherently violent.
Afterward, they had the chance to answer questions and comments from the audience.
Gail Presby, professor of philosophy at the University of Detroit-Mercy, and Bill Alt, assistant director at the Holy Trinity student parish, spoke for the Christian community. For the Jewish community, the two panelists were Jack Kay, an EMU professor of communication and former provost, and Rabbi Robert Levy from Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor. Rahim Hanifa, an outreach coordinator for the Council on American Islamic Relations, and religious professor Harun Amin represented the Muslim perspective.
While the panelists came from all different beliefs and perspectives, they shared similar feelings on the topic. All of the speakers had come to terms with the fact many violent acts had been done for the sake of religion.
“Why would I want to believe in something that is inherently violent?” Alt asked, opening his speech.
They also pointed out many violent acts throughout history have occurred for other, simpler reasons. As Levy argued, a lot of people commit violent acts to take what is not theirs in the name of power and greed.
Hanifa and Amin took the time to speak on the particular association between Islam and violence. Amin, in particular, spoke passionately about it.
“Islam, the one that I have made my entire life, is not a violent religion,” he said.
Charlie Paige, program coordinator for the Center of Multicultural Affairs, said she was pleased with the turnout.
“We had about 75 students in attendance tonight,” she said. “And we received some very positive feedback from the participants.”
“I felt like it gave a little more insight to these three religions, and how much they are alike in that we need to focus more on peace than hate,” Brandon Tennant, a new transfer student at EMU said.
Senior Sarah Hardaker agreed with Tennant, “I thought it was a really open-minded discussion.”
Many of the audience members, including Jacques Vorves, submitted questions for the panelists to answer.
“I felt some of the questions were indirectly answered,” Vorves said after the event. But aside from being unsatisfied with some of the answers, he said he enjoyed hearing some new arguments, but he said his original opinion on the topic remained unchanged.
“You can’t judge an entire religion based on one person,” he said, “but more violence can be related to religion than non-theism.”
The CMA does not have any similar discussions planned for the semester.
“Each organization will have events that they are doing separately,” Paige said.
Vorves said, “Overall, it was an excellent program, and very well prepared. I think it’s very important to have open religious discussions not just on campus but everywhere. Too many people are ignorant about religion, and non-religion. You can’t make judgments based on ignorance.”
