Getting Rid of Labels: A Panel Discussion on U.S.-Muslim Relations Five Years After 9-11 Called for Tolerance Among All People

by Helen Berggren
Miami Herald
October 8, 2006

Finding a long-term strategy to improve relations between the United States and Islamic world is not a topic at the forefront of most college students’ minds.

Not so for Florida Memorial University’s Esther Fraser.

The 29-year-old public relations student was so impressed by a discussion she attended in New York City this summer that she decided to open lines of communication at her campus.

”We need to learn to be tolerant of other people who believe in something else,” Fraser said.

Fraser was particularly disturbed over comments made previously by the Rev. O’Neal Dozier of Broward County who called Islam a “cult.”

”I was shocked to see a man of God say Islam is evil,” Fraser said.

Fraser’s efforts to find a bridge led to a Town Hall meeting Tuesday that featured four panelists who examined U.S.-Muslim relations five years after the terrorist attack on the nation on Sept. 11, 2001.

The panel consisted of Dr. Nasir Ahmed, nationally recognized Islamic scholar, oral and maxillofacial surgeon and resident imam or prayer leader at Masjid Al Ansar in Liberty City; Olivia A. Jackson, FMU professor of international studies; David A. Hodge, FMU professor of religion and philosophy coordinator; and Melton Mustafa, FMU professor and director of jazz studies.

Katherine Gockel, Stanley Foundation program officer in the policy analysis and dialogue department, did not attend because of a scheduling conflict, according to her office in Iowa.

The discussions were hosted by FMU’s Public Relations Student Society chapter, the Honors Council and Americans for An Informed Democracy (AID). According to its website, AID is a nonprofit organization that “seeks to build a new generation of globally conscious leaders who can shape an American foreign policy appropriate for our increasingly interdependent world.”

The meeting, on the topic Hope not Hate, was one of 100 scheduled to be held across American college campuses Sept. 12 to Wednesday.

The problems that happen when someone is judged by his or her looks was a theme that kept recurring at the symposium.

”Labels are what we are dealing with,” Ahmed said. “When I was in medical school, I had to work on cadavers to learn about the human body. Once a cadaver was cut open it is impossible tell the difference between a Jewish heart and a Christian heart. A Muslim heart looks like a white heart that looks like a black heart.”

Ahmed told the roughly 60 students, “Eventually, we have to give up labels. Whether someone is black or white, we all breathe the same air.”

Mustafa was concerned about people saying that they are better than someone else.

”We have to get out of that mess,” he said. “Yes, you have to respect who you are and where you come from but it is important that we come together as we are in a race towards all that is good.”

Hodge called for the world to “treat people more humanely.”

”We are generalizing when we say an entire group is responsible for one specific act,” Hodge said. If America has an issue with Osama bin Laden, ”it should not be against all Islamic people. If that were true, then we would have to arrest every blonde-haired blue-eyed man who looks like Timothy McVeigh,” he said, referring to the Oklahoma City bomber.

Jackson told the group that continuous dialogue is one way to help solve the problem.

”Start with forums like this,” she said. “There is a huge misunderstanding among Christians and Muslims. It will take quite a bit of time but, hopefully dialogue between the groups will improve communications.”