The U.S. University Model for Interfaith Diplomacy
Jonathan Amgott Monday, 15 November 2010
President Obama made international headlines for his 2009 speech in Cairo addressing Muslim-majority societies. His call for a "new beginning" provided a clear picture of his Administration's diplomatic priorities related to religious communities in general and Muslims in particular. Yet little of the subsequent media attention focused on the President's push for more interfaith dialogue and collaboration. In the past year, the White House, the State Department, and USAID have organized a variety of religious outreach and interfaith programs, which have been publicized by U.S. embassies. Interfaith engagement programs like these, particularly those involving youth and emerging leaders, are very promising and can yield significant long-term diplomatic gains. As they expand these initiatives, policymakers would benefit from considering programs at leading American universities that model approaches to religious pluralism and, in turn, engaging these universities as partners in advancing the Obama Administration's goals.
The Speech and the Follow-Up
In Cairo, President Obama announced a new era of collaboration with Muslim communities in an atmosphere of "mutual interest" and "mutual respect." He proposed to "turn dialogue into interfaith service, so bridges between peoples lead to action." This speech set a high standard, and it proved challenging to many officials in Washington who often shy away from specific discussion of religion in foreign policy, either due to personal discomfort or fear of somehow violating the Establishment Clause. As it reads, however, the Establishment Clause does not prohibit interaction with religious groups and leaders for the purposes of secular U.S. Government goals. The Cairo speech prompted the U.S. Government to begin seeking ways to engage religious actors and communities more intentionally than ever before.
President Obama's proposal requires a definition of the term "interfaith" and an explanation of its importance for U.S. diplomacy. For the purposes of the U.S. Government, "interfaith" activities link two or more religious groups without compromising their distinct identities. Interfaith dialogue and collaboration are certainly important for building bridges between the religions involved. However, these activities are equally important for the U.S. Government to foster as a way of advancing U.S. interests through several means. Working across religious lines is necessary to achieve development goals, such as strengthening public health, education, and infrastructure, which affect people of all religions in pluralistic countries. Development is critical to achieving and preserving peace and security. Interfaith activity also facilitates the intangible healing process among communities scarred by violence. The resulting international peace and security permit the U.S. to focus on constructive goals, such as trade and domestic priorities, rather than on mere self-preservation or protection of interests.
A year after Cairo, U.S. Government agencies have successfully engaged religious actors in a variety of ways. For instance, a number of embassies around the world hosted iftars to break the fast during Ramadan, to which both Muslim and other religious leaders were invited. The U.S. Government also hosted interfaith conferences in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Dhaka, Bangladesh, which focused on building dialogue and collaboration among religious leaders in pursuit of peace and development goals. Embassies and consulates frequently utilized existing U.S. exchange programs, such as the International Visitor Leadership Program, to send influential domestic religious leaders to programs in the U.S. Many participants in the iftars, conferences, and exchange programs reported leaving with vastly better perceptions of the U.S., particularly its respect for Islam.
While the U.S. Government's interfaith activity abroad has increased during the last year, religious engagement with young foreign audiences remains one area where more could be done in order to sustain interfaith collaboration in the long term. If emerging leaders better understand their neighbors of other faiths, they should have more success pursuing development and security goals in their countries.
A University Model
Policymakers and diplomats can further promote interfaith dialogue and collaboration by learning from the experiences of American university campuses. Although scholars such as George Marsden have chronicled the decreasing prevalence of university-sponsored religious activity in elite American institutions,[1] student-driven religious life on campus flourishes in greater diversity than ever before. American universities are frequently microcosms of the effects of globalization, and one of these effects is an increase in religious diversity. Many universities have responded to such pluralism by increasing opportunities for interfaith dialogue and collaboration. These universities could be a model for policies and programs which the U.S. Government can export overseas.
For instance, Duke University was founded as a Methodist institution but retains few official vestiges of its religious affiliation aside from its landmark chapel and the graduate-level Duke Divinity School. Among the nominal references to religion remaining in the university bylaws, the United Methodist Church officially confirms two-thirds of the university's Board of Trustees.[2] Today, the campus hosts more than 25 registered Religious Life groups involving more than 1,500 students,[3] only 60 of whom report being United Methodist undergraduates as of Fall 2010.[4] As just one example of the religious community's vibrant diversity, Imam Abdullah Antepli, the Muslim campus minister, is one of a handful of Muslim chaplains who has led prayer on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.[5]
At Duke, many of the reasons for interfaith dialogue and collaboration parallel those motivating U.S. policies. First, given Duke's religious diversity, students must work with those of other religions in their courses and extracurricular endeavors if they are to succeed. Students' academic and professional standards and those of the university would make religious discrimination inefficient and counterproductive, even if it were not unethical. In other countries, development objectives likewise demand interfaith dialogue and collaboration in an increasing number of settings. Second, though less critical at Duke than abroad, interfaith dialogue and collaboration on campus can imbue students with positive mental associations with religious groups to which they might not otherwise have positive exposure in their formative years. This author, for example, arrived at Duke from suburban Florida having scarcely met any Muslims, but he now values friendships with a number of them. Duke graduates will carry these better impressions of other religions into careers and communities, where they will influence others' perceptions. This "spillover effect" demonstrates on campus the kind of healing which the U.S. Government's interfaith activities encourage in scarred communities abroad.
Duke‘s interfaith dialogue and collaboration are expanding. At the administrative level, the Faith Council regularly convenes staff and faculty sponsors of campus religious groups to discuss cross-cutting issues and host joint events. At the student level, the Interfaith Dialogue Project (IDP) provides a space for diverse students to meet and build understanding of each others' faith traditions. Several IDP members have taught a well-received interfaith dialogue "house course," a reduced credit course taught by students to students. The Duke Partnership for Service, Duke's governance body for student-led service initiatives, recently introduced a liaison to faith-based organizations. As the inaugural liaison, this author is currently recruiting the participation of campus religious groups and intends to promote their collaboration as a way of pooling resources, enlarging impact, and building bonds. Finally, many religious groups on campus have liaisons dedicated to building their own relationships with other groups in Duke's dynamic religious community through such events as a Muslim-Jewish iftar and a Jewish-Catholic Shabbat.
Applying University Lessons
Obviously, the interfaith context in other countries differs from American universities in important ways. Most relevant here, there is a higher urgency for interfaith dialogue and collaboration in contentious international contexts than in the peaceful, contructive interfaith settings in many American universities. At the same time, these international settings present more potential barriers to dialogue and thus less chance of collaboration. A history of conflict or socioeconomic disparity between religions both begs and inhibits conciliatory measures. Thus, the U.S. Government faces an "interfaith Catch-22" in which interfaith engagement is often most difficult in the countries where it is needed most.
Nevertheless, lessons from universities are applicable and exportable for U.S. Government purposes in a majority of settings. One notable opportunity lies in efforts to reach youth of diverse religious backgrounds. Currently, the U.S. Government primarily engages universities in international interfaith efforts by sending professors on speaking tours. Although these speakers undoubtedly impart important knowledge abroad, laying the groundwork for interfaith dialogue and collaboration, American university students are better positioned to tell their foreign peers how interfaith interaction actually takes place in pluralistic American society. For example, the State Department could tailor some of its International Visitor exchanges to give foreign student religious leaders firsthand exposure to the interfaith activities common at American universities such as Duke. Even more easily, the U.S. Government could leverage its existing Digital Video Conference (DVC) program to connect domestic and foreign youth at lower cost and higher impact. Through visitor programs and/or DVCs, American youth would not only share their experiences but in turn learn from their foreign peers the unique challenges to interfaith dialogue in other contexts. Both parties should leave enriched.
Such an initiative could be built through existing U.S. Government contacts with American interfaith organizations such as the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC). IFYC cultivates partnerships with American universities, making the organization a tremendous resource for identifying campuses with strong records on interfaith dialogue. The U.S. Government could also leverage its internship programs to identify students excited about sharing their interfaith experience with foreign peers. Opportunities for applying the American university model should rapidly present themselves once this model receives more attention from U.S. Government officials.
Interfaith Diplomacy
In conclusion, interfaith dialogue and collaboration have received less attention relative to the other components of the President's Cairo address and less absolute attention than they should given their strategic importance. The U.S. Government need not reinvent the wheel in order to overcome the problem posed by the "interfaith Catch-22." Rather, officials can look to American university campuses for interfaith engagement models and to college students for willing partners. Promoting religious pluralism abroad using human resources from home just might be one of the most effective ways of achieving President Obama's initiatives for the Muslim world.
[1] See George Marsden, The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
[2] Bylaws of Duke University, Duke University website. Available from: http://trustees.duke.edu/governing/bylaws.php (accessed 13 October 2010).
[3] "Religious Life at Duke," Duke University website. Available from: http://www.chapel.duke.edu/religiouslife.html (accessed 13 October 2010).
[4] Information obtained from Christy Lohr Sapp, Associate Dean of Religious Life, following her request to the Duke University Registrar (email to the author, 22 September 2010)..
[5] See video of the prayer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xiRa6h7KBQ (accessed 13 October 2010).