Ingrid Mattson – Clash of Ideas on College Campuses ICNA Dawah Conf 2020
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I would like to welcome you all to
Hikna Dawa Conference 2020
Islam the the solution in times of confusion.
Inshallah, we have,
I will be your host for the session,
titled The Golden Ticket, and we have an
amazing lineup of speakers.
Next up, Inshallah,
we have,
doctor Ingrid Matson
to, talk to us on the topic of
clash of ideas on college
doctor Matson is the London and Windsor Chair
in Islamic Studies at Huron University College and
Western University in Canada.
She has served as a vice president and
the president of Islamic Society of North America,
the first woman to do so in either
positions.
And, she also served and and does serve
still serve on several interfaith and nonprofit
boards. She's a teacher and author
and her writings focus on chronic studies, theological
ethics and interfaith management. So,
Inshallah,
we'll have doctor Matt's new brother.
Assalamu alaikum,
everyone
who's joined us for this wonderful convention.
How much suffering there is in the world
and and in our own communities, and so
much of it is hidden.
It's hidden
deliberately away from us so that it's much
easier
for us to ignore it.
It reminds me of the very important
teaching of the blessed prophet
who says,
whenever you
see someone who has more, look to someone
who has less. And the looking is an
is an active
motion. It's not passive. It's not just
to see something,
but it's to look.
So this society is really oriented,
in a way to make us always look
to those who have more. That's what advertising
is based on
to create
desire within us, to create a sense that
we,
that we lack something, whether that's
how we look physically in our relationships,
above all, in our material goods.
And that if only we bought or purchased
these other things, we would be happy. And
that's why
to be a Muslim,
like, to really be able to live Islam
in this society
means that we constantly have to make that
shift from
from seeing those who have more
to moving
our our gaze towards those who have less.
And
for those of us who are living on
university campuses,
clearly, what we see is that
we
collectively
really are in a position of privilege.
Now, of course, and I will mention this,
on campuses, there are those with less, and
there are those who are marginalized.
But,
overall, I want us first to embrace this
understanding
that
this is,
a a privilege
and an opportunity
to continue to develop
our many capacities that Allah
has given us, Our spiritual capacities, our intellectual
capacities,
our capacity
for
socializing
in a way to
understand how to create,
communities that function well
and that meet their purpose, that we have
all of those opportunities
when we are on campuses, whether we are
faculty or students.
And it is so important
to
be grateful for these opportunities
and to take advantage
of these opportunities to grow the best way
we can
as individuals
and collectively as Muslim communities.
It's a short time, but it is a
it is a time
where we are relieved of many of our
other obligations
that we will have in our lives,
and
we
you know, it it is that
chance to really dig deep
into
areas of growth that are so necessary.
So how how do we do that? This
this talk is about clash of ideas on
on campus.
And, certainly, this is the view or the
perspective
through which many Muslims
look,
and and
consider themselves as Muslims
maybe in a somewhat hostile environment, and that's
because there are Islamophobic
groups on campus.
There may be professors
who are
criticizing Islam in their in the classrooms.
There may be other student groups that seem
to be oriented
towards bringing Muslims down or,
you you know, bringing in speakers who,
who attack
Muslims or many of the causes that are
dear to our hearts.
But
this is will be our first mistake that
if we consider ourselves this, you know, embattled
community
that must,
sort of gird ourselves in towards, and put
all of our efforts
towards
self defense,
we will completely miss the opportunity
for growth that is being given to us
here.
We cannot be
distracted all the time by the voices of
opposition
and criticism,
those who are trying to poke us or
prod us into responding.
To be,
only responsive
means that we are letting others set,
the agenda for us.
And those who set the agenda
for us are the ones
who really are shaping
the cultural conversation
then.
We need to think about what our priorities
are and what goals
we have
as a campus
community.
You know, for for,
at least a decade now, much of education
has been oriented towards outcomes. So as a
professor,
I have had to
I had to begin, about a decade ago,
begin to
put on my syllabi
what are the learning goals of my course?
What are the outcomes
that are intended by this course? Meaning that
once the students take my course,
what should they be able to do that
they could not do earlier?
So I want us to think about that
as campus communities.
What what do we want as we come
together as a Muslim student association
or a Muslim campus
community?
What is the point of that? What is
the goal of that, and what are the
outcomes
that we intend?
And let me say
that that first of all, our goal should
be to create
a a safe,
compassionate,
welcoming community
for each other, for ourselves, because we we
deserve that.
We deserve a space
that is for ourselves where we feel comfortable,
where we feel welcomed, where we feel at
home.
So we don't look to the outside first.
We first look to each other.
And
this will require
more than just,
doing things as they've been done before. Because
when we get on campus, we're going to
see that there
are Muslims from different points of view, different
cultural, different ethnic communities
that we may not have encountered before.
Or we may find that most Muslims come
from one particular ethnic or cultural group. And
no matter
what our intention is,
we may not want to deliberately
exclude people, but just the fact that we
have a majority
of, people from a particular cultural background,
or
ethnic community,
there are others who will feel left out
and unwelcome.
And the worst thing for Dua is to
have
a, Muslim community that's talking about beautiful
values and principles of Islam, but is not
living that.
A community that's talking about justice,
but is not practicing justice among themselves.
A community that's talking,
about the beautiful messages that Allah
gives us
and that,
the prophet
gave us
about the equality of humanity yet within our
own communities. We see that,
that,
speech that has racist,
implications is not being addressed
or
that there are,
talks that are being given or practices
that marginalize the women in our community.
Yet we have, you know, literature about Islam
and and and how Islam uplifts women, yet
we see women being squeezed out
of Muslim spaces on campus.
So there are 3 areas that we need
to look at first for ourselves to be
that community that is a witness
to,
the beauty of Islam. Islam is not an
ideology. It's not a thing that we talk
about
over there.
And, unfortunately,
in much of
the 20th century, when I first became a
Muslim, Islam really was portrayed very often in
that way. You know, Islam versus socialism, Islam
versus capitalism,
as if Islam is an ism or is
an ideology. That is not what Islam is.
Islam is submission to Allah
that we first must,
try to embody ourselves
and then together in
communities
embody. So the first thing is we have
to create those communities
that really uplift and focus the spiritual life
of of our community and make
possible.
We need that space,
and it has to be a space that
is that is welcoming, that is clean, that
is safe.
And, of course, it's a place where we
can pray our mandatory
prayers,
where we can gather,
during Ramadan for iftar.
Now we're we're withdrawn from that
opportunity to be together in person.
So, we're also thinking, what does it mean
that we do now? One of the things
I would like to say that whether it
is in person or virtually, that we should
add to that spiritual life really
is to
have a more robust
life of prayer and du'a.
And
and what I mean by that is that
we tend to when we're being raised Muslim,
very often what we see are and and
we're taught to,
to memorize,
many of the the duas that,
the prophet taught
us,
traditional duas, and they are in Arabic, and
that's that's fine.
But prayer is our communication with Allah.
And very often, people make, and they they're
not even sure what it what it necessarily
means.
So we need to, on campus, first of
all,
get used to praying in English. Prayers in
English are accepted.
Where we really think about what we are
asking individually and as a community and asking
asking Allah. And we get in the practice
of praying for each other, praying for our
communities, praying for those around us. And one
of the beautiful
opportunities for Dawa is to open this up
to others on campus.
So
whether it's sitting at a table or having
a little message board,
having it open, you know, for someone to
drop something in the in the box
or,
maybe online,
people would have to sign in. But people
across campus, Muslim or not Muslim, could send
in their prayer requests and say,
you know, I have had
I'm really struggling with this issue. I'm struggling
with loneliness. I'm struggling
with issues with my family. I'm struggling with
addiction. Whatever it is, and they ask for
prayer.
Prayer is is, of course, our direct communication
with Allah. Allah
It's also the way that we show compassion
to each other.
And the most important thing, the thing that
is our duty on earth is to show
compassion
towards each other.
The prophet, Allah
sent the prophet Muhammad
as
as a mercy
to the world,
and we are through
through purification
and worship,
should really be the ones who reflect
that,
mercy of Allah
and to follow in the path of the
prophet
as bringing mercy to other people. And there's
always something that we can say,
to uplift people's spirit where we can ask
you know, many people think, well, all we
can do for non so called non Muslims,
and I heard the the end of the
panel earlier, people say, well, how can we
pray for, you know, non Muslims who have
died or,
but, of course,
we can always recognize that Allah's mercy encompasses
all people. We can always ask and pray
for people
to have greater sukina in their heart, to
have conviction that we ask Allah to increase
their knowledge. We ask Allah to take away
the loneliness that is in people's heart, and
Allah knows best
how that loneliness is relieved.
So I believe that that really
turning our attention in a in a broad
way,
from a kind of clash of ideas, a
very heady intellectual thing,
to,
to a community,
compassionate community, where we pray for each other
in addition to feeding each other and have
a very warm hospitable environment
is something that is critical for going ahead.
2nd, we do have those intellectual debates,
and there will be times when we need
to answer questions.
Unfortunately,
many of the people who are being asked
to answer those questions are ill prepared for
doing it. They have, you know, a Sunday
school idea of Islam, and that's why it's
so important that
that when we think about, well, who's going
to talk about those things? How are we
going to engage with those issues?
That there is a,
an agenda, a curriculum for the MSA of
learning together,
and there's so many opportunities
to do that now. We have, you know,
Yaqeen has,
so many
great publications
on difficult questions or issues in Islam.
So I would say that together,
the Muslim community
really needs the Muslim student community
needs to sit together and create for themself
a learning,
program
that is for them, and
they can bring in the people, you know,
other experts as necessary.
And then the third thing is,
somehow my time so I guess this 15
minutes passes really quickly,
is to go back to this idea of
the structure of the student community, the governance
of the student community.
We see that in our Muslim communities, unfortunately,
many of our masajid and Islamic centers
really have not gotten this issue right.
We still have places where it is not
safe for many Muslims to go.
I I really encourage you to go to
our project, harmaproject,
dot com, h u r m a project
dot com, where we're addressing the issue of,
lack of safety in some Muslim spaces.
So how do we how do we get
to that point? Well, this generation, the college
age generation of students,
needs to figure out how to work together
with,
respect for each other, to have true
which is inclusion, not just consultation.
That doesn't mean there's, like, someone in charge,
and they just ask a few people. Know
where there's true inclusion,
where there's grievance processes,
where there's ways
for the community
to continually improve themselves.
And when we do that and when we
embody that,
especially with transparency,
these are the things that are going to
attract people
to us. So the best Dua is done
by a community
that is
spends most of its time internally
on
correcting its own faults,
individually and collectively,
and then and from that basis of purification
is able then
to offer programming
from a position of spiritual strength, organizational
strength,
and a foundation of knowledge.
Doctor Matson, those are some very great tips
for
MSAs and student bodies to, to adapt,
especially in today's time.
So, with that, you know, I just wanted
to point out another,
brilliant effort that, ICNA
gain peace has been, has been doing in
in putting up billboards,
mailing postcards,
running social media campaigns on the topic of
justice and racism. Alhamdulillah, we've had billboards up
in cities like Bay Area, Sacramento, Houston, all
over the nation. And, you know, with the
with the message that really pertains to the
time and needs of this current society and
the the social issues. So I would really
encourage,
everyone to take some time and donate,
financially
and your time in terms of volunteering.
So with that, I will pass, this on
to the next moderator for the next session.