Hundreds Show Support for Muslims at UVa
Organized by two U.Va. faculty members, Frank Dukes and John Alexander, the petition started to circulate earlier this month. By the end of last week, nearly 1,000 people had signed it, The Richmond Times reported.
The petition states: "We, members of the staff and faculty of the University of Virginia, affirm our support and love for our Muslim students, colleagues and friends, along with their families and communities. For centuries, Muslim scholars have been creators and leaders in the sciences, medicine, law, politics, architecture, commerce, arts and humanities. We embrace your continuing presence here. We welcome, without regard to origin or faith, all who wish to join our community.”
Dukes, who is director of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation at U.Va., said he had spent much of the past few months fretting over the rise of anti-Islamic rhetoric in the nation’s political realm and media.
"I was asking myself, ‘How do we show support and counter this antagonism?’ ” he said, explaining how he and others came to draft the petition.
"I sent it to colleagues who are interested in issues of social justice and human rights,” including Alexander, associate director of Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts Network of Technological Initiatives at U.Va.
Shortly after the petition was made public, the university’s Muslim Student Association released a statement thanking those who have signed it and for the community’s support.
"The Muslim student body has always felt like an integral part of the university, and although we find ourselves in difficult situations combating prejudices and ignorance that are becoming all too common, it is because of individuals like you that we are able to reaffirm that we are all truly part of one family that can unite against any forms of hatred,” the statement said.
"It is so crucial that we only continue to strengthen our community through support for one another, and not allow such hateful rhetoric to divide us. When we, as a nation, allow one group’s rights and liberties to be so openly violated, it begins to threaten the security and freedom of all.”
"The majority of people agree with this, but oftentimes you hear the inflammatory statements more often because they’re the most outrageous,” Dukes said. "Hearing from Muslim students and colleagues who say this is meaningful to them has been heartening.”
Sundus Razzaq, a third-year student who is vice president of the MSA and a first-generation Pakistani-American, said she initially was surprised that faculty members would put together a petition to support the Muslim community.
The U.Va. petition should come as little surprise, as the school’s founder, Thomas Jefferson, was the architect for the nation’s constitutional protections for religious freedom.
If it were not for the Jefferson-authored 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified two years later, might not have included such strong provisions for religious liberties, said John Ragosta, a fellow at the Virginia Foundation for Humanities and a former U.Va. faculty member.
Although Jefferson was not directly involved with the creation of the Constitution, Ragosta said his influence on James Madison, and their mutual views, led to Madison’s support of similar protections in the nation’s guiding document.
"Why is history relevant? Because, at this time, this very question did come up,” Ragosta said about religious liberty and to the extent it applies to all faiths. Despite the limited number of Muslims and non-Christians who lived in the U.S. at the time, he said, "In the 18th century, this was on a lot of people’s minds.”
At the end of his career in 1821, Ragosta said, Jefferson specifically mentioned Islam, Judaism and other religions when recollecting how the statute eventually was ratified by the General Assembly.
"It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal,” Jefferson wrote about the 1786 statute. "… within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan (Muslim), the Hindoo (Hindu), and Infidel of every denomination.”
Ragosta said immigration issues regarding religion may be a contentious topic, legally speaking, but the idea of registering Muslims is "clearly unconstitutional.”
"Today, when people talk about Muslims and registering them, that’s a clear violation,” Ragosta said.
The Constitution, specifically the First and 14th Amendments, he said, has "broad language which says Congress shall make no law regarding religion,” adding that the Constitution — with the exception of the 14th Amendment — does not grant rights but instead restricts the government from infringing on anyone’s natural rights.
"The critical thing to understand is when religious freedom was adopted, it was meant to apply to everyone, including Muslims. It’s expressly written there; it’s not just a view of liberals,” he said.
"Petitions can sometimes add a lot of language that’s extraneous, but this is straightforward,” Ragosta said about the U.Va. petition. "I think it’s a worthwhile effort.”
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church-Unitarian Universalist on Wednesday will host an interfaith rally to show solidarity with the Muslim community. The rally will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Free Speech Chalkboard on the Downtown Mall.
