Preventing Communal Conflict
March
2
2011
Interfaith activists have been working for years to encourage better understandings across communal boundaries.
In this discussion, Rev. Clark Lobenstine, executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, shares what he thinks of Islamophobia after more than 30 years of interfaith work.
Ashutosh Varshney is a professor of political science at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies and author of Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India. He shares his research on factors that help prevent conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India and other ethnic groups around the world.
In addition, the guests explore what they learned from an interfaith initiative in Nigeria. They also share recommendations for what Americans can do to reduce conflict between religious groups.Learn more about Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye of the Interfaith Mediation Centre in Kaduna, Nigeria (as discussed in this program).
Human Rights Watch has updated information on recent and past communal conflict in Nigeria.
Commentary: Why Islamophobia Now?
Peter Beinart of the New America Foundation explores what history can teach us about contemporary Islamophobia discourse.
Peter Beinart is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a senior political writer for The Daily Beast (this has been adapted from a commentary originally written for The Daily Beast). He is also an associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and the author of The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris.
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