We’re continuing to follow the impacts of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and how it’s affecting people here in Charlotte.
Imam John Ederer of the Muslim Community Center in Charlotte joined WFAE's Nick de la Canal to talk about how local Muslims and Palestinian Americans have been feeling, and how he's guiding his community.
Nick de la Canal: How have you been feeling these last few weeks watching the attacks from Hamas and the Israeli airstrikes since?
John Ederer: Well, obviously it's just sickening, when you see the loss of innocent life and murder and bloodshed and destruction and chaos, in a place where prophets once taught that loving God means loving your neighbor as yourself. Our community's general vibe is that it's appalling — just looking at our historic government in the United States and media enablement of these crimes against humanity in the occupation that took place since 1948. Until we get rid of an occupation of people and, as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have all clearly laid out, that it is an apartheid state. We have to get rid of this underlying cause, and then we can then start to teach people how to live together and love one another.
De la Canal: And what have you been hearing from even people in your own congregation?
Ederer: You know, people are just like — we feel that Islamophobia has been triggered through this. We feel like we were starting to come back to a normal reality where we are not all being accused of some behaviors of some people who clearly don't understand our religion and are acting in some sort of clearly vile, despicable way. We're seeing you know all kinds of Islamophobia.
De la Canal: And already we have seen some instances of some violence against Palestinian Americans, like in Chicago, where a 6-year-old boy was killed and his mother injured in an attack that police said was motivated by their religion and the war. As a spiritual leader, how do you support your community at a time like this? Are there passages from the Quran that you draw from? Or maybe specific practices? Or something else? How do you think about that?
Ederer: Well, you know, patience and gratitude are two sides of one coin in our faith tradition. Realizing that people are going to oppose you simply because you're a believer. Every prophet faced that. So I just tell them, just let it be known who you are and what you believe and what you stand for, so that this cannot stand. If you find yourself trying to just avoid any interaction, then people will just continue with their false impressions of us.
De la Canal: We also spoke with a local rabbi last week who had expressed sort of some similar fears from the Jewish community in Charlotte, who were also worried about this conflict sparking some threats against their community as well, and I wonder if that isn't one of the more tragic parts of this — that there are these two communities that are both in so much pain, but also seemingly trapped in these cycles of violence.
Ederer: Right, so obviously we have been in the interfaith movement for as long as our center has been existing, and we have built relationships with our neighbors. And so the Jewish community are people who have promoted great things in Charlotte, and they represent great values. And we remind our community that the historic politics of this and how it relates to their people is a very complicated situation for them, and so we can never understand exactly why or how they deal with it. And so we can't suppose to tell them how to deal with it. We can just stick with what we know about what's happening over there, and maintain our good relationships and work for the good of Charlotte-Mecklenburg as neighbors and people who represent similar values when it comes to social values here in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
De la Canal: And I believe President Biden is visiting the Middle East today. Do you have any advice for him? What would you want to tell him?
Ederer: I mean, we would just tell anybody that has any influence, and Biden has the single most powerful influence, is to tell the Israelis that you have to give Palestinian statehood and release the occupation. You have to treat the people who have been living there for centuries as people equal to yourselves. We just need to give people a chance to live in peace.
De la Canal: Well, Imam Ederer, thank you very much for your time.
Ederer: Thank you so much, Nick. I appreciate this.
WFAE community engagement producer Mona Dougani contributed to this report.
