Brent Walker is the Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a 77-year old religious liberty advocacy organization headquartered in Washington D.C. and longtime partner of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
In the latest issue of Report from the Capital, the BJC’s monthly publication, Walker 
writes about reaching out to our Muslim neighbors. Here’s a snippet from his column:
Islamophobia is born of ignorance, mixed with a toxic dose of fear and anger. Can somebody cherry pick proof texts for violence in the Quran? Yes, you can. But you can do the same in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Should all of Islam — practiced by about one fifth of the world’s population — be impugned by aberrant acts of criminals who happened to be motivated by their perverted understanding of their religion? Absolutely not, no more than all of Christendom can be blamed for violence spawned over the years by the Ku Klux Klan or all Baptists because of the rhetorical terrorism spewed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church.
The threat of violent Islamic terrorism is out there and must be resisted with all our might. But equally real are peace-loving, patriotic American Muslims — shall we hazard a guess of 99.99 percent? — whom we need to befriend and get to know.
Yes, a more mature understanding of Islam must be accompanied by a better relationship with Muslims. Here, it seems to me, Baptists are making major strides. First, in our nation’s capital, the Baptist Joint Committee has long worked with Muslim groups including the Islamic Society of North America (led by Dr. Sayyid Syeed) and Muslim Advocates (led by Farhana Khera). We have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with our Muslim friends on religious liberty issues dealing with construction of mosques and misguided congressional investigations of terrorism focused only on Islam.
Keep reading the entire column here.
Also, check out Blog from the Capital, the BJC’s popular blog, that tracks current news and updates at the intersection of church and state as well as religion and politics.
Two recent posts highlight religious liberty issues that our Muslim neighbors are currently facing.
The first post notes that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed suit against a trucking company for refusing to accommodate Muslim drivers’ religious objection to delivering alcohol. The Muslim drivers were subsequently fired.
The suit alleges that the company violated Title VII of the Civl Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
A second post points to a brewing church-state controversy in Mobile, Ala. where the City Council of Mobile recently denied an Islamic Center’s request for expansion. The council city traffic and parking concerns as reasons for denying the request.
Be sure to read both posts and, if you haven’t already, bookmark or subscribe to Blog from the Capital.
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