L
ost into the venomous arguments having also been flying backwards and forwards between Muslims and atheists â
on HBO
and
on op-ed pages
, in the usa and beyond â is simply how much cash those two marginalized, underrepresented teams share.
Relating to a Pew poll done in 2010
, Muslims and atheists will be the two least favorably viewed religious or honest groups in the usa. Both communities tend to be significantly underrepresented within the common populace â
approximately 2per cent of People in america identify as atheists
, in comparison to
1% for Muslims
. Both face soaring quantities of animosity through the majority of folks. And both commonly described of the loudest sounds within their communities.
The news could be saturated with photos of Islamic terrorists and committing suicide bombers, but a
2011 Gallup survey
concluded that Muslims are in reality inclined than just about any other religious or ethical party in the usa to deny assault against civilians. Likewise, the vocally “anti-theist” atheists just who take over the airwaves in addition to top seller listings gets every hit, but a
2013 research through the University of Tennessee
suggested that lower than 15per cent of atheists fall into the “anti-theist” class.
So just why hasn’t indeed there already been a lot more discussion and solidarity between Muslims and atheists? Can’t we-all just go along?
The divide must perform in part with
the organic desire
to retreat into our personal communities or get protective when confronted by distinction. Because of this, stereotypes about both teams not simply go unchallenged â they become increased as each side clings to the preconceived notions of other. Although it’s most certainly not truly the only reason, the amplification within this “us against them” attitude has led to huge majorities of People in america labeling Muslims as “violent” and atheists as “amoral”.
The irony is the fact that whenever atheists and believers become familiar with the other person, they often discover that quite a few of their values are not thus different in the end. Which a thing that we, a Muslim and an atheist, have learned from our relationship â once we acknowledge our distinctions and disagreements.
We aren’t alone in knowing the effectiveness of connections to overcome distinctions.
Research shows
that merely understanding somebody from another spiritual or ethical party usually contributes to more positive opinions of this class. That is why personal interactions tend to be essential regarding switching how we discuss religion and atheism. Once you know and appreciate a Muslim or an atheist, it no more tends to make much sense to create sweeping generalizations about either team as consists of fans or bigots. The reason of blanket statements drops apart when you’re exposed to the assortment of lived spiritual and nonreligious knowledge.
Whenever 46percent of People In The Us
consider
Islam is more aggressive than many other faiths but only 37percent even
understand
a Muslim, as soon as atheists stay among the many
most distrusted
teams in the nation, it really is clear that a discussion between those two communities could benefit both. But that will not occur until we Muslims and atheists agree to investing a shorter time speaking past each other plus time addressing each other.
Needless to say, this won’t indicate that Muslims and atheists will out of the blue find themselves in downright equilibrium. We are going to continue steadily to debate and dispute with one another, positive that the conversations may bring to mild as many problems and contradictions between our communities as they resolve. Pluralism isn’t really relativism; it isn’t the erasure of variations, and even their incorporate. It is the acceptance that distinctions exist, and this the fix to activate all of them is a good thing, a required thing.
Nor will it mean that we have to merely lift up ideal in ourselves among others while whitewashing the real problems that are present both in of one’s communities. There is certainly a lot of strive to perform for the Muslim society regarding attitudes about and procedures influencing
LGBTQ people
,
ex-Muslims
and
females
. Concurrently, the atheist community will continue to have a problem with fraught discussions over anti-theism,
sexism
and
racism
among atheists. But even as we try to address these issues inside our communities, we are able to additionally benefit from appearing beyond our borders and mastering from those outdoors.
Or we could only go back to yelling at every some other on television.