[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
RESPONDING TO HATE: THE.
ROLE OF RELIGIOUS ACTORS
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JULY 16, 2019
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Printed for the use of the
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
[CSCE 116-1-4]
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via www.csce.gov
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U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
37-212PDF WASHINGTON : 2020
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COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
HOUSE SENATE
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ROGER WICKER, Mississippi,
Co-Chairman Chairman
ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida BENJAMIN L. CARDIN. Maryland
ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas CORY GARDNER, Colorado
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee MARCO RUBIO, Florida
RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois THOM TILLIS, North Carolina
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas TOM UDALL, New Mexico
GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
Department of State, to be appointed
Department of Commerce, to be appointed
Department of Defense, to be appointed
(ii)
RESPONDING TO HATE: THE
ROLE OF RELIGIOUS ACTORS
----------
July 16, 2019
COMMISSIONERS
Page
Hon. Gwen Moore, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 1
Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, Ranking Member, Commission on Security
and Cooperation in Europe...................................... 3
Hon. Steve Cohen, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 8
Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 11
Hon. Brian Fitzpatrick, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 16
Hon. Richard Hudson, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe
WITNESSES
Father James Martin, Editor at Large, America magazine (via
videoconferencing)............................................. 5
Imam Gamal Fouda, Imam, Al Noor Mosque (via videoconferencing)... 7
Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers, Rabbi and Cantor, Tree of Life
Synagogue...................................................... 9
Radia Bakkouch, President, Coexister............................. 11
Reverend Aaron Jenkins, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy,
The Expectations Project....................................... 13
Usra Ghazi, Director of Policy and Programs, America Indivisible,
Mayor's Interfaith Council..................................... 16
Alina Bricman, Elected President, European Union of Jewish
Students (via videoconferencing)............................... 29
APPENDIX
Prepared statement of Hon. Alcee L. Hastings..................... 34
Prepared statement of Hon. Gwen Moore............................ 36
Prepared statement of Benjamin L. Cardin......................... 37
Prepared statement of Fr. James Martin........................... 39
Prepared statement of Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers................. 41
Prepared statement of Ms. Radia Bakkouch......................... 43
Prepared statement of Rev. Aaron Jenkins......................... 45
Prepared statement of Ms. Usra Ghazi............................. 48
Prepared statement of Ms. Alina Bricman.......................... 50
RESPONDING TO HATE: THE.
ROLE OF RELIGIOUS ACTORS
----------
July 16, 2019
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Washington, DC
The hearing was held at 11:00 a.m. in Room 2200, Rayburn
House Office Building, Washington, DC, Hon. Gwen Moore,
Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe,
presiding.
Commissioners present: Hon. Gwen Moore, Commissioner,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Benjamin
L. Cardin, Ranking Member, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Steve Cohen, Commissioner,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Sheila
Jackson Lee, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Brian Fitzpatrick, Commissioner,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; and Hon.
Richard Hudson, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
Witnesses present: Father James Martin, Editor at Large,
America magazine (via videoconferencing); Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey
Myers, Rabbi and Cantor, Tree of Life Synagogue; Imam Gamal
Fouda, Imam, Al Noor Mosque (via videoconferencing); Radia
Bakkouch, President, Coexister; Reverend Aaron Jenkins, Vice
President of Policy and Advocacy, The Expectations Project;
Usra Ghazi, Director of Policy and Programs, America
Indivisible, Mayor's Interfaith Council; and Alina Bricman,
Elected President, European Union of Jewish Students (via
videoconferencing).
HON. GWEN MOORE, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Ms. Moore. Good morning, everyone. I want to welcome you to
the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, or better known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission,
hearing on ``Responding to Hate: The Role of Religious
Actors.'' We're so happy to be joined today by our expert
witnesses, some who are appearing here before us today and some
who are joining us by video. But before I begin, I do want to
take the opportunity to introduce myself and another
commissioner who has made his way over here already.
My name is Gwen Moore. I represent the 4th Congressional
District of Wisconsin, and I am a very proud member of the
commission. I want to introduce my good friend, Mr. Hudson,
from North Carolina, who is a Republican, but on these issues
we are very much alike. And I want to thank you for your
attendance.
We are going to start by hearing first from our witnesses
who are going to join us by video. So we'll start with the
Reverend James Martin, Society of Jesus.
Oh, well, there's a guy who just joined us, little known to
many people but well known to all of us. He's a--you know,
coming over from the other House. We're allowing him to join us
here to repatriate to the House. He was a former member of the
House, and now is Senator Cardin for Maryland. He's also a
commissioner. He is the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special
Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Intolerance for
the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
And he is very, very active in the Helsinki Commission, and
does a lot of legislation on this issue. And, Senator, thank
you for joining us this morning.
I just want to thank Chairman Hastings for allowing me the
opportunity to preside over this hearing this morning on such a
critically important matter. At 10:25 a.m. on August 5th, 2012,
first responders were alerted to respond to a shooting in Oak
Creek, Wisconsin. Next month, we will remember the lives of six
Sikh worshipers murdered 7 years ago. Six bright lights snuffed
out by the cowardice and intolerance of hate-motivated
violence. The Sikh and non-Sikh Oak Creek community, the entire
Milwaukee area community where I am blessed to serve, and the
world were horrified to learn that productive and loving
members of their community were murdered in their holy place,
their inner sanctum, their designated place to commune with
God.
All of us have something to gain from those who look
different, pray differently, and may come from a different
place. And we must not wait until tragedy strikes, again and
again and again, to learn the value of mutual respect. We must
seize every opportunity to denounce hate-motivated violence,
and in doing so we protect the value of freedom of expression,
the hallmark of democracy. To have one's voice heard is the
hallmark of human dignity and the very lifeblood of democracy.
This is why I count it an honor to serve as a commissioner
of the United States Helsinki Commission, and to work within
the tenets of the Helsinki Final Act, undergirded by principles
of human rights and democracy of the 57 countries that make up
the region of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe. And I have spent my entire career advocating for
policies, programs, and services that prioritize tolerance and
inclusion. And I've led my fellow members in protests here in
the very halls of Congress that have raised global awareness
for victims of terror. I've introduced resolutions to recognize
the crisis of intolerant violence against Native women. And one
of the most prolific and influential religious actors of our
time famously said--and that would be the Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.--that darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do
that.
So let us use this truth as we examine the role of
religious actors. You know, we're politicians. But the role of
religious actors is embedded in the history of this country and
around the world. And I am led to believe that it is time for
the religious community to take its historic place in the
forefront for the march of justice. And let us firmly use love
and responsible policy to develop policies that will save lives
and protect human rights. I am most grateful to the
Wisconsinites that I represent for the privilege to be here
today. And they're a shining example of how to rebuild a
community after a vicious and senseless attack on a community--
those folks I speak of in Oak Creek.
And I want to thank Rabbi Myers of the Tree of Life
Synagogue and Imam Fouda for participating in today's hearings,
as their communities, like my own, have also personally been
touched by tragedy. And I want to thank the religious and
faith-based leaders who have joined us here today for the
solidarity they are showing in coming here, and for displaying
the true strength it takes to remain resilient in the face of
hate.
I am going to yield to Senator Cardin for an opening
statement, if you would like.
You're always so soft-spoken on these issues. [Laughter.]
Thought we would give you an opportunity to speak out for a
change. [Laughter.]
HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, RANKING MEMBER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY
AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Cardin. Well, Chairwoman Moore, thank you very much for
your leadership, and to Congressman Hudson. The three of us
were in Luxembourg recently for the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly. So we've had a chance to be together to talk about
the rise of hate. I particularly want to thank the leadership
in the House for holding this hearing, ``Responding to Hate:
The Role of Religious Actors.'' As Congresswoman Moore pointed
out, I am the Special Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism,
and Intolerance within the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
We've seen such a rise of hate in America, the OSCE region,
and around the world. And we've seen that, unfortunately, in
houses of prayer, from Pittsburgh to Poway, Christchurch,
Colombo, black churches in the South--we've seen violence when
people go to pray, innocent people being murdered.
At the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly I hosted a side event. I
want to thank Mischa Thompson, the staff person from the
Helsinki Commission, for the extraordinary work that she's
done, not just here in America but around the world to deal
with these issues. Our side event was on ``Countering Hate:
Lessons Learned from the Past, Leadership for the Future.''
We started with Dr. Erbelding of the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum. And she gave, I think, a rather sobering
presentation. I had heard it once before, because I am a member
of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum board. And she told us
about the seeds of hate and where it can lead to. You know, bad
people exist. But they can't do their evil agenda unless they
have popular support. And we saw that leading up to World War
II. And we saw the consequences of that. Now, I'm not trying to
tell you that we are in the same vulnerable position today as
we were before World War II. But many of the same situations
that existed then are existing today.
And we need to deal with that. We just can't ignore those
actions. I said after the tragedy in Pittsburgh, words have
consequences. Public discourse that stokes fear and sharpens
grievances is not public policy debate, it is not problem
solving. Leaders must be held accountable for ending hate in
our community by their deeds and words. We must demonstrate
through our actions and through our words that our society is
stronger when we stand together united against hate.
So as leaders, we have a responsibility to develop an
action plan to deal with what we see in our community, in the
OSCE region, and around the world. Yes, we have to start with
making sure people are safe in our community. And we have to
work with religious leaders to make sure people are comfortable
going to their houses of prayer being safe. We need to invest
in education. To me, education is the most important investment
we can to--so people understand the strength of diversity. We
need laws in place that make it clear we won't tolerate hate
crimes. And we need to build coalitions.
I see a great coalition in front of me, this panel. We
can't do this as Jews, or Muslims, or Christians. We really
need to do it together, if we're going to be effective in
countering the rise of hate. Coalition building is so
important. We need to share best practices, what works in our
community. So, Madam Chair, I want to welcome all four of our
panelists.
Rabbi Myers, I decided to go to University of Pittsburgh
because of the strength of the Jewish community there. My
parents thought I would be safe. And I remember being welcomed
in Squirrel Hill, and the importance of that to me as a young
student at the University of Pittsburgh.
And to Radia, we had a chance when I was in Paris just
recently to meet with the Coexisters. What an incredible group
that you have brought together. And I'm going to share a
question I asked and your answer. When I talked about what
obstacles do you face, and one of the obstacles you faced were
your own parents who were concerned about you joining together
in company.
And to Reverend Jenkins, thank you for your leadership. To
Ms. Ghazi, thank you for leadership on these issues. We
appreciate all four of you being here and sharing your
experiences so that we can help develop an action plan to stem
this tide, to work together, as the chairman said, for peace,
and love, and people being respected, and recognizing diversity
our strength.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Moore. And thank you. Always on point, Senator Cardin.
And so let's proceed with this hearing. And we are so
privileged to first hear from--[offside conversation]. We are
not ignoring Representative Hudson. [Laughter.] He says he
would much rather hear from our witnesses. But most of us--I
mean, this is decrying the role that legislators have. They
love to hear themselves talk.
But anyway, we are really blessed to hear from the
Reverend--I bet you--I've started introducing the Reverend
James Martin, Society of Jesus, for the third time. So we are
really excited to hear from him. He's a Jesuit priest, author,
editor at large of America magazine, and consulter to the
Vatican's dicastery for communication.
Father Martin is the author of many books, including The
New York Times bestseller, ``Jesus: A Pilgrimage'' and ``The
Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything.'' His most recent book is
``Building a Bridge,'' about how the Catholic church can reach
out more compassionately to LGBT Catholics.
He has appeared on all major media outlets, both nationally
and internationally, speaking on issues of religion and
spirituality, and has written for, among many other places, The
New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Before entering the
Jesuits, Father Martin graduated from the University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and worked in
corporate America for several years. We do welcome Reverend
James Martin via video.
FATHER JAMES MARTIN, EDITOR AT LARGE, AMERICA MAGAZINE
Fr. Martin. Medical treatments prevent me from joining you
in person, but it's really a great honor to be with you.
On June 12th, 2016, 49 people at Pulse, a nightclub that
attracted a largely LGBT clientele in Orlando, Florida, were
shot and killed at what was at the time the largest mass
shooting in U.S. history. In response, there was an outpouring
of love and support for the LGBT community from almost every
quarter in the country. One notable exception was the Catholic
church, my own church.
While the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a
brief, four-line statement, the words ``gay'' or ``LGBT'' were
absent from it. As a thought experiment, imagine if 49 people
from a particular ethnic group were massacred, and the name of
that ethnic group was omitted from public statements. Moreover,
in the wake of the U.S. bishops' statement, only a handful of
individual Catholic bishops expressed any sympathy at all. The
vast majority said absolutely nothing. Even in death, the LGBT
community remains invisible to much of the church.
The Catholic church's difficulty in ministering to and even
trying to understand LGBT people has led to Catholic magazines
and websites that vilify them, priests who single them out in
homilies as the world's worst sinners, and even statements from
cardinals, archbishops, and bishops overseas siding with
repressive anti-gay laws that provide for the arrest, and even
execution, of gay men and women.
Why am I bringing this up? Because when it comes to the
role that religious actors and organizations can play in
combating hate crimes, the most effective thing they can do is
to get their own houses of worship in order. Racism, sexism,
and homophobia still exist in many Christian denominations--my
own included. To turn to racism, we only need to recall the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's trenchant comment that the
most segregated hour of the week is 11 on Sunday morning.
Last year, an African American friend of mine, a national
leader in the U.S. Catholic church, told me a story. Recently,
he was attending a conference at a town far from his home. When
Sunday came, he searched for a Catholic church near his hotel
so that he could attend Sunday mass. Happily, he located one,
drove there, and entered the church. After my friend passed
through the church doors a priest, seeing a large dark-skinned
man, came up to him and said: I'm sorry, you do know that this
is Catholic church, don't you? Yes, said my friend, do you know
that this is a Catholic church? [Laughter.]
The racism, sexism, and homophobia, still endemic in some
Christian churches, leads to casually racist, sexist, and
homophobic comments from the pulpit, as well as overtly racist,
sexist, and homophobic comments made in private. Both give a
silent blessing to more racism, sexism, and homophobia among
Christians. Just this month, an influential far-right Catholic
website published an article that opposed even gay-straight
alliances in schools as part of what they call their war
against LGBT propaganda.
What does such tacit support for prejudice by church
leaders end up doing? It excuses hate. It fosters hate. It
blesses hate. And it unintentionally encourages the violence
that this hate leads to. And make no mistake, some Catholics
who treat LGBT people with contempt think they are doing so
with the church's blessing. Thus, these people think they're
being prophetic. They don't see themselves as haters. They see
themselves as prophets, because they feel the support of their
churches.
Now, this is not to say that all or even most Christian
churches are places of racism, sexism, or homophobia. By no
means. Often it is Christian groups that lead the fight against
hatred. Witness, obviously, the example of Reverend King in the
civil rights movement, a true prophet whose main impetus was an
overtly Christian one. In our own day, I'm proud that the
Catholic church in this country has consistently stood up
against the vilification of refugees and migrants, perhaps the
newest victims of hatred.
But any actions or speeches that mock, stigmatize,
dehumanize, or otherwise target specific persons or groups of
people is completely opposed to the Christian worldview. Why?
Because it legitimizes seeing a person who is different as the
``other.'' And this is completely antithetical to the actions
of the Jesus who we encounter in the gospels. In fact, Jesus
reached out first and foremost to those who were seen as
``other'' in his time--women, tax collectors, prostitutes,
Samaritans, Roman centurions, people who were sick, and on, and
on, and on. Jesus is always bringing those on the outside in.
He brings the outsider into his circle of friendship because,
for Jesus, there is no us and them. There is only us.
So the most important thing that religious actors and
organizations can do to combat hate crimes is not only to fight
the hatred on the outside, but on the inside as well. How?
First, by taking a clear look at how their organizations speak
of and minister to members of marginalized groups. Second, by
reaching out to these groups specifically to make them feel
welcome to what are, after all, their churches too. Finally, by
taking every opportunity to stand with them publicly, to
advocate for them, to fight for them--even at the risk of
losing some parishioners. Overall, they must remind their own
communities, and the world, that for Jesus, and therefore for
all Christians, there is no us and them. There is only us.
Thank you very much.
Ms. Moore. That was very compelling. Really important
voice.
Also, we're sharing these videos because we do think that
this hearing would not be complete without hearing these
voices. And that being said, I want to proudly introduce the
video of Imam Gamal Fouda, of Al Noor Mosque, who survived the
Christchurch attack on the Al Noor Mosque in New Zealand. And
so, let's go.
IMAM GAMAL FOUDA, IMAM, AL NOOR MOSQUE
Imam Fouda. [Speaks in Arabic, then continues in English.]
May the peace and blessings be upon our prophet and all the
prophets of God from Adam and Mohammad, peace be upon them all.
Thank you very much for inviting me tonight to address your
community and your members. I do much appreciate. And I just--
first of all, I would like to ask Allah to put the martyrs in
paradise--the highest place in paradise, those who lost their
lives in the terrorist--in the terror attack in Christchurch
mosque. May Allah--[inaudible]--put them in--[inaudible]--
recovery to those injured.
First of all, I would like to say that that was something
that no one wants to see. When you see people being killed in
front of you, it is something that is--I will never forget in
my life. People came for peace, came for love, to learn love,
and to actually learn how to spread this love to the people
around them, to their family members, and to the people in the
neighborhood who actually stood beside us, and they supported
us. They supported people, their neighbors. The medical team,
the police, the government--it was really, really a good image
of us standing together.
The power that actually came to us from the people around
the world, and especially in New Zealand and in Christchurch,
was actually the secret of us coming back the next Friday. And
I stood in Hagley Park, and I addressed the people that love
only will redeem us. And hate will never divide us. We stood
together quickly.
And that is the power of New Zealand, that New Zealand set
a good example to the whole world, how to actually look after
your people, how to actually support all your people. And we
always stand together against hate, and hate speech, and hate
crimes. That is the secret of New Zealand, that the New Zealand
people, and Muslims, and the Muslim community, they stand for
peace, they stand for care, and love toward each other.
And you can see that in the power of the leadership. And
you have seen the Prime Minister who stood together--stood
against hatred. And she said that was one of the black days of
New Zealand. That is the power that all communities, all
governments should work with each other against hate crimes,
especially on social media. That social media should be a
useful tool for all of us, not a tool of brainwashing young
people.
And also the Minister of Education around the world, all
your educators, you need to implant the critical thinking in
our children so that they know that they have to have their own
self. They should not be listening and should be followers of
people. They should have their own views. And they question
everything around them, including hate speech on social media.
And all of us have to condemn hate speech everywhere. And
we have to teach in our mosques, in our churches, in our
synagogues, and all worshiping places. We have to teach love,
and how to actually teach our children to see people of
different color as something that is really beautiful to all.
We have to stand together against hatred and against terrorism
around the world. All the people who claim--who are terrorizing
people, and they spread hatred around the world--whether their
religion is Islam, or Christianity, or Judaism, or faith, or no
faith. Terrorism has no religion.
And we have to stand together, looking at the diversity in
our communities as something that is strengthening our
community. It is the secret of the power of our community to
see different colors, different languages.
Thank you very much for inviting me today to speak to you.
And I have lots of other things to say, but because of the time
I will finish up. Thank you very much.
Ms. Moore. And thank you.
And before we proceed with the hearing, I am so delighted
that we've been joined by our friend and colleague, another
Helsinki Commissioner, who hails from Memphis, Tennessee, a
member of the Judiciary Committee, very active in the Helsinki
Commission. And that is Representative Steve Cohen.
Good morning.
HON. STEVE COHEN, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Cohen. Thank you. Sorry about being late. I had a
meeting. But this is an important meeting, and I value the work
on the Helsinki Commission. And I look forward to your
testimony.
And hearing what I did hear on these broadcasts, religion
can be a wonderful source of life values and spirituality that
we share in common. Memphis is a city of many ministers, many
outstanding ministers and rabbis. My rabbi, Micah Greenstein,
was on the NAACP board, of which I was very proud. One of his
predecessors, Rabbi James Wax, stood up to the only onetime
Jewish mayor of Memphis, Henry Loeb, and told him that God's
law was more important and that he should have worked with Dr.
King, and seen to it that they were able to march and bring the
sanitation workers the salaries and benefits and wages they
deserved. There have been others. And the leaders in Memphis
over the years have been Methodist ministers, Catholics, and
Jews, and others.
But we all need to take religion and use it for good, and
the common purposes and common values, and not use it to divide
us, and not use it to make money, and not use it to suggest
that the only way is through tithes and givings that enrich
people who use religion for their own sake.
So I'm pleased that you all are here, and pleased to
participate, and nobody's better on all these things than
Reverend Barber. So I wish he was here too.
Thank you, I yield back.
Ms. Moore. Thank you so much, Representative Cohen.
We are so delighted to be joined by this distinguished
panel. So I want to start out with Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers,
who has served as the rabbi and cantor for the Tree of Life
Congregation of Pittsburgh since the summer of 2017. Rabbi
Myers is a survivor of the horrific morning of October 27th,
2018, when a heavily armed gunman began a murderous rampage in
the Tree of Life Synagogue. It is so wonderful to have you here
in person. And my nephew wants to be a cantor. I want to make
sure he gets in touch with you. You may already know him,
because he sings in every synagogue everywhere in the world
that he can.
But with that, I welcome you, Rabbi Myers, to begin your
testimony.
RABBI HAZZAN JEFFREY MYERS, RABBI AND CANTOR, TREE OF LIFE
SYNAGOGUE
Rabbi Myers. Thank you, Madam Chair, Members of Congress. I
thank you for the privilege of testifying before you today.
I am a victim, witness, and survivor of the worst attack in
a synagogue in the history of the United States, and the Jewish
community has been present on these shores since 1654. Since
that fateful day of October 27, 2018, I, the congregants of
Tree of Life, along with two other congregations that share our
building, New Light and Dor Hadash, and the city of Pittsburgh
have been overwhelmed by expressions of love from across the
planet. People of all faiths, colors, and sexual orientation
have enveloped us is a vast, global hug that continues
unabated. Their message is very clear: The acts of one person
are not representative of all of humanity.
But, alas, the acts of brutality and cruelty can overwhelm
us. And when coupled with incessant anti-Semitic words and
dastardly deeds across the United States and around the world,
we are reminded almost daily that a pernicious, ancient evil
flourishes. What most Americans don't know or appreciate is the
warmth and togetherness that is Pittsburgh. I can state this
objectively as I too am an immigrant to Pittsburgh, having
spent most of my life in the New York and New Jersey area. I
live in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood, and the love and care for
people of all walks of life in my city post-October 27 were
typical to prior to this date, only more intense afterwards.
Religious leaders of all faiths have reached out to me,
affording me a unique opportunity to get to know them and find
commonalities where we can work together to better our
community. The metaphor of America as a melting pot is a
beautiful image, but sadly it is not true. We do not know our
neighbors. We live in silos with no bridges connecting them.
Many choose to live in their own private silos, not wanting
others to enter their silo. Some people just don't know how to
build a bridge. This is where religious leaders like me make a
difference. I am a bridge builder.
When the Muslim community extended an olive branch to me, I
responded by offering an olive tree. The same goes for the
Roman Catholic, various Protestant denominations, the Sikh,
Buddhist, Jain, Baptist, AME, and so many more that I apologize
if I have omitted. We have so much in common that we must work
together. The modest, baby steps that we are taking mature into
adult steps, hopefully yielding bushels of olives.
Opportunities to partner with local government and the police
department continue to grow as well. We can be the Nation's
laboratory to model actions that may work throughout the
country, without me minimizing the efforts of those already
working to achieve these same goals.
We, as clergy and congregants, are striving to find ways
beyond visiting each other's worship services to really getting
to know our neighbors, to consider their needs, and to
determine how we can work together to realize positive
outcomes. Please note that this was happening in Pittsburgh
before October 27th, but this date and the atrocity that it
brought created a new sense of urgency. We must see to it that
all children in all schools throughout this country learn about
their neighbors and strive to understand them in an effort to
appreciate their faith, not merely tolerate them. We must
provide the tools for all people to honor and respect their
neighbors. And right now we as a nation are not being very
successful in doing this.
Just 2 weeks after October 27th, the city of Pittsburgh
held a rally at Point State Park, and I was asked to speak. It
was here that I made a pledge not to use the word ``hate,''
which I will say here only once for demonstrative purposes. The
H-word, as I call it, is a four-letter word, an obscenity that
deserves to be in our mental wastebaskets. If you truly must
say that you H-something, just say you don't like it. H-speech
is a severe choice of words that often leads to violent
actions, as was the case in the Tree of Life shootings. When
you don't understand your neighbor, it can lead to mistrust,
fear, loathing, and H-speech, which ultimately leads you to
unconscionable and deadly actions.
Our Nation right now is suffering an epidemic of uncivil
discourse. People cannot hold civil conversations with their
neighbors, be it in person or through social media. As our
elected leaders, I call you to task for this epidemic. When you
use H-speech against one another, you model uncivil discourse
for all Americans. As our leaders, you are teaching us that it
is acceptable to behave this way--and it's simply not. Is it
any wonder that my fellow citizens speak in uncivil terms and
use H-speech? You condone it and model it. It is time for a
different direction.
The path toward civil discourse must start with all of you,
our elected leaders. When you model civil discourse, you teach
us appropriate ways to speak to one another. This does not
require any legislation on your part. It requires you to think
about the impact of your words for, as the Jewish tradition
teaches, the most powerful weapon a human being possesses are
words. They can wound, or they can heal. There is way too much
wounding emanating out of Washington, DC. Who among you will be
brave enough to say to the American people: I pledge that I
will not use the H-word, I call upon my fellow legislators to
do the same, to help restore civil discourse in America? Our
eyes and ears turn to you. What will you do?
I thank you for your time and attention.
Ms. Moore. Thank you so much for that, Rabbi. Thank you so
much for sending us on a path of thinking. And we're--I'm going
to engage you on just that during the Q&A period.
But right now, we are really fortunate to have a young
person. We've had the sage wisdom of our elders here, but it is
always--you always know you have a movement going when its
intergenerational.
And so we're really happy to have Radia Bakkouch here,
who's the president of Coexister in France. It's an interfaith
youth-led movement that offers young people the experience of
diversity in a positive way. Radia is specializing in
peacebuilding, youth empowerment, and conflict transformation.
And before I yield to you, I just want to introduce a very
active member of the Helsinki Commission, Sheila Jackson Lee,
who is a member of the Judiciary Committee and--a senior member
of the Judiciary Committee--and, of course, she hails from
Houston, Texas. I want to yield to Representative Sheila
Jackson Lee for just a moment.
HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY
AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Ms. Jackson Lee. You're very kind. And I thank you for your
courtesy, and to acknowledge my delay. It was because I was in
the Judiciary Committee speaking about incarcerated persons. So
I will be very focused by saying to you that I am a strong
advocate, as this commission would suggest, of religious
liberty, religious freedoms, and the restoration of such. And I
think that that is one of our highest responsibilities in this
commission, and we look forward to hearing from you to be more
energized on these issues.
I'd conclude by saying at an earlier meeting I had with the
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, we were talking about the
conditions in the Syrian refugee camps. All of this ties
together where people are oppressed, and our voices and our
deeds should work to relieve them of their burdens. With that,
I yield back to the gentlelady.
Thank you.
Ms. Moore. Thank you so much, Representative Jackson Lee.
We've had numbers of members come in and out as our schedules
are busy. But as you all can see this is extremely important.
And members are leaning into it, despite other compelling work
that's here.
And so with that, Radia, we are eager to hear from you.
RADIA BAKKOUCH, PRESIDENT, COEXISTER
Ms. Bakkouch. I would like to thank the Members of the
Congress and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe for inviting me to testify at this hearing. My name is
Radia Bakkouch. I'm 27 years old, and I've been the president
of Coexister, a European interfaith youth movement, for 4 years
now. I represent thousands of young people, of members of
Coexister. And we are really proud and honored to be heard
today.
So in France, and in Europe, there is a complex
relationship with otherness and with understanding differences.
While the overall trend leans toward uniformity of cultural
practices, spiritual and religious identity resists this
mechanism of standardization, and symbolizes taboo, fear, and
ignorance. Unfortunately, hate crimes motivated by religious
bias only comes second in number behind racially motivated
crimes in Europe. For instance, in France, in 2018 the number
of anti-Semitic attacks in France rose by 74 percent. In the
past 10 years, like in Montauban and Toulouse in 2012, in Paris
and its northern suburb, in Saint-Denis, in 2015, in a church
in Saint Etienne du Rouvray in 2016, people were killed because
of their religion and people killed in the name of their
religion.
So if faith can be at the heart of tensions, for us in
Coexister it can also be at the heart of the solutions.
Coexister is a youth-led interfaith organization. We gather
Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists, agnostic, and Buddhists
from 15 to 35 years old. And within our organization we believe
in the concept of the ``faith for good,'' and in the practice
of interfaith cooperation. In 52 European cities, Coexister has
offered 10,000 young people the opportunity to experience
interfaith diversity in a good way and has helped more than
120,000 students to tackle stereotypes based on beliefs.
We empower young people and give them the skills, the
opportunities, and the relationships they need to build peace
and prevent any type of violence and exclusions. We offer them
safe space, where they can be fully themselves with others who
are completely different from them, and tools also so they can
act together for social justice, inclusion, mutual respect, and
peace.
So what are our recommendations? Thousands of interfaith
initiatives and practices exist around the world. The United
Religions Initiative Network, of which we are a part of, alone
already supports and connects more than 1,000 initiatives in
108 countries. Yet, in order to maximize their outreach and
systemic impact, they have to be state supported.
So, the first recommendation would be to defend pluralistic
societies. We need to defend, protect, and promote a
pluralistic society. Citizens can prevent hate against
diversity if they are able to face diversity in their daily
life. Multiculturalism and communitarianism are not the only
way to apprehend diversity in society. We need a mix.
The second recommendation would be to support ``faith for
good.'' Faith is a specific part of the identity, which is
substantial, chosen, and can be a source of bad and good.
Everyone has faith in something. It's not the prerogative of
religions only. Linking the spiritual resources to actions
toward peacebuilding and social justice strengthen the actions.
The third recommendation would be to practice interfaith
cooperation. Faith for good is even stronger when it's used in
interfaith cooperation, by bringing people that deeply disagree
on their faith together, so that they can act together. We need
to acknowledge that cooperating with people who are different
requires time, practice, and willingness.
We need to restore the importance of relationships. And, I
would say, more than relationships, friendship. We need also
for a recommendation to come out of the communitarian
struggles. It is important that not only Jewish people fight
against anti-Semitism, not only Muslim people fight against
anti-Muslim attacks and Islamophobia. We need to acknowledge
all type of hate crimes that target a particular population and
engage everyone so they can feel concern when any and all hate
crimes happen.
The fifth recommendation would be to fight ``for,'' rather
than to fight ``against.'' Fighting against hate is important,
but fighting for peace is vital. Our purpose should not only be
to diminish hate, but we need to envision what our ideal
society looks like. Nonviolence is a prerequisite, but
tolerance is not enough. And we say usually in Coexister that
we are not a tolerant organization. We do more. We do
acceptance. We do mutual understanding. We need to defend a
society where active coexistence is the method for
relationship.
We need--as the last recommendation--we need to also
include other actors in the fight against hate. It's really
important that religious actors--and I have some on my table--
engage in the fight against hate crimes. But also, if you can
influence the response to hate, citizens and young people are
also a great lever to do so. We usually include young people
when we talk about the future, but young people are the
citizens of today and they need to be included today to face
the challenges of our society.
Responding to hate by using faith and religious tools can
be efficient and lead to a lasting peace. In Coexister, our
founding intention is that peace must be taught, experimented,
and be a process of consciousness. We need to learn peace, not
learn how to make peace, because it will mean that we cannot
prevent the conflict. We learn--we have to learn and cherish
the actual peace. We would like to make peace a major learning
discipline in all informal and formal educational policies
throughout the world.
Thank you very much.
Ms. Moore. Just more than we expected, Radia. I can feel
the energy up here on the dais just listening to you. We need
to teach peace and learn peace. We can't just expect it to
evolve.
Before we hear from our next distinguished speaker, I just
want to note the arrival of one of our newest commissioners,
Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, from the great State of
Pennsylvania. He's a member of the Committee on Foreign
Affairs, and also on the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure. Welcome and thank you. And, again, as you can
see, members are attending this hearing, you know, consistent
with their busy schedules, because this is probably the most
important theme that we can lean into right now, during this
period of our--of our democracy, not only here but across
Europe.
I'm very excited to hear from the very Reverend Aaron
Jenkins, who is an ordained Christian minister, and serves as
vice president of the Abrahamson Scholarship Foundation, an
education nonprofit organization in Washington, DC, that
provides scholarships and mentoring support to first-generation
college students for all 4 years of their undergraduate
education. But Reverend Aaron Jenkins is also the vice
president of policy and advocacy for The Expectations Project.
It's a national nonprofit organization that educates and trains
faith-motivated advocates to help eliminate educational
inequality in public schools. And prior to this adventure, he
served as the director of the White House Center for Faith-
Based and Neighborhood Partnerships under the Obama regime.
So, Reverend Aaron Jenkins, you can just leave your tie
right there on the desk for me to gather up after we leave,
after you're done with your presentation. You just leave that
tie right there.
REVEREND AARON JENKINS, VICE PRESIDENT OF POLICY AND ADVOCACY,
THE EXPECTATIONS PROJECT
Rev. Jenkins. I'll be happy to do so. Nelson Mandela can be
left in your capable hands. [Laughter.]
It's a pleasure to testify before you this morning, to the
distinguished gathering of congressional leaders, to my
colleagues and co-panelists. I'm grateful to be here. What
brought me here was not only the invitation to come, but it was
what happened on June 17th, 2015, when Pastor Clementa Pinckney
was teaching Bible study and a young man walked into the church
at Mother Emanuel in South Carolina, and asked: Where is the
pastor, because I want to sit beside him?
And after listening to Bible study, and after sitting
amongst people who were attempting to live principles of all of
our faith traditions, of loving others as they want to be
loved, we would see a crime that would take the lives of
Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance,
Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons,
Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson--also known as the
Charleston nine. What happened that day would be vilified and
go down in our history, just like the bombing of the four
little girls in Birmingham, Alabama. But what was powerful is
what took place several days later at a very routine hearing,
when a judge said: I want to give the families a chance to
speak, and several families said: We forgive you.
The title of our hearing today, ``Responding to Hate: The
Role of Religious Actors,'' stirred something in me, because I
wondered, what does it not only look like to respond to hate
crimes, but what are the ways that we can be proactive in
preventing them in the first place? Working with young people
in a program called Operation Understanding D.C., I spent 7
years educating Jewish, Christian and Muslim students of the
African American and Jewish tradition of what would it look
like to see the world and make the world that you would like to
see? Often as an educator and those who know how education
works, you have to give young people a goal that exceeds their
grasp, because that's what gets them excited to reach for the
goal.
And I think one of the goals that I have personally is to
see an end to hate crimes, but more so than that, to see a
transformation of communities through three important things
that they need: partnership, resources, and relationships. It
was in Operation Understanding D.C. that I saw the power of
partnership, going to Memphis, Tennessee and having Rabbi Micah
Greenstein inform my students with 18 powerful words. In the
Jewish tradition, 18, l'chai, means life. And he would say to
them: Do the most that you can, in the place where you are,
with the time that you have. And those 18 words, for the last
25 years, have stirred young people to go wherever they're
planted to do just that.
I'll tell you, when hate crimes take place what they do
inside of me is that, just like that crime at Mother Emanuel
Church, just like the crime at Tree of Life, it made me think:
What would I have done if I were there? And then an even better
question is, What could we do to prevent that from happening in
the first place? One of my mentors once told me that thoughts
become things, that it's the thoughts that we have that become
the things that we do. So how do we become interrupters of
hateful thoughts? How do we become interrupters of ignorance?
And I know that one of the powerful ways that's already been
mentioned is education.
As I sit with my sister to the right, Ms. Usra Ghazi, we
have already worked together, even before being called here.
We've worked together as Christian and Muslim, seeking ways for
young adults and young leaders to find solutions to the
problems that we have. We see goals that exceed our grasp, and
we reach for them. With the power of partnership here in
Washington, DC. as a clergy member, I walk in communities that
have experienced gun violence. And I ask the neighbors who have
seen that happen two questions: How can we help, and what do
you need? And oftentimes if we trust community in partnership
they will tell us what they need.
One young man said: We need resources. We need a place for
our children to play. We need safety. That is what we need
here. And I wonder, applying it to this commission, which has
reach across Europe and across oceans, I wonder and think out
loud with you: What are the places and ways that we can be
reactive--excuse me--what are the ways that we can be proactive
instead of reactive?
The power of partnership means that I walk into a
synagogue, I walk into a mosque, I walk into a Buddhist temple,
invited in and learn the traditions that are there, and they
become important to me. Not taking away from my Christian
identity, but actually empowering it. I believe in partnership.
The second thing I believe in is the power of relationship.
I've been told that the relational is transformational, and I
believe that. Working in the Obama administration as the
director for the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood
Partnerships, I watched the power of relationship that when
people are in need, and people have the resources that are
needed to help them, it's the relationship that makes you pick
up the phone, that makes you get out of bed, that makes you go
to see what is the best that we can do for them.
I remember after the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting being
invited to Adas Israel, where leaders from D.C., Maryland, and
Virginia gathered in response to the hate crime. But the most
powerful moment of that--of that visit was actually what took
place outside, when there were more people outside who gathered
together in solidarity with Pittsburgh, and hate crimes that
had taken place all over, than could fit into the shul. And
what happened next was powerful. Imam Johari Abdul-Malik,
formerly of the Dar Al Hijrah Mosque here in Virginia, a local
friend and clergy member in the Islamic faith, was asked to go
outside and speak.
And he said: Let me start by speaking words of peace. Salam
is peace in Arabic. Shalom is peace in Hebrew. And peace is
peace in English. [Laughs.] By speaking those words, he
reminded me that partnerships matter, but relationships are
critical if we're going to see a change of goals that exceed
our grasp.
The last thing I'll share is the importance of investment,
training, and resources. What happens if we want to dismantle
the impact of hate crimes is that faith communities are
strategically placed in communities not only across the United
States, but across the world, where if they are invested in
properly they not only can do the work in their individual
congregations but across faith communities as well, to make
sure they are resourced and prepared to not only react when
something happens of the H-word, as I've been told and will now
adopt into my language, but they can be proactive in being
instruments of peace where they are.
I've wondered, what would it look like for this committee
to empower communities through investment in training and
resources, such as things like sustained dialogue and things
that we know that work when they're done consistently? I wonder
what would happen if we took the time to listen to the needs of
communities to make sure that they get what they need.
There's an African proverb that says: If you want to go
fast, you go alone. But if you want to go far, you must go
together. And I look forward to dialogue together with those of
us gathered of thinking and discussing ways that we can go
together toward peace and away from things such as H.
Thank you.
Ms. Moore. We do want to thank you so much. Partnership,
resources, and relationships.
Before we hear from our last, but not least, guest, I do
want to recognize Representative Fitzpatrick, and see if he has
any comments or remarks to make. Thank you for joining us.
HON. BRIAN FITZPATRICK, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY
AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Thank you, Madam Chair. No, I appreciate
the invitation to be here. Thank you for sharing your stories.
This is a very, very important, very timely discussion. As the
reverend indicated, the biggest threat that faces our country,
as challenging of propositions as we have with regard to health
care, and energy policy, and so many things we deal with, I
believe the biggest threat facing our Nation is the way that we
talk to each other. And that is in every facet of our lives.
The lack of civility, I think, is the biggest threat facing our
country. The existence of hate is the biggest threat facing our
country. So honored to be a part of this today.
Thank you.
Ms. Moore. Thank you. Are we having a--I--[laughter]--I
really want to introduce our last speaker, someone who appears
to be very, very young but she's worked for over a decade
across the United States. She's a senior fellow for religious
freedom at the Newseum's Freedom Forum Institute. She's been a
commissioner on D.C.--or, is a commissioner on D.C. Mayor
Muriel Bowser's Interfaith Council. She's worked at the U.S.
Department of State as a policy advisor and Franklin fellow.
She's worked for the city of Boston in the mayor's office
for immigrant advancement, holds a master's degree from Harvard
Divinity School in religion and politics. And we don't have
time for me to read all of her credentials, but we're happy to
welcome Usra Ghazi as an expert on this subject. And we are
going to yield to you now. And I see that you've already
collaborated with one of our panelists. So if we just sort of
move seats around here, we'll have this thing all solved by the
end of this hearing.
USRA GHAZI, DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND PROGRAMS, AMERICA
INDIVISIBLE
Ms. Ghazi. Sounds like a plan. Madam Chair, distinguished
members of the commission, thank you for inviting me to speak
today. The issue of hate crimes in the United States and
specifically those targeting religious minorities is one of
growing national concern. At America Indivisible, where I work,
we are primarily focused on the issue of racialized anti-Muslim
bigotry and the ways that it impacts communities who are
perceived to be Muslim, which may include Arab, black, Sikh,
and South Asian Americans. As a coalition-based organization,
we partner across communities to identify solutions that
strengthen relationships between bigotry-impacted communities
and their neighbors, and local government representatives.
One very critical way that religious actors are responding
to hate crimes and discrimination is to build more effective
ways to monitor and report on these events. Federal hate crime
statistics consistently underreport hate incidences for many
reasons, including a lack of standardized reporting processes
for all states and also due to strained relationships between
bigotry-impacted communities and law enforcement entities. In
my own conversations with Muslim, Arab, and Sikh communities
impacted by anti-Muslim vandalism, bias, and hate, many have
expressed a desire to keep their heads down rather than
reporting these events to law enforcement agencies.
Despite this challenge, Sikh, Muslim, Arab, South Asian,
and religious communities of color are increasingly
coordinating events themed ``Know Your Rights'' workshops and
meeting with law enforcement officials within their houses of
worship and community centers. Religious and civic leaders do
this work with great risk to their community reputations. Those
who choose to engage with such agencies risk being attacked for
cooperating with a government whose chief executive antagonizes
Muslims and other marginalized groups in his rhetoric and
policies.
And so this takes me to my second point, about the
proactive ways that religious actors are responding to hate.
Due especially to the rise of hate crimes and hate speech
against Muslim and Sikh Americans, these communities by
necessity have had to organize outreach efforts to humanize
themselves, while raising cultural and religious literacy among
their neighbors and government representatives. These range
from events themed ``Meet a Muslim'' or ``Wear a Turban Day,''
to working with media and entertainment industry officials
about misrepresentation of these groups in their media content,
in addition to working with social media companies.
These communities are also building their civic health,
getting more involved in elections, and running for office at
record rates. We now have Muslim and Sikh mayors of American
cities, as well as officials from these faiths in a range of
governmental positions. These efforts help to ensure that our
cities, counties and states are truly representative of the
rich diversity of American communities. At America Indivisible
we work with officials in city, state, and county-level
governments to help grow their cultural and religious literacy,
while building the civic health of bigotry-impacted
communities. Developing effective ways to track and report on
hate crimes is absolutely critical.
But it is also one step too late. Social science research
proves that when diverse communities have strong associational
ties, like working together on community projects, they are
much more resilient in times of conflict. Our hope for the
future is that more mayors, governors, and county officials
will recognize the many ways that religious actors are
contributing to civic health--to the civic health of their
neighborhoods. We would like to see more of these officials,
including you all, visiting their local mosques or temples. Our
communities have been shaping the social fabric of America as
small business owners and professionals, as educators, or
officers in the armed forces for decades and, in some cases,
generations. One sure-fire way to prevent hate and build
inclusion is to recognize these contributions and invest in
these communities' civic health.
Thank you.
Ms. Moore. Thank you. Thank you so very, very much.
We are going to now have a period of questions. And I will
defer to my colleagues here and allow them to ask questions
first. I don't--usually the chair asks questions first, but I'm
not going to do it that way. I'm going to yield now to my
colleague, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, because I don't
want to lose people and have them miss the opportunity to ask
you questions.
So, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, I'm going to yield
to you to question our distinguished panel at this time.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Let me thank you so very much. And let me,
with a brief commentary as I express my commitment to religious
liberty, let me either counter that or frame that in the
context of those who are the brunt of hate. They should have
the right to practice faith and individuals who are without
faith should be left to their own rights and privileges, and
not be brutalized, killed, in essence chased from their home,
that I've seen across the world. It is also quite obvious in
many of the conflicts around the world that it is conflicts on
the issue of religion. Sadly, people lose their lives in so
many brutal wars because of faith.
And Syria in particular now comes to mind in terms of the
faith of those who are supporting Assad versus those who are
not. And I would argue that we have to find a way for those of
us who are in this country and who pride ourselves or claim
faith as very much a part of our infrastructure to be more
aggressive, both in our commentary and in our assessment. I
would not like to say we go to war over religion, but there are
many suggestions that you all have given.
So I'd like to just start, from you, Radia, if you don't
mind me calling you that, and say specifically--and I am
grateful to be a member of the Helsinki Commission and because
of the wide breadth of issues, including religious freedoms but
also religious justice. What biding, main focal point we should
be advocating legislatively or as a commission to deal with the
scourge of religious violence and hatred? And I'll just take
that answer from every member of the panel.
Ms. Bakkouch. Thank you for this question. I would be very
concrete, simple, and short. Put more, more, more inclusion and
religious knowledge, and otherness knowledge in formal and
informal education. And also, force people to meet with
diversity. I think one of the biggest problems--like, one of
the top challenges is that when you never met someone that is
different from you, of course, when you meet them you can be
scared. Of course, when you hear all the violence in the media
or in the public sphere, you can be scared. And fear can lead
to ignorance. Well, there is ignorance. And fear can lead to
violence. So force diversity. Force the social mix. Force
people to meet. Force intercultural exchange. Force interfaith
exchange. Force people to meet from a state to another. And
that's also what I'm advocating in France.
Thank you.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Rabbi, as I yield to you, we well know
that what has been said, where people are raised up on hating
someone else, the different sects of Islam, for example, across
the huge Islamic community that has brother up against brother,
if you will, or children, girls, in Afghanistan not being able
to go to school because of a religious belief--but in any
event, your thoughts about how we can be more effective.
Thank you.
Rabbi Myers. Thank you, Representative. We cannot legislate
out the H-word. I don't think it's a function of law, because
we have plenty of laws on the books covering a vast range of
human behaviors. And as I think we can observe, our prisons are
filled with way too many people who don't belong there and our
prisons are punitive. I don't think they're impactful on human
behavior. For years in the United States we became familiar
with the acronym STEM education--science, technology,
engineering, and math. It then grew to STEAM education--
science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.
I submit to you that we should expand it to make it STREAM
education, the ``R'' meaning religion. We don't know our
neighbors. We need to see to it that children in all schools
across the United States, public and private, learn about their
neighbors, learn about the wealth and diversity that exists in
the United States. This is not about parental fear that their
children might be converted. This is about learning about their
neighbors to appreciate the wealth and diversity that is the
United States, because when you know your neighbor you're not
going to just simply tolerate, because tolerate I don't think
is sufficient anymore. You can respect and appreciate the
beauty of your neighbor. So I think we need to move toward
that.
I would submit the same thing for first year in college.
There are plenty of classes that colleges demand. I think this
same concept of religion is critical because one--again,
students, many, attend college for the first time and have
never met the diversity of the United States in the towns that
they come from, and the towns that they're raised. So they need
to be able to learn more about their neighbors. So I would
submit to you that we should find the same thing in colleges,
public and private, throughout the land.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you so very much.
Reverend Jenkins.
Rev. Jenkins. Thank you, Congresswoman. I appreciate the
question. And I appreciate your asking for the concrete ways. I
think--as my colleagues have been saying--I think they're best
said to be legislative and non-legislative solutions. The
legislative solutions, as my colleague Ms. Ghazi talked about,
when you look at the hate crimes that have been reported from
2015-2017, we've seen an increase every year in the number of
hate crimes that have taken place. Now, I don't actually know
if it's an increase in the hate crimes or it's an increase of
the awareness of hate crimes and people actually reporting
them. So I think there's some immediate short-term legislative
solutions that can be built in around things of that nature.
I think--I believe in the convening power of government. I
mean, this hearing is a testament to that, that where you sit
and where the commission sits, not only in America but also
amongst--practices shared amongst colleagues, the convening
power of bringing together people of different backgrounds and
the opportunity for them to provide not only testimony but
insight as to what works in their communities, what doesn't
work, and what the problems are. I think models like this
should be both researched and also brought to scale.
I know in my own community what has transformed me
personally has been that expanded exposure from a single-parent
household in an urban area into being able to come to places
where I've met people who were not like myself, but also the
space to learn more about myself. You said something that
caught my attention. We have those in our communities who are
ignorant, who have not been exposed. And their ignorance is not
active; it's passive. It's when it goes from active, to
passive, to being informed of hate, and hate crimes that we see
these things take place. And I wonder, again, if we're being
interrupters and disruptors in that chain, how do we even bring
in people who may be ignorant and unaware of what should take
place, and create a space for them?
So I really believe in the participation within the United
States of nonprofit organizations, and globally really engaging
non-governmental organizations. It's been said already that we
operate in silos. And I really believe the solution to many of
our problems, not only in our neighborhoods and in our states
but also in our world, can really come from the communities
from which those problems start.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you so very much and thank you for
your view. Before, Ms. Ghazi, I go to you, let me highlight, I
think, some positive aspects, chairwoman. And I'm going to
focus on the African American community, Reverend Jenkins. We
have mixed marriages. We have AMEs married to Baptists,
Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians. And I think I must
boast and brag--Seventh Day Adventists--I must boast and brag
on the African American community as members of the faith
community, that even though we live in America and would not
expect for us to rise up in violence against our neighbor who
may be a Presbyterian, but still their ability to sort of work
across faith lines I think is a powerful statement.
And I think possibly the State Department should find a way
to use these examples of different faith representatives just
working together. I think disasters are a perfect example when
people of faith come together, stand alongside of each other,
and stand alongside of Muslims, stand alongside of the people
in--of the Jewish faith, and everybody's lifting buckets
together. And just in ordinary circumstances in the African
American community, you're having meetings where we have
ministers with ministerial alliances. And they're in alliances
with people from different faith. I think that is a good
example that responds to a lot of what you've said. There needs
to be an example that it can happen.
Now, I know--and some of this hatred is so intense and so
different from our cultural history. But I think we can do some
examples. For example, when I've traveled internationally I've
seen the State Department have jazz artists to show cultural
music that we have. We should also have the ability to see how
different faiths work together. And I know that's not the only
answer, because some of this is extreme violence that we have
to address. And I think we need to address it with very firm
responses internationally, the United Nations, with penalties
for people who use religion to kill, to hurt, and to destroy.
But I just wanted to raise that.
Ms. Ghazi.
Ms. Ghazi. Yes. Thank you, Representative Jackson Lee, for
this question.
I would say that the top challenge to addressing hate in
U.S. society is leadership. We need public leaders and elected
officials to speak out against hate and build up a social norm
against hate. We have really lost ground in this effort due to
failures of leadership at the national level in the past 3
years. And then to reiterate, the issue of underreporting of
hate crimes is a serious issue.
Organizations including the Arab-American Institute have
conducted comprehensive reviews of policies that track and
monitor hate and found that the 2016 killing of Khalid Jabara
in Tulsa, Oklahoma--noted as a high-profile anti-Arab hate
crime--was not reflected in Federal data. Neither were a number
of 2017 attacks, including the killing of Heather Heyer during
the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, the killing of
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an Indian immigrant shot to death because
of his perceived national origin, and the bias-motivated
stabbing of two men in Portland, Oregon.
So my point here is that we cannot effectively challenge
hate if we don't have a clear understanding of how often,
where, and why it happens. And so very briefly, I want to
mention that last month Members of Congress introduced the
Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer National Opposition to Hate
Assault and Threats to Equality, or NO HATE, Act, and a
companion bill in the House was introduced. This bill proposes
funding for state hate crime hotlines, permitting judges to
mandate that perpetrators undergo community service or
education focused on the targeted communities, and support law
enforcement agencies' expansion of prevention, reporting, and
training programs.
This bill will support implementation and training for the
National Incident-Based Reporting Systems for law enforcement
agencies that are not yet using it, streamlining the reporting
process. So I want to just reiterate how important it is for us
to absolutely think critically about our--the legislation that
can help address hate in the United States.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Let me thank all the witnesses, Madam
Chair. And let me look to the NO HATE Act. And as well, work in
Judiciary on some additional focus on underreporting to
complement that legislation. And just hear from all of you that
our energy level, our advocacy, our work has to accelerate
because the hate crime--hate incidences, and I'm chagrin of
the--I deal with the FBI and others on a regular basis. And I'm
chagrin that the Oklahoma killing and Heather and others--
Heather Heyer and others--were not--were underreported or not
reported at all. So you have gotten our collective attention,
but also we know that we must be examples when we look
internationally as well, dealing with the question of hate and
religion.
But thank you so very much. Thank you to all the witnesses.
Madam Chair, I yield back. Thank you. Thank you for your
courtesy.
Ms. Moore. And thank you. Before I enter into my Q&A of the
witnesses, I just want to provide a little context for this
hearing, and not assuming that you all know a great deal about
the OSCE. The OSCE is 57 membership countries across Europe. It
includes the United States and Canada, the Holy See, Israel, as
observers. And across the OSCE region, since 2015, with an
influx of migrants and refugees, we have seen a tremendous rise
of hate crimes since 2015, and hate speech. This is racism in
the form of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-gypsyism,
Afrophobia, Christian-phobia. Nobody catches a break when it
comes to H--to the H phenomenon. The FBI's most recent H-crimes
statistics report more than 7,000
H crimes in the United States alone. And we have seen 13,000
H crimes in the OSCE region.
I lay these data out, Radia and Usra, as a ponder to this
question: When you talk about underreporting, although every
single one of the 57 OSCE countries--every single one of them
has adopted some sort of laws or language proscribing hate--it
is so hard to enforce it. One of the enforcement obstacles is,
for example, in France, where they don't allow you to gather
data on race. Perhaps--you know, and so it makes it very
difficult when there are laws that prohibit the wearing of the
hijab, for example, that--so when you talk, Radia, about
forcing people to engage with each other, when you talk about
breaking down silos and not having this communitarian approach,
how do you do that when you--when you have laws against people
wearing dress that makes them comfortable?
We have heard among young people that they dare not wear
these yarmulkes in public, or the star of David. And I would
imagine that would be the same thing in countries where people
would not display their Christian cross. How is the whole
``everybody is French'' culture--and you talked about this a
little bit--how does that work in terms of trying to engage
people with antiracist approach?
Ms. Bakkouch. Thank you very much for this question. It's
really, like, what is at the heart of a big debate in France.
First, on the question of the statistics and the numbers, it's
about the history of France, it's about the Second World War.
We cannot make numbers out of races, religion. Even, like,
erase the word ``race'' in the constitution. We were against it
in Coexister. And it's really difficult. In Coexister, we try
to find the balance between diversity and unity. We don't want
to be uniform in our--uniformized, and we don't want to be one
whole bunch of humans. We want to be recognized as particular
people with different and plural identities.
And I'm very concerned about all the laws against the--
against women wearing the hijab. It's a very--like, it's a
feminist problem also. And it's a problem against Muslims as
well. We just were fighting against an amendment that was
proposed by one part of the--of some parliament members, that
they wanted to forbid moms to wear the hijab when they
accompanied their children to school events. That was--that's a
very difficult question. That's a very complicated France that
we live in. But in Coexister, that's why we try to create a lot
of safe spaces where people can totally be themselves.
And we don't care about what you wear, what you--and what
you want to express. We want you to wear what you want to wear.
We want you to express the faith you have. We want you. But
with the goal of trying to build unity. We have to--like, our
common ground in Coexister is that we all are young people. And
we also--like, the other common ground here that we want to
build an inclusive, peaceful, and just society. But everything
else, we're really proud of our differences. And we're trying
to work with the government and with the Parliament so they
will not enforce more of this kind of law.
And as a last point, about laicite, which is, like, the
French word for secularism--laicite is really instrumentalized
because at the beginning in the law it's a beautiful
principle--it is. It's about freedom of speech, freedom of
consciousness, freedom of beliefs. It's about being all equal,
and it's about the state not to say anything or to criticize
anything about our faith. We defend laicite in this--our school
intervention, in our work every day. But there is this
misconception about the fact that laicite is here to erase
religions. But this is not the case. This is not what is in the
law today.
So that's where--because when we are invited then by
government or by Parliament, they say: What do you want as law
enforcement? We say, please do not change the law. That--we
want to defend it as it is in the text, as it is. And, like, in
the constitution they say that the French Republic is like--I
mean, is secular. And we want to defend it as it is in the law.
Thank you very much.
Ms. Moore. And so are there good data on hate crimes? There
couldn't be in France. You know, if you're--you know, you're
attacked because you're an African, you know, a black French
person, that just is not recorded anywhere. Is that----
Ms. Bakkouch. Well, we don't--like, it is not a law for a
state, like, for the national governmental statistic
institution to make this kind of data. But we--like, we have
the CNCDH [Commission Nationale Consultative des Droits de
L'homme]. It's the national commission for human rights that
report all the hate crime--all the H-word crimes in France
regarding faith, religion, race, and everything.
Ms. Moore. Oh, you do?
Ms. Bakkouch. Yes. We do have that. But it's an independent
administration. The thing is that the state, the government,
cannot do that kind of statistics because the thing is we,
like, we don't want--if we have the horrifying thing to have a
very extremist and violent party in power in France, we don't
want them to have our data on our ethnicity, race, religion. So
that's why it's separated.
Ms. Moore. So how do you deal with any kind of inequality?
I mean, if there are women--if there are people of color who
are not getting the same opportunities educationally, or
otherwise--those data are not collected either, right?
Ms. Bakkouch. No.
Ms. Moore. On discrimination? Okay--let me not just use all
the time here. I want to ask Usra, Ms. Ghazi, sort of the same
thing. You know, there is this notion that somehow the hijab is
a--is a source of oppression. You don't seem to be too
oppressed this morning. [Laughter.] But that women are wearing
it because men make them wear it. And that, I guess, the
assumption is that you could just take the hijab off and be as
comfortable. And I just want you to lean into how Muslim women
view the discrimination and prejudice about wearing hijab.
Ms. Ghazi. Thank you, Representative Moore, for this
question.
I don't know if there is one way to answer that question,
because of the great diversity within Muslim communities and
within Muslim women, and the variety of ways that they may
choose, and reasons why they may choose, to cover to a certain
extent or not.
In my own family, I grew up being the only--I have two
other sisters. And neither my sisters nor my mom growing up
covered their hair. I went through a spiritual awakening, if
you want to call it that, when I was in junior high and high
school. And from very early on dealt firsthand with the kinds
of prejudice and discrimination that women across the world
face when they are attacked based on how they appear, or their
decisions about how to clothe their own bodies.
And so I have a very specific perspective on this issue
based on my own lived experience that might not be the same as
my sisters' or my mother's experiences. That said, I think that
there has been increasingly a lot of--a lot more common ground
built across Muslim American women, and as a result of the work
of Muslim women-led institutions, not just in the United States
but all over the world. And so for anyone who's interested,
there are plenty of organizations out there now and inspiring
women who talk in interesting and meaningful ways about what
draws them to cover and dress the way that they do. And if
anyone's interested in a more artistic form of that, look up
the Hijabi Monologues. That is a performance designed after the
Vagina Monologues, but performed at, you know, campuses and in
communities across the world, that gets into those stories.
Ms. Moore. Thank you so much for sharing that.
Rabbi Myers, I was so inspired by your testimony. And the
trauma of being an actual survivor, and the ability to come and
continue to do your work, and to be a cantor, is just--your
resilience is just inspiring to all of us. And then your
resolve not to empower H in your own life is inspirational. I
can tell you that I have--that I am so glad--and I'm going tell
Senator Cardin when I next see him, about your testimony, where
you specifically ask us to look at that word, ``tolerance.'' He
is the Special Rapporteur for Anti-Semitism, Racism, and
Intolerance. And I literally, on the 5th of July, said: You
know what? We ought to swap out that word, ``tolerance,''
because that means putting up with something. It does not
really lend itself to where we're trying to head. And that is
respecting people for where they are and who they are.
And so I--you know, the big takeaway, for me, from your
testimony is really it's time to--if you think about what Ms.
Radia said--you know, we got to learn peace. We have to teach
it. It doesn't come automatically. And we can start by our
language. So I just want to thank you for that. And just--maybe
you can share just briefly with us how you sort of came to this
``aha'' moment about not empowering--about the importance of
words, and word choices.
Rabbi Myers. Thank you, Madam Chair.
As you were speaking I was thinking that perhaps we need,
like, a new theme song. And immediately came to mind, it's got
to be Aretha Franklin.
Ms. Moore. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Rabbi Myers. She's the one. She's the one.
Ms. Moore. [Laughs.]
Rabbi Myers. During those initial 2 weeks after having done
all of those funerals and unlimited numbers of press interviews
and so forth, most of what I was speaking at that time I didn't
really have a chance to write down. I think the combination of
just no time, no sleep, no quiet moment--it was just divine
inspiration. When the rally was called for, which was not even
2 weeks after October 27th--like November 5th or 6th, I think
it was--and I was invited to participate, I honestly had no
idea what I wanted to say.
And I'm standing there amidst all the other participants in
the tent just thinking: Okay, God, what do you want me to say?
Because as I would say literally every morning in my prayers,
the 121st Psalm, ``I lift my eyes to the heavens. Where does my
help come? My help comes from God, maker of heaven and Earth.''
Okay, God, what do you want me to say? Give me the right
direction. Give me the right words. Maybe I can figure out the
right order of it.
And some divine inspiration at that moment is, it was about
that word. There are many manifestations of the H-word, whether
it's violence in the Tree of Life or Mother Emanuel AME, or in
the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, or in Texas. That's one
manifestation. Beating up someone on the street because of
their sexual orientation is another manifestation. Putting a
noose in an African American worker's locker at his place of
employment is another manifestation. Painting swastikas is
another. There are so many.
Those are the actions. Actions don't just happen from a
vacuum. There's a source from the action. And for me, it's the
words. So imagine for a moment you have this beautiful lawn at
your home, and you see in the middle of the lawn this massive
weed. Most of us are just going to take the weed and grab the
top and give a yank. Inevitably, we get the greens. It's going
to grow back, because you just got the greens. Some of us give
it a yank, and maybe get half of it with root and you hear that
annoying snap and go, ah, I didn't get the whole thing. And it
continues to grow.
So we need to carefully excise that weed out. So the greens
are the manifestation. That root that's deep in there has to be
carefully taken out. To me, it's our words, our language. And
we just have to be more careful in our thoughts. And as I've
said many times before, so I can give a shout-out to my mother,
if you don't have nothing nice to say about someone, say
nothing. Such a simple American adage. Why can't we just return
to those simple times where think about what you're going to
say, and if you can't think of the right thing just don't say
it?
Ms. Moore. Well, thank you so much, Rabbi Myers. My brother
was a member of that temple probably before you came, in
Pittsburgh. And his son, my nephew, Jason McKinney [sp], he--
I'm going to make sure that you meet him, so that he can
practice being a cantor in your presence.
So the power of life and death is in the tongue. Thank you
so much for being here, Reverend. You were very inspirational
in your comments. And we want to thank you for your work too,
Reverend Jenkins. You say thoughts become things. Thoughts
become things. And you talked about the difference in
partnerships and relationships. And I just want you to sort of
expand on that a little bit, because I thought that was so
profound. That must be some sermon that you've given in the
pulpit.
Rev. Jenkins. Not yet.
Ms. Moore. Not yet, but it's going to be.
Rev. Jenkins. You know it is.
Ms. Moore. Partnerships versus relationships. Let's hear
it. Practice sermon.
Rev. Jenkins. Oh, practice sermon? Well--no. The--I really
believe in things that work on the micro level and then scaling
those to practice at the macro level. There's a group here
called the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.
It's a collection of 12 religions. It includes Muslim, Jewish,
Christian, Zoroastrianism. There were religions I was exposed
to I had never heard of before. And of the many things they do,
they do things around Dr. King's birthday, bringing together
multiple religions and those that are non-religious as well.
They also bring together folks and empower young people. The
Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, verses 9 through 12 talks
about the power of two versus one. And it closes in saying the
cord of three strands is not easily broken.
The way this has been explained in my life is that there
are elders, people we walk with, and young people we can pour
into. And when I think of partnership, I think of what are
those spaces that we intentionally create that brings together
those groups, that allows for meaningful interaction, that
allows for knowledge to be shared, that allows for comrades to
be made, and then allows for us to pour that into young people
who need to have that given to them? I think of that when I
think of my work in the Obama administration amongst the faith
community partnerships. A number of my colleagues, including
myself, created toolkits that were used and utilized for a
number of areas. I know Homeland Security created a toolkit
that was useful in terms of helping religious communities deal
with the real threat of security threats.
You know, we see the world as we like to see it, but we
also have to live in the world that we currently have, until it
becomes the world that we want it to be. The way it's said in
scripture, it says: Be as wise as a serpent, but as harmless as
a dove. So I think the power of partnership and relationship
means that I show up to places, whether they cook like me and
look like me, or they do not, right? And I also bring someone
with me, so that they can also get that expansion of their
thinking.
But the specific piece to that--I think that's critically
important--is that when we see something working, it's our
importance--it's our responsibility to take what's working,
whether it's multiple religions coming together, whether it's
informing houses of worship on how to protect themselves if
they ever face--God forbid--the things that we've seen happen.
Whether it's giving a training on how to engage the LGBTQ
community--there's an organization here called the National
Black Justice Coalition, led by a colleague and friend, Mr.
David Johns. He's testified before Congress when it's come to
children taking their lives because of being bullied because of
their sexual orientation.
Those issues go across religious lines. They go across race
lines. And I think that we know that they exist. And I think
for us, it's gathering folks together like this who can
pinpoint what are the things that are working? And then with
where you sit, Madam Chairwoman, how do we amplify those things
that work, and then get that information into the hands not
only across the country but, from where you sit, globally, they
can reach the world.
Ms. Moore. And I just want to ask one more question of Ms.
Ghazi before we conclude.
You talked a lot--you said just your--the tone of your
voice changed in answering a question.
You said, what would it take to eliminate the social norm
that we just have all this division and racial chaos. You
talked about leadership. And so I just want to--leadership on a
political level? On the civil society level? Where do you think
that this leadership ought to emanate? Who should have the
greatest responsibility for leading us?
Ms. Ghazi. Well, I am a local government nerd. And I feel
so incredibly lucky to be a woman that looks like me, that has
had opportunities to serve in local government--both in Boston
and now as a commissioner for Mayor Bowser's Interfaith
Council. And so I think that I have a lot of--I give a lot of
respect to local government officials who are often in the
field and working hand-in-hand with community organizations.
But there is a bit of a top-down--a need for top-down setting
the norm of what inclusion and countering hate should look like
in the United States.
And it pained me incredibly after the attack on the Muslim
community in Christchurch that there are officials in elected
office in the United States who refused to name Muslims as the
victims of the attack. And so I so appreciate the Rabbi's
comments about language. When we so dehumanize a community that
we are afraid to even name them in a tweet, or in a statement,
or an announcement, in even sharing our thoughts and prayers
after a tragedy like that, that pains me and that troubles me.
But I will say that if you want to identify some of the
leading trailblazers in building inclusion and countering hate
in American society when it comes to leadership, we ought to
look at the leaders at city, state, and county levels who are
doing incredible work setting the tone and being a model for
that.
And very briefly, I'll mention that in terms of local
government here in Washington, DC, last year Mayor Bowser
signed legislation to expand protections against clear displays
of hateful symbols. And so the Community Harassment Prevention
Emergency Amendment Act of 2018 makes it unlawful to display
symbols of hate, such as swastikas, nooses, a burning cross, on
public property or anybody else's property. Additionally, Mayor
Bowser formed the Interfaith Preparedness and Advisory Group,
which is a joint effort that brings together the Mayor's Office
of Religious Affairs--yes, our mayor has an office of religious
affairs; it's incredible--the Metropolitan Police Department,
and the District's Homeland Security and Emergency Management
Agency to facilitate collaboration with the District's faith-
based communities.
So there is a lot here in Washington, DC, and also in
cities and towns across the country our locally elected
officials are doing to counter hate. And I think it behooves
all of us to pay attention to their work.
Ms. Moore. Thank you so much. One really important
question. You just can't do this stuff without staff. And I'm
going to introduce them come heck or high water before we end
this hearing. But can you just all tell me how your initiatives
are funded? The good reverend did mention that you need
resources. I took note of that, that you know all these lofty--
--
Rev. Jenkins. That was the third point.
Ms. Moore. You know, you need ideals, and leadership, and--
but you need money too.
So can you share with us how you're funded? Just down the
line.
Ms. Bakkouch. So we have--we are 11 full-time staff in
Coexister. And we have a budget of near a million euros a year.
And we are--we have three parts on our budget--public, private,
and self funding. We have, like, less than 10 percent public
funds, but we are working very hard to work, again, to partner
with the state. We have a large part of private funding from
family foundations, companies foundations that are working with
us to, like, scale our impact. And we have also a self-funding
part. We are selling books and a lot of money comes back to us.
And we also sell consultancy trainings for companies. But as,
like, not funding by the foundation, but really doing work for
them. And it's--that's why we're also, like--we're a nonprofit,
but we also are a social business. And we--oh sorry, maybe
about the U.S.--the U.S. Embassy in France funded us on one
project, the Interfaith Tour. It's our international project.
Ms. Moore. Rabbi.
Rabbi Myers. Madam Chair, I'm in the unique position
because I'm the rabbi of a synagogue. That's my calling. So
there isn't, shall we say, outside funding that perhaps some of
the other NGOs might have in that regard. That doesn't exist.
Opportunities to speak around the country on these comparable
tropes, when they exist I go because these NGOs will bring me
in to speak. But me personally, I came here on my own dime.
Ms. Moore. Well, if they can get a plane ticket together
and a hotel room, you'll come and speak to people and inspire
them? That's good to know.
Reverend.
Rev. Jenkins. Thank you for the question. I in my day job
work at The Expectations Project. We're a national education
nonprofit. So that is private grants and the philanthropic
community. In my private life, whether the church I attend--you
talked about church ministries--the nonprofits that I'm a part
of, really we're very dependent upon individual giving and,
again, the philanthropic community that provides funding. And
then with things like this, so much like the Rabbi, is self
funded to make sure to be present to be a part of opportunities
such as this.
Ms. Ghazi. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
And I'm happy to share a few thoughts. I'm really glad that
you asked this. We at America Indivisible are 100 percent
funded by charitable contributions, primarily from individual
donors and small family foundations. And we greatly appreciate
this support. However, we want to and need to do more. Our
programs are scalable and could be implanted across the country
if only we had the resources to do that kind of work
nationally. And so we welcome the support from donors, and
anybody interested to support our work and learn more at
AmericaIndivisible.org.
I will say one last point, and that is we absolutely
encourage government agencies at all levels to invest in
funding opportunities that strengthen the civic health of all
Americans and promote inclusive policymaking. I do, however,
want to make a clear note that funneling these funds through
security-focused agencies inadvertently reinforces tropes about
our communities as security risks. So any such funding, if it
truly about inclusion, should not be coming from budgets tied
to security and policing.
Ms. Moore. Well, thank you so much.
We actually have one more speaker. And our speaker will be
joining us by way of video from Belgium. She wanted to be here,
but she's in Belgium. Alina Bricman is the elected president of
the European Union of Jewish Students, where she represents
over 160,000 young Jews in international organizations,
community--Jewish communities and other civil society
organizations. And so we welcome by video Alina Bricman.
ALINA BRICMAN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN UNION OF JEWISH STUDENTS
Ms. Bricman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and distinguished
committee members. It's an honor to speak before you today. My
name is Alina Bricman. I am the chair of the European Union of
Jewish Students, a 40-year-old umbrella organization of
national Jewish student unions across Europe. We operate in 35
countries and represent over 160,000 young Jews--about 10
percent of Europe's Jewish population.
We represent them to the European Union institutions, the
United Nations Human Rights Council, the OSCE Office of
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, other international
bodies, Jewish communities, civil societies, the youth sector,
and as of now the U.S. Congress. EUJS calls for religious
pluralism, recognizes the value of interfaith and intercultural
dialogue, and speaks the language of universalism--united in
our belief that Jewish rights are human rights and human rights
are Jewish rights.
On the 4th of July, as the United States was celebrating
its Independence Day, we were taking note of an important
milestone, the first ever EU-wide report on the perceptions and
experiences of young Jews in Europe, a report by the European
Commission and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, drawn up by
the Jewish Policy and Research Institute at our request. For
the first time, we had data to back up what we intuitively knew
and paint the sourced picture about who young Jews is Europe
really are.
The report showed troubling results. Forty-four percent of
young Jewish Europeans experience anti-Semitic harassment. So
almost one in two young Jews, which is 12 percent higher than
their elders. Eighty percent of young victims do not report
harassment. Forty-five percent of young Jewish Europeans choose
not to wear, carry, or display distinguishable Jewish items.
Forty-one percent have considered emigrating. And 85 percent
have been targets of anti-Israel bias. Also, only 17 percent
think governments are effective in their work to combat anti-
Semitism.
These numbers are worrying, and they represent broader
global trends. However, what we also got to see is the
passionate and engaged attitude these young people hold toward
the world. Eighty-one percent of the young Jewish Europeans
consider the strength of their Jewish identity to be high. They
also understand the issues faced by other communities and feel
a part of a bigger movement. Eighty-one percent believe racism
is a problem, and 74 percent perceive an increase specifically
in anti-Muslim hatred.
The task before us, and yourselves especially, is to
understand how to best mobilize this enormous social capital,
how to best help these 81 percent of young Jews, for instance,
who say their identity is strong, to make positive change in
society. So we propose three things. Number 1, invest in
education. From the highest levels of political decisionmaking,
a strong commitment to anti-racist education must come forward.
This also trickles down to ministries of education,
policymakers, university bodies, and eventually teachers and
students. Anti-bias training, a better understanding of
contributions of migrants to the social fabric, and a positive,
celebratory approach to diversity are key.
Number 2, support civil society initiatives. Civil society
is at the front of intercultural dialogue, bringing to life
original and constructive solutions. Funding, as well as
visibility and cross-party political support should be made
ready to them.
And finally, depoliticize anti-Semitism and depoliticize
racism. Engage responsibly in the public arena. Anti-Semitism,
racism, and extremism are not left or right issues; they show
their ugly reach across and outside of the political spectrum.
Anti-Semitism is a complex phenomenon, best described by the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition
and its examples. Governments should work to mainstream this
definition and align their discourse to it, without
instrumentalizing such important topics as the Israel and
Palestinian conflict, immigration, or Holocaust remembrance.
I can assure EUJS is ready to be a trustworthy partner in
the fight against intolerance, and there are so many amazing
civil society initiatives. We are ready to contribute our fair
share. We only need the political support to do it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and distinguished committee
members. It's an honor to speak----
Ms. Moore. Wow. Out of the mouths of babes.
Education against anti-racism, anti-Semitism, anti-bias.
Supporting civil society. You know, this is--this is a bottom-
up approach that is indispensable to our democracy, is enabling
funding, resourcing civil society. And depoliticizing racism
and anti-Semitism. It's not a Democrat or Republican
initiative.
I want to thank each and every one of you here for your
amazing testimony. I found it enlightening. And I want to thank
the staff of the Helsinki Commission for their always good
work.
First in recruiting this excellent panel, none of whom we
would have met personally without their pursuit of you. Want to
first thank Mr. Alex Johnson, who is chief of staff of the
Helsinki Commission staff. Thank you. Just wave. Just give a
shout-out, Alex Johnson. Dr. Mischa Thompson is one of our head
researchers. Ms. Nida--I'm sorry, a very elderly young woman
who just celebrated her, like, 23d birthday or something.
[Laughter.] Michelle Ngirbabul, who's over there by the door.
And Izmira Aitch, who's on my staff but leans very heavily into
the Helsinki process.
Thanks all of you again. I think our visitors are hanging
around for a couple of minutes if you just have a burning
question that you need to ask. Thank the videographers and
everyone who made this an excellent, excellent hearing. Look,
there's our photographer. [Laughter.]
Thank you so much. And with that, this hearing is
concluded. And also, before I hit this gavel, thank Mr.
Hastings once again for giving me the privilege of chairing
this event. [Sounds gavel.]
[Whereupon, at 12:57 p.m., the hearing ended.]
A P P E N D I X
=======================================================================
Prepared Statements
----------
Prepared Statement of Hon. Alcee L. Hastings, Chairman, Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe
Last month marked the four-year anniversary of the horrific
shooting that took nine lives at the Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Emanuel A.M.E. has played a key role in major periods of
American history, including the antebellum South and the civil
rights movement. Founded in 1816, the church has survived
tragedies spanning from arson attempts to a devastating
earthquake. Yet it was on June 17th during a Wednesday night
Bible study that changed the church, and our nation, forever.
Three years ago, 49 people were killed in my home state of
Florida at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, in what was at that
time the worst mass shooting in the history of our nation. So
many of us remain shaken by this horrific attack on the LGBTQ
community and that such violence has continued targeting
different communities and faiths.
Tragically in the last year, houses of worship in
Pittsburgh, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and in the San Diego area
became the sites of even more attacks, driven by outright
bigotry, hatred, and a lack of humanity. In the same vein, a
failed attempt to enter and attack a historically black church
led a perpetrator to shoot two African-American grocers at a
nearby store in Kentucky. Sadly, only ten days following that
attack, three black churches in Louisiana were lost to arson
harkening back to times in our recent history where black
churches were routinely targeted during our countries' civil
rights struggle.
In these moments of tragedy, we have seen how religious
leaders and civil society organizations such as interfaith
institutions can play an integral part in preventing violence
and healing their communities. We are honored to have Rabbi
Myers with us here today from the Tree of Life Congregation, a
vibrant Reform Jewish Synagogue.
As a leader in his community, Rabbi Myers took an oath to
act following the horror which took place in his sanctuary--an
oath to speak out not only for his own community, but also when
others were targeted. A day after the Christchurch mosque
attacks in New Zealand, Rabbi Myers' congregation raised
$45,000 to support the victims of the Christchurch attacks.
When asked why, his congregation said the following: ``We feel
compelled to come to the aid of those communities, just as our
Jewish community was so compassionately supported only a few
short months ago by people around the world of many faiths.''
When religious actors speak out to condemn violent acts,
their words can carry a wide-ranging and powerful impact. Their
actions are a testament to how interfaith partnerships can
benefit us all.
The protection of our social institutions including places
of worship from hate-motivated violence must be taken
seriously. Violent attacks targeting minority, ethnic, and
religious communities are spreading at a fast space, and we all
must take swift action to reverse these disturbing trends. No
one should fear expressing their constitutional right to
practice their faith in this country.
I have the honor of being Chairman of the Helsinki
Commission, a U.S. government agency created to ensure
countries throughout North America and Europe abide by the
human rights and other commitments agreed to more than four
decades ago enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act. While we have
made significant strides with these bedrock principles, much
work remains to be done.
At the Helsinki Commission, we express our resolve to
protect human rights at home and advance societies that are
safe, inclusive, and equitable. And we will continue to work
with the international community to ensure governments, law
enforcement, and all communities have the best resources
available to prevent and respond to hate crimes that target our
citizens no matter how they pray, look, love, or where they are
from.
It is for this reason that I have supported greater
cooperation between the U.S., European governments, and
multilateral organizations including the European Union and the
OSCE in developing joint initiatives to address prejudice and
discrimination in our societies. I am currently working with
Congressional appropriators and the State Department to see
that initiatives our Commission advocated for over a decade
ago, such as the OSCE's Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Unit,
are well-funded and able to address the concerns of all
vulnerable communities, from addressing anti-Semitism and anti-
Muslim bigotry to racism and xenophobia.
One effort, now in its eighth year supported by the State
Department and implemented by the German Marshall Fund called
the Transatlantic Inclusion Leaders Network has brought
together over 200 young elected and civil society leaders from
diverse communities to build the foundations for a shared
future whereby race, disability, gender, orientation, religion,
ethnicity, and other differences are valued. I am pleased that
some of our alumni recently joined the European Parliament, sit
in this very Congress, and occupy Ministerial and other
leadership positions across the OSCE region.
While these young elected leaders who represent the future
of our democracies are but one solution, I look forward to
hearing additional thoughts on what we, Members of Congress,
the OSCE, civil society, religious actors, and young people--
our future--can do to effectively respond to attempts to erode
peace and security in our societies.
Let us remain steadfast in ensuring and protecting the
human rights of all in our country and across the globe. I
welcome your testimony. Thank you.
Prepared Statement of Hon. Gwen Moore, Commissioner, Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe
At 10:25 am on August 5th, 2012, first responders were
alerted about a shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Next month we
will remember the lives of six Sikh worshippers murdered seven
years ago. Six bright lights snuffed out by the cowardice and
intolerance of hate-motivated violence. The Sikh and non-Sikh
Oak Creek community and the world were horrified to learn that
productive and loving members of their community were murdered
in their holy place, their inner sanctum, their designated
place to commune with God.
All of us have something to gain from those who look
differently, pray differently, and speak differently. We must
not wait until tragedy strikes to learn the value of mutual
respect. We must seize every opportunity to denounce hate-
motivated violence. In doing so, we protect the value of
freedom of expression. The freedom of expression is the
hallmark of democracy. To have one's voice heard is a hallmark
of human dignity and the very lifeblood of democracy. This is
why I count it an honor to serve as a commissioner of the U.S.
Helsinki Commission. The OSCE emboldens the democratic efforts
of those who stand for justice both at home and abroad.
I have spent my career advocating for policies, programs,
and services that prioritize tolerance and inclusion. I have
led my fellow members in protests here in the very halls of
Congress that have raised global awareness for victims of
terror. I have introduced resolutions to recognize the crisis
of intolerant violence against Native women. One of the most
prolific and influential religious actors of our time famously
said, ``Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do
that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.'' Let
us use this truth as we examine the role of religious actors in
responding to hate. Let us firmly use love and responsible
policy to develop policies that will save lives and protect our
most precious right to religious freedom.
I am most grateful and proud of the Wisconsinites I
represent in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. They are a shining example
of how to rebuild a community after a vicious and senseless
attack on a community. I want to thank all of the religious,
and faith-based leaders who have joined us today. I want to
thank them for the solidarity they show in coming here. I also
want to thank them for displaying the true strength it takes to
remain resilient in the face of hate.
Prepared Statement of Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, Ranking Member,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
In recent years there has been an unfortunate rise in hate
crimes not only in Europe but in the United States of America.
We have seen a rise in anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim acts, and
anti-migrant and anti-refugee sentiments. Addressing these
issues have been my priority as Special Representative on Anti-
Semitism, Racism, and Intolerance for the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly. As Senator, my priority legislation efforts have
always included civil rights and human rights.
Hate is unacceptable, and the safety of vulnerable
communities is of the utmost importance. We must underline the
importance of coalitions to ensure their protection because it
is not only the most vulnerable in our societies who are in
danger when we fail to act, but the very foundations of our
democracies. United, we are stronger. And when various
stakeholders come together, we can build capacity within
government and international institutions to effectively
counter the rise in hate.
There are many things we can do collectively to make a
difference, and a group we cannot do this without are our
religious actors and interfaith institutions. The witnesses in
this room today are on the frontlines of developing action
plans to combat hate in their communities. Radia Bakkouch,
President of Coexister, is with us today to offer her insights
and experience in this field. I had the honor of meeting Radia
and her colleagues in Paris in May. Radia's organization
promotes diversity, social cohesion, and active coexistence--
aimed at empowering minority communities and tackling
intolerance in France. I look forward to hearing her views on
how we can share information and best practices between civil
society organizations, government institutions, international
organizations, and of course, in Congress alongside our other
esteemed panelists.
Efforts in the U.S. Congress have focused on addressing
hate in our societies, and numerous legislative initiatives
have been introduced in the 116th Congress. I introduced a bill
in 2017 to ban religious, racial and discriminatory profiling
by law enforcement. I have also held hearings focused on
combating anti-Semitism and racism. In fact, last week at the
28th Annual Session on the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in
Luxembourg, I hosted a U.S. side event entitled ``Countering
Hate: Lessons from the Past, Leadership for the Future'' that
addressed the rise in hate-based incidents we have been
witnessing across the OSCE region and beyond.
We called for parliamentarians from across the 57 OSCE
participating States to adopt an action plan to counter bias
and discrimination and foster inclusion and discussed what we
are doing in our own countries to address the problem of hate
and intolerance. We heard from Dr. Rebecca Erbelding of the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, who emphasized that we must not
ignore early warning signs from the past which are rising to
the surface in the present. Sadly, we are past early warning
signs of hate-based incidents as evident from the recent
tragedies from Pittsburgh and Colombo to Christchurch.
The collaborative spirit I witnessed at the OSCE PA hearing
denotes our efforts to work together and tackle this
unacceptable problem. We have heard of successes from projects
like the OSCE's Words Into Action project to increase education
on anti-Semitism and coalition building against hate from
Michael Link, OSCE parliamentarian and former director of the
OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
(ODIHR), however, much remains to be done and a greater focus
on deeds rather than words and what actions are needed to
create a comprehensive effort between government institutions,
criminal justice systems, civil society actors, and
international organizations.
We are here today to hear from the witnesses in the room.
They understand the very foundations of our democracies are in
danger. I look forward to hearing their recommendations on how
we all can collectively change some of the disturbing trends we
are witnessing such as attacks on places of worship, to push
back on ugly ideologies and actions, and find concrete ways to
build safer communities who do not have to live in fear. I look
forward to hearing how we can all work together to ensure human
rights and civil rights for all.
Thank you.
Prepared Statement of Father James Martin, Editor at Large, America
Media
Thank you for inviting me to speak today. I regret that
some medical treatments prevent me from joining you in person.
But it's a great honor to be with you.
On June 12, 2016, 49 people at Pulse, a nightclub that
attracted a largely LGBT clientele in Orlando, Florida, were
shot and killed in what was at the time the largest mass
shooting in US history. In response, there was an outpouring of
love and support for the LGBT community from almost every
quarter in the country.
One notable exception was the Catholic Church, my own
church. While the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a
brief four-line statement, the words ``gay'' or ``LGBT'' were
absent from it. As a thought experiment, imagine if 49 people
from a particular ethnic group were massacred, and the name of
that ethnic group was omitted from public statements. Moreover,
in the wake of the U.S. Bishops' statement, only a handful of
individual Catholic bishops expressed any sympathy. The vast
majority said absolutely nothing. Even in death the LGBT
community remained invisible to much of the church.
The Catholic Church's difficulty in ministering to, and
even trying to understand, LGBT people has led to Catholic
magazines and websites that vilify them, priests who single
them out in homilies as the world's worst sinners, and even
statements from cardinals, archbishops and bishops overseas
siding with repressive anti-gay laws that provide for the
arrest and even execution of gay men and women.
Why bring this up? Because when it comes to the role that
religious actors and organizations can play in combating hate
crimes, the most effective thing they can do is to get their
own houses of worship in order.
Racism, sexism and homophobia still exist in many Christian
denominations, my own included. To turn to racism, we only need
recall the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s trenchant comment
that the most segregated hour of the week is 11 AM on a Sunday
morning.
Last year, an African-American friend of mine, a national
leader in the US Catholic community, told me a story. Recently,
he was attending a conference at a town far from his home. When
Sunday came, he searched for a Catholic church near his hotel
so that he could attend Mass. Happily, he located one, drove
there and entered the church. After my friend passed through
the church doors, a priest, seeing a large, dark-skinned man,
said to him, ``I'm sorry. You do know that this a Catholic
church, don't you?''
``Yes,'' said my friend. ``Do you know that this is a
Catholic church?''
The racism, sexism and homophobia still endemic in some
Christian churches lead to casually racist, sexist and
homophobic comments made from the pulpit, as well as overtly
racist, sexist and homophobic comments made in private. Both
give a silent blessing to more racism, sexism and homophobia
among parishioners. Just this month an influential far-right
Catholic website published an article that opposed even gay-
straight alliances in schools, as part of what they called
their ``war'' against ``LGBT propaganda.''
What does such tacit support for prejudice by church
leaders end up doing? It excuses hate. It fosters hate. It
blesses hate. And it unintentionally encourages the violence
that this hate leads to. And make no mistake: Some Catholics
who treat LGBT people with contempt think they are doing so
with the church's blessing. Thus, these people think they are
being prophetic. They don't see themselves as haters. They see
themselves as prophets. Because they feel the support of their
churches.
This is not to say that all or even most Christian churches
are places of racism, sexism or homophobia. By no means. Often
it is Christian groups that lead the fight against hatred.
Witness, obviously, the example of Rev. King in the civil
rights movement, a true prophet whose main impetus was an
overtly Christian one. In our own day, I'm proud that the
Catholic Church in this country has consistently stood up
against the vilification of refugees and migrants, perhaps the
newest victims of hatred.
But any actions or speech that mock, stigmatize, dehumanize
or otherwise target specific persons or groups of people is
completely opposed to the Christian worldview. Why? Because it
legitimizes seeing a person who is different as the ``other.''
And this is completely antithetical to the actions of the Jesus
whom we encounter in the Gospels. In fact, Jesus reached out
first and foremost to those who were seen as ``other'': women,
tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans, Roman centurions,
people who were sick, and on and on.
Jesus always brings those on the outside in. He brings the
outsider into his circle of friendship.
Because for Jesus there is no us and them. There is only
us.
So the most important thing that religious actors and
organizations can do to combat hate crimes is not only to fight
hatred on the outside, but on the inside as well. How? First,
by taking a clear look at how their organizations speak of, and
minister to, members of marginalized groups. Second, by
reaching out to these groups, specifically to make them feel
welcomed into what are, after all, their churches too. Finally,
by taking every opportunity to stand with them publicly, to
advocate for them, to fight for them, even at the risk of
losing some parishioners.
Overall, they must remind their own communities and the
world that for Jesus and therefore for all Christians, there is
no us and them. There is only us.
Prepared Statement of Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers, Tree of Life
Synagogue
Members of Congress, I thank you for the privilege of
testifying before you today. I am a victim, witness and
survivor of the worst attack in a synagogue in the history of
the United States, and the Jewish community has been present on
these shores since 1654. Since that fateful day of October 27,
2018, I, the congregants of Tree of Life (along with two other
congregations that shared our building--New Light and Dor
Hadash) and the city of Pittsburgh have been overwhelmed by
expressions of love from across the planet. People of all
faiths, colors and sexual orientation have enveloped us in a
vast global hug that continues unabated. Their message is very
clear: the acts of one person are not representative of all of
humanity. But alas, the acts of brutality and cruelty can
overwhelm us. And, when coupled with incessant anti-Semitic
words and dastardly deeds across the United States and around
the world, we are reminded almost daily that a pernicious,
ancient evil flourishes.
What most Americans don't know or appreciate is the warmth
and togetherness that is Pittsburgh. I can state this
objectively, as I too am an immigrant to Pittsburgh, having
spent most of my life in the New York and New Jersey area. I
live in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood, and the love and care from
people of all walks of life in my city post-October 27 were
typical prior to this date, only more intense afterwards.
Religious leaders of all faiths have reached out to me,
affording me a unique opportunity to get to know them and find
commonalities where we can work together to better our
community.
The metaphor of America as a melting pot is a beautiful
image, but sadly, it is not true. We do not know our neighbors.
We live in silos, with no bridges connecting them. Many choose
to live in their own private silos, not wanting ``others'' to
enter their silo. Some people just don't know how to build a
bridge. This is where religious leaders like me make a
difference: I'm a bridge builder. When the Muslim community
extended an olive branch to me, I responded by offering an
olive tree. The same goes for the Roman Catholic, various
Protestant denominations, the Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Baptist,
AME, and so many more that I apologize if I have omitted. We
have so much in common that we must work together. The modest
baby steps that we are taking will mature into adult steps,
hopefully yielding bushels of olives.
Opportunities to partner with local government, and the
police department, continue to grow as well. We can be the
nation's laboratory to model actions that may work throughout
the country, without me minimizing the efforts of those already
working to achieve these same goals. We--as clergy and
congregants--are striving to find ways beyond visiting each
other's worship services, to really getting to know our
neighbors, to consider their needs, and to determine how we can
work together to realize positive outcomes. Please know that
this was happening in Pittsburgh before October 27, but this
date--and the atrocity that it brought--created a new sense of
urgency. We must see to it that all children in all schools
throughout this country learn about their neighbors, and strive
to understand them, in an effort to appreciate their faith, not
merely tolerate them. We must provide the tools for all people
to honor and respect their neighbors, and right now, we as a
nation, are not being successful in doing this.
Just two weeks after October 27, the city of Pittsburgh
held a rally at Point State Park, and I was asked to speak. It
was here that I made a pledge not to use the word ``hate,''
which I will say here only once for demonstration purposes. The
H word, as I call it, is a four-letter word, an obscenity that
deserves to be in our mental waste baskets. If you truly must
say that you H something, just say that you don't like it. H
speech is a severe choice of words that often leads to violent
actions, as was the case in the Tree of Life shootings. When
you don't understand your neighbor, it can lead to mistrust,
fear, loathing and H speech, which ultimately leads you to
unconscionable and deadly actions.
Our nation right now is suffering an epidemic of uncivil
discourse. People cannot hold civil conversations with their
neighbors, be it in person or through social media. As our
elected leaders, I call you to task for this epidemic. When you
use H speech against one another, you model uncivil discourse
for all Americans. As our leaders, you are teaching us that it
is acceptable to behave this way, and it's simply not. Is it
any wonder that my fellow citizens speak in uncivil terms and
use H speech? You condone it and model it. It is time for a
different direction. The path towards civil discourse must
start with all of you, our elected leaders. When you model
civil discourse, you teach us appropriate ways to speak to one
another. This does not require any legislation on your part. It
requires you to think about the impact of your words, for as
the Jewish tradition teaches, the most powerful weapon a human
being possesses are words. They can wound or they can heal.
There is way too much wounding emanating out of Washington,
D.C. Whom among you will be brave enough to say to the American
people: ``I pledge that I will not use the H word. I call upon
my fellow legislators to do the same, to help restore civil
discourse in America?'' Our eyes and ears turn to you. What
will you do?
I thank you for your time and attention.
Prepared Statement of Radia Bakkouch, President, Coexister
I would like to thank Congressman Hastings, Senator Cardin,
the members of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe for inviting me to this hearing. My name is Radia
Bakkouch, I am 27 years old. I graduated from Sciences Po Paris
in International Relations. I have been president of Coexister,
the European interfaith youth movement, for four years. I am a
peace activist and a reflective practitioner and I am honored
to be here today.
In France, there is a complex relationship with otherness
and with understanding differences. While the overall trend
leans towards universalism and the uniformity of cultural
practices, spiritual and religious identity resists these
mechanisms of standardization, and symbolizes tabou, fear,
ignorance. Unfortunately, hate crimes motivated by religious
bias only come second in number, behind racially-motivated
crimes. For instance, in 2018, the number of antisemitic
attacks in France rose by 74%. In the past 10 years, like in
Montauban and Toulouse in 2012, in Paris and its northern
suburb in 2015, in a church in Saint Etienne de Rouvray in
2016, people were killed because of their religion and people
killed in the name of their religion.
If faith is at the heart of tensions, it can also be at the
heart of the solution. Coexister is a youth-led interfaith
organization gathering Jews, Christians, Muslims, Atheists,
Agnostics, Buddhists, from 15 to 35 years old and within our
organization, we believe in the concept of the ``faith for
good'' and in the practice of Interfaith cooperation. In 52
European cities, Coexister has offered to 10,000 young people
to experience interfaith diversity in a good way and has
tackled stereotypes of 120,000 students. We empower young
people and give them the skills, the opportunities and the
relationships they need to build peace and prevent any type of
violence and exclusion. We offer them safe spaces where they
can be fully themselves, with others who are completely
different from them, and tools so they can act together for
social justice, inclusion, mutual respect and peace.
What are our recommendations? Thousands of interfaith
initiatives and practices exist around the world. The United
Religions Initiative network alone already gathers more than
1,000 initiatives in 109 countries. Yet in order to maximise
their outreach and systemic impact they have to be State-
supported.
1. Defend pluralistic societies
We need to defend, protect and promote a pluralistic
society. Citizens can prevent hate against diversity if they
are able to face diversity in their daily life.
Multiculturalism and communitarianism are not the only ways to
apprehend diversity in society.
2. Support ``faith for good''
Faith is a specific part of the identity that is
substantial, chosen, and can be a source of bad and good.
Everyone has faith in something, it is not the prerogative of
religions only. Linking the spiritual resources to actions
toward peacebuilding and social justice strengthen the actions.
3. Practice interfaith cooperation
Faith for good is even stronger when it is used in
interfaith cooperation, by bringing people that deeply disagree
on their faith together. We need to acknowledge that
cooperating with people who are different requires time,
practice and willingness.
4. Come out of the communitarian struggles
It is important that not only Jewish people fight against
antisemitism, Muslim people fight against islamophobia, etc !
We need to acknowledge all type of hate crimes that target a
particular population, and engage everyone to feel concerned by
hate crimes.
5. Fight ``for'' rather than fight ``against''
Fighting ``against'' hate is important, but fighting
``for'' peace is vital. Our purpose should not only be to
diminish hate. It needs to tend towards an ideal model. Non
violence is a prerequisite but tolerance is not enough. We
defend a society where active coexistence is the method for
relationships.
6. Include other actors in the fight against hate
Religious actors can influence the response to hate but
citizens and young people are a great lever also. We usually
include young people when we talk about the future, but young
people are the citizens of today and they need to be implicated
today to face the challenges of our society.
Responding to hate by using faith and religious tools can
be efficient and lead to a lasting peace. In Coexister, our
founding intuition is that peace must be taught, experimented,
and a process of conscientization. We need to learn peace, not
learn how to make peace, because it would mean we can not
prevent the conflict, but learn and cherish actual peace. We
would like to make peace a major learning discipline in all
informal educational policies throughout the world.
Prepared Statement of Reverend Aaron Jenkins, Vice President of Policy
and Advocacy, The Expectations Project
Good Morning. My name is Aaron Jenkins and I am honored to
speak before you today for this important hearing entitled,
``Responding to Hate: The Role of Religious Actors.'' I am an
ordained Christian Minister and serve at New Solid Rock Church
Ministries in Landover Hills, MD. I am the Vice President of
Policy and Advocacy at The Expectations Project--an education
focused, non profit organization that is dedicated to engaging
faith actors to address issues of education inequities in
public school education throughout the United States.
I want to thank the Commission Members, my co-panelists and
those joining us in this chamber and electronically for today's
critically important discussion. What brought me to this space
was really work that began in my youth. As a high school junior
(many years ago) I joined an interfaith dialogue program for
African American and Jewish high school students that engaged
participants in a three part program of: Cultural and popular
education immersion, Experiential education and travel, and
Public speaking and facilitation skill set training.
The overall goal? A trained group of youth leaders focused
on working on the elimination of racism, anti-Semitism and all
forms of prejudice and discrimination. It was a multilevel
program that was initially founded by the late Congressman
William Gray and George Ross--the program is called Operation
Understanding. My participation in the Washington, DC version,
Operation Understanding DC (OUDC) fundamentally shifted my life
to seek to understand before being understood and expanded my
interest in the elimination of hate in its various forms.
I would later become a staff member for this organization,
which allowed me to spend seven years educating and training
young people to facilitate a similar shift in their lives and
thinking. This position allowed me the opportunity to come to
Capitol Hill for a gathering of Jewish and African American
Congressional members organized by Congressmember Hastings.
That event, similar to this hearing, provided my students with
a chance to address decisionmakers on lessons from this rich
experience to address the issue of combating hate in systemic
ways.
I have seen first hand the power of community engagement,
dialogue and the impact of programming and the participation of
faith actors to combat deeply entrenched societal ills. I
believe that faith communities serve an important role not only
in response to hate crimes but are positioned by responsibility
to their traditions and placement in the community to be
proactive instruments of action. I believe in the power of
faith communities to impact hate in three ways:
1. The power of partnership: In Washington, DC, I am a part of
a network of Christian clergy members called ``Peace Walks
DC.'' The group of clergy work in communities in Washington, DC
that have been impacted by gun violence, underinvestment and
other economic, political and social issues. Every Friday,
members of this group walk in neighborhoods in either Ward 7 or
Ward 8 to meet with community members and ask questions such
as, ``What do you need? What does your community need?'' and
``How can we pray for you?'' Participants include government
agencies, an anchor faith actor institution from that community
and volunteer congregations members from around Washington, DC.
Training occurs for all participants. The host? The Peace
Fellowship Church of Washington, DC, is based in Ward 7, one of
the communities that receives outreach. To combat hate crimes,
multi-level partnerships that are community focused must occur.
Partners across religious, non profit/non governmental,
governmental and trusted community voices, are critically
important to addressing hate crimes wherever they occur.
2. The power of relationship: I believe that ``The relational
is transformational.'' When the horrific shooting occurred at
the Tree of Life Synagogue, a service and rally were organized
by a local Jewish Congregation, Adas Israel. The rapid,
organized response of this gathering met a need of the
community to show support and to heal. The synagogue was packed
to capacity. Inside, the leadership of this tri-state area in
Washington, DC, congregants from various faith traditions and
visitors. Outside, hundreds more persons that could not enter.
As I entered the building, I saw my colleague and friend, Imam
Johari Abdul Malik. He was later asked to speak the outside
crowd and started his remarks by saying ``Peace'' in Arabic,
Hebrew, and English. How did he know to do that? This was not
his first time speaking to an interfaith crowd. He drew from
past experiences to connect. Any plan to address hate must
engage faith actors within their faith traditions and across
faith traditions in respectful and meaningful ways. We cannot
wait until the next hate crime happens. These relationships
should be cultivated and actively engaged for both reactive and
proactive use.
3. The power of investment, training and resources: ``We need
things for the kids to do. We need a new basketball court. We
need a new recreation center.'' These are a few of the
responses I received as I have worked with Peace Walks this
year as a facilitator and community engagement participant. How
did I know to ask these questions? Training. I both received
training and am a volunteer trainer. To respond to hate crimes,
faith leaders benefit from these three things: Training,
Investment and Resources. Communities in need, that have
experienced hate crimes and other atrocities, know what they
need. We must trust them and listen to them. We know that there
are many needs of communities where culprits of hate crimes
come from, communities where hate crimes occur and communities
where places of need in those community exist. If we are going
to be proactive in the dual work of disarming those that mean
to harm others and helping communities in need, we must go to
them, we must listen to them and we must act in them wherever
they exist. We must take time to listen to the needs shared and
the needs observed and we must take action to provide what is
needed.
I close with the words of someone whose name is often
invoked when discussing issues of human rights, the Reverend
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His last book was entitled, ``Where
Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?'' This is a fitting
question for our discussion today. May we move away from the
chaos of hate to the necessity of community action. Thank you.
Prepared Statement of Usra Ghazi, Director of Policy and Programs,
America Indivisible
Chairman Hastings, Co-Chairman Wicker, distinguished
Members of the Commission, thank you for inviting me to speak
today. The issue of hate crimes in the U.S., and specifically
those targeting religious minorities, is one of growing
national concern. At America Indivisible, we are primarily
focused on the issue of racialized anti-Muslim bigotry and the
ways that it impacts Muslim communities and those perceived to
be Muslim, which may include Arab, Black, Sikh, and South Asian
Americans. As a coalition-based organization, we partner across
communities to identify solutions that strengthen relationships
between bigotry-impacted communities and their neighbors and
local government representatives.
One very critical way that religious actors are responding
to hate crimes and discrimination is to build more effective
ways to monitor and report on these events. Federal hate crimes
statistics consistently under report hate crime incidents for
many reasons, including the lack of a standardized reporting
process for all states, and also due to strained relationships
between bigotry-impacted communities and law enforcement
entities. In my conversations with Muslim, Arab, and Sikh
communities impacted by anti-Muslim vandalism, bias, and hate,
many have expressed a desire to keep their heads down rather
than reporting these events to law enforcement agencies.
Despite this challenge, Sikh, Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and
religious communities of color are increasingly coordinating
``Know Your Rights'' workshops and meetings with law
enforcement officials within their houses of worship and
community centers. Religious and civic leaders do this work
with great risk to their community reputations. Those who
choose to engage with such agencies risk being attacked for
cooperating with a government whose chief executive antagonizes
Muslims and other minorities in his rhetoric and policies.
This takes me to my second point, about the proactive ways
that religious actors are responding to hate. Due to the rise
of hate crimes and hate speech against Muslim and Sikh
Americans, these communities by necessity have had to organize
outreach efforts to humanize themselves while raising cultural
and religious literacy among their neighbors and governments.
These range from ``Meet a Muslim'' or ``Wear a Turban'' days to
working with media and entertainment industry officials about
misrepresentation of these groups in their media content. These
communities are also building their civic health, getting more
involved in elections, and running for office at record rates.
We now have Muslim and Sikh mayors as well as officials from
these faiths in a range of other governmental positions. These
efforts help to ensure that our cities, counties, and states
are truly representative of the rich diversity of American
communities.
At America Indivisible, we work with officials in city,
state, and county-level government to help grow their cultural
and religious literacy, while building the civic health of
bigotry-impacted communities. Developing effective ways to
track and report on hate crimes is absolutely critical, but it
is also one step too late. Social science research proves that
when diverse communities have strong associational ties, like
working together on community projects, they are much more
resilient in times of conflict. Our hope for the future is that
more mayors, governors, and county officials will recognize the
many ways that religious actors are contributing to the civic
health of their neighborhoods. We would like to see more of
these officials visiting their local mosques or temples. Our
communities have been shaping the American social fabric as
small business owners and professionals, as educators or
officers in the armed forces for decades, and in some cases,
generations. One sure fire way to prevent hate and build
inclusion is to recognize these contributions and invest in
these communities' civic health.
Prepared Statement of Alina Bricman, President, European Union of
Jewish Students
Thank you Mr Chairman, distinguished Committee members. It
is an honor to appear before you today. My name is Alina
Bricman, I chair the European Union of Jewish Students, the 40
year old umbrella organization of national Jewish student
unions across Europe. We operate in 35 countries and represent
over 160,000 young Jews--10% of Europe's Jewish population. We
represent them to the European Union institutions, the UN Human
Rights Council, the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights, and other international bodies, Jewish
communities, civil society, the youth sector, and as of now--
the US Congress.
EUJS cultivates pluralism, recognizes the value of
interfaith and intercultural dialogue and speaks the language
of universalism, driven by a belief that Jewish rights are
Human rights and human rights are Jewish rights.
On the 4th of July, as the United States was celebrating
its Independence Day, we were taking note of an important
milestone: the first ever EU wide report on the perceptions and
experiences of antisemitism among young Jews--a report by the
European Commission and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, drawn
up by the Jewish Policy Research Institute at our request. For
the first time, we had data to back up what we intuitively knew
and to paint a sourced picture about who young Jews in Europe
are.
The report showed troubling results:
L44% of young Jewish Europeans experienced
antisemitic harassment--so almost 1 in 2 young Jews, which is
12% higher than their elders.
L80% of young victims do not report harassment to
the police or any other authority
L45% of young Jewish Europeans choose not to wear,
carry or display distinguishable Jewish items in public because
they are concerned about their safety
L41% have considered emigrating because they did
not feel safe living in Europe as a Jewish person
L85% are targets of anti-Israel bias
LAlso, only 17% think Governments are effective in
their work to combat antisemitism.
These numbers are worrying, and they represent a broader
global trend.
However, what we also got to see is the passionate and
engaged attitude these young people hold towards the world:
L81% of the young Jewish Europeans declared the
strength of their Jewish identity to be high;
LThey also understand the issues faced by other
communities and feel part of a global community: 81% of young
Jewish Europeans believe racism is a problem in their countries
and 74% perceive an increase specifically of anti-Muslim hatred
The task before us and you today is to understand how to
best mobilize this enormous social capital: how to best help
these 81% of young Jews, for instance, who say their identity
is strong to make positive change in our society.
THREE THINGS:
1. Invest in education: From the highest levels of
political decision making, a strong commitment to
antiracist education must come forward. This ought to
trickle down to ministries of education, policy makers,
university bodies and eventually teachers and students.
Anti-bias trainings, a better understanding of
contributions of minorities to the social fabric and a
positive, celebratory approach to diversity are key.
2. Support civil society initiatives: Civil society is
at the forefront of intercultural dialogue, bringing to
life original and constructive solutions. Funding as
well as visibility and cross-party political support
should be made ready to them.
3. Depoliticize antisemitism and racism and engage
responsibly in the public arena: antisemitism, racism
and extremism are not left or right issues, they show
their ugly reach across and outside of the political
spectrum. Antisemitism is a complex phenomenon, best
described by the International Holocaust Remembrance
Alliance working definition and its examples.
Governments should work to mainstream this definition
and align their discourse to it, without
instrumentalizing such important topics as the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict, immigration or Holocaust
remembrance.
I can assure you, EUJS is ready to be a trustworthy partner
in the fight against intolerance, as are so many amazing civil
society bodies and individuals: we are ready to contribute our
fair share--we only need the political will to support it.
[all]
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