Voting is a ‘means by which we exercise our faith’

Voting is the “means by which we exercise our faith, how we change it with our hands,” a Muslim cleric told a Dallas interfaith group Oct. 23.

Muhammad Abdullah, an imam at Masjid Al-Islam in South Dallas, was one of five panelists at an event sponsored by Interfaith Alliance as part of its “The Vote Is Sacred” bus tour. The tour stopped Friday morning at Friendship-West Baptist Church in South Dallas.

Asked to explain why voting is sacred in each faith tradition, Abdullah said of Islam that the Prophet Muhammad said, “Any of you who sees an evil, let him or her stop it with their hand. For if they can’t stop it with their hand, then let them speak out against it. And if they’re not able to speak out against it, then let them hate it in their hearts, and that is the weakest of faith.”

Today, “a lot of us have relegated ourselves to the weakest level of faith,” he explained. “We’re not even brave enough to speak out against the evil we witnessed, let alone do something about it with our hands.”

He then quoted his Baptist minister grandfather, who often cited the New Testament book of James: “For as is the body dead without the Spirit, so is faith dead without words.”

He declared, “Voting is our means by which we exercise our faith, how we change it with our hands. We go out to the polls on Nov. 3 and we change this evil that we have been witnessing in Texas with our hands.”

Puja Maharaj, Executive Board president of the North Texas Hindu Mandir, said voting is a core value of Hinduism.

Danielle Ayers, minister of justice at Friendship-West Baptist Church, said, “The sacredness of the vote has everything to do with the sacredness of human life.”

In the Christian tradition, “The vote is sacred for us because the vote allows us to have a say in who represents us and gives us the opportunity to make sure we then hold them accountable for those policies that are important to us, that impact our lives every day.”

She cited the words of Jesus in Luke 4:18 — “The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to set prisoners free.”

Asked next to report on what they’re hearing in their faith communities in this election season, Ayers said people she talks to still believe change is possible. “They still hope there can be a better future if we make the right choice, if people don’t become complacent or stay complicit because not voting and not engaging is to be complicit with the evil that’s taking place.”

Brown added that she hears people fretting that the political process “doesn’t see them,” whether they’re on the right or the left. “It doesn’t see the struggle they have. It doesn’t see the way their communities are made up. It feels like the political process has left them. … There’s a whole bunch of people in the middle who feel abandoned, that they’re not seen.”

That presents an opportunity for faith leaders “to invite people to understand that you do have a voice, you do have a say, whether it’s through your vote, whether it’s through your advocacy, whether it’s through your involvement, that you do have a way to make a difference,” she said.

Abdullah quoted W.E.B. Du Bois, who spoke about a double consciousness: “How can a human being feel empowered to act within a society that has oppressed them? And I think right now a lot of Muslims have a double consciousness. Can we be American and Muslim? Is there room for us in this democracy?”

As an African American Muslim, he wonders, “Can we participate in a society that has demonized us, that has weaponized religion against us? Can we hold fidelity to the Constitution and still be true to our faith? Can I be a Muslim American and participate in this democracy?”

One fact lost in the current assault on immigrants and on Muslims in America, he said, is that 25% of Muslims in America are African American. “Muhammad Ali was an American hero. He was a Muslim. Malcolm X, Dave Chappelle is a Muslim. They don’t focus on those voices because they want to demonize their religion with immigration. Those two things have become intertwined for them.”

Singh noted the work of Opal Lee in nearby Fort Worth to celebrate Juneteenth, the day slaves in Texas belatedly learned about the Emancipation Proclamation.

“Laws are only applicable if they’re enforced,” he said. “A law is only something that is written on a piece of paper … if it’s not enforced. And we see that because the Emancipation Proclamation from Abraham Lincoln is given. But many, many years later are those slaves in Galveston notified that they have been freed because enforcement took place.”

His forbears in the Sikh community “escaped the genocide in Southeast Asia and came to the United States seeking better shores,” he said. “And if we don’t get active, if we don’t implement our community to engage in the voting process, then we are doing a disservice to those who came before us because they fought, they spilled their blood, they had dogs put on them. They sacrificed themselves.”s

Especially for minority populations, voting is a way to be seen, he said. Sikhs often are very visible because they wear turbans, but they will be invisible if they don’t show up for democracy. “You will be invisible even though you are visible.”