Last night I attended my first meeting of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Central Ohio Chapter. The guest speaker was Romin Iqbal, a civil rights coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He’s also an attorney practicing in Ohio, and works primarily in the area of religious discrimination in the workplace, and other issues which affect civil rights of Muslims and other minorities.
I would like to highlight this event for two reasons. First, I tend to think it is a good idea to increase our understanding of different groups whenever possible. Secondly, I believe it is imporant, especially in Ohio in a year when Ken Blackwell is running for governor, to increase public awareness of the existence of groups that promote the separation of church and state.
I’m still working on my transcription, but I have part 1 and part 2 up. What I’ve posted so far addresses voting trends among Muslims, attitudes on political issues, and attitudes toward Muslims by different groups. The speaker addressed some of anti-Muslim rhetoric commonly heard from well-known Evangelicals, and also how White Evangelicals have similar attitudes on some “values” issues, but are very different on others.