Upcoming Events

Once You Were Strangers: Immigration, Pluralism & Religious Difference

02-06-2020

The issue of immigration pervades our current political and public debate in the United States, with continuing policy conversations about border wall construction, family separation, refugee resettlement cuts, and more. Factors related to worldwide mass-migration are deep and complex (including economic inequality, geopolitical conflict, and ecological displacement), and raise vexing moral and political questions. What stance ought Christians and Muslims take toward the fear and antagonism that so often frames immigration as a “great challenge” to be confronted or “problem” to be solved? What are the conditions of possibility for, not only increased tolerance toward Muslim immigrants, but genuine encounter and mutual exchange with Islamic refugee and immigrant cultures? What religious and theological resources bear on this question from within both Christianity and Islam? 

In partnership with the UMN Muslim Student Association, the Al-Madinah Cultural Center, the Center for Public Justice, and The Veritas Forum, Anselm House is excited to host a public conversation between Dr. Shadi Hamid, Senior Fellow of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and Dr. Matthew Kaemingk, Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, moderated by Stephanie Summers, CEO at the Center for Public Justice. Hamid (a Muslim) and Kaemingk (a Christian) will discuss the nature of inter-religious encounter, and explore the challenges and opportunities that arise, specifically, as Muslims immigrate into Western, liberal democratic societies.