Trialogue group writes open letter to president-elect
A faith-based alliance battling Islamophobia in the Cincinnati area has written an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump and will welcome additional signatories and endorsers.
The letter urges Trump to lead the effort toward being "inclusive of all Americans" and for "everyone to put negative rhetoric aside and for your to bring together a leadership team that can unite Americans. ... As our new president, you cannot be successful if any segment of our society feels disenfranchised by you or your administration.
Know as "The Bridges of Faith Trialogue," the group presented its letter Nov. 20, during a meet-and-greet at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati in West Chester Township. There, organizers said, 100 attendees signed the letter. Since then, the other groups have signed on to the letter as endorsers, joining the initial collection that consists of the Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier University, Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati.
Trialogue member Mike Hawkins proposed the letter and was joined in drafting the letter by three other Trialogue members: Sarah Weiss, James Buchanan and Zeinab Schwen.
The organization is seeking people to sign the letter. Interested people or organizations may sign on by sending an email to trialoguecincinnati@gmail.com.
Trialogue leaders are seeking signers and endorsements from around the country through Dec. 2. The group plans then to transmit the letter and list of supporters to the president-elect at his Trump Tower office in New York during the week of Dec. 5. Those deadlines may be extended if needed.
Bridges of Faith Trialogue also finished a community education piece under its "Getting to Know Our Muslim Neighbors" campaign. Trialogue leaders said they responded to several requests from the public for information on how to help people promote awareness and acceptable of Muslims and counter Islamophobia. It is a tip sheet titled "10 Things You Can Do." The tips include learning more about Islam by going to www.ing.org and encouraging people to report acts of harassment or intimidation of Muslims to CAIR Ohio at (513) 281-8200 or at www.cair.com. CAIR is the Council of American-Islamic Relations.
In the three days following Trump's election Nov. 8, the number of incidents of racial, ethnic and religious harassment around the country spiked but have since trended downward, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights law firm and advocacy group based in Montgomery, Alabama.
In the past week, racist posters were reported on the Oxford campus of Miami University.
In recent weeks, members or Trump's transition team and key advisors on immigration and national security have broached the subject of a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries.
A news release from December 2015, still posted on Trump's official website, states his call "for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." Trump's transition team recently said the president-elect "has never" advocated for a Muslim registry.
Still, Islamophobia remains a great concern to civil rights and Muslim-advocacy groups across the country, including in Cincinnati.
"Today's political climate is very unsettling, and our concerns about Islamophobia and intergroup conflict have only intensified since Nov. 8," leaders of the Bridges of Faith Trialogue wrote in a statement. "Let's hope the president-elect is quick to appreciate the mantle and scope of the presidency and that he hears the pleas from many quarters that he work to bring about a reconciled and unified America."
