“Under fire, imam defends role at Trump inaugural service”

For the record (and for what little my opinion matters), I fully support this imam’s decision to participate in an interfaith religious service connected with the 2017 presidential inauguration:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/20/politics/trump-imam-magid/index.html

I say this as someone who sorrowfully wishes that today’s solemnities and celebrations centered on a more worthy individual than Mr. Donald J. Trump, and as someone who (among many other concerns) is worried about the attitude of President Trump and some in his new administration toward Islam and Muslims.

Although I see little if anything in his past to indicate that he’ll be able to do it, I sincerely hope that President Trump will grow into the office that he’s now assumed.  Some of the things he’s said, and some of the people he’s appointed, give me reasons for cautious optimism.  To the extent that he governs as a limited-government constitutionalist and conservative, I’ll be satisfied.

More to the point:  I think that it would have been a gravely serious mistake on the the part of the American Muslim community if, invited to participate with other Americans in the festivities marking this peaceful transfer of power in our democratic republic, they had unanimously remained aloof, separate, and apart.  At a time when far too many American citizens harbor fear and anxiety about the presence of Muslims in our nation, refusing to join with representatives of other faiths on this occasion would have sent precisely the wrong message.