“I am seen as a poison for no other reason but that I choose to practice the faith that I do”

Several weeks ago, we had a joint Clergy Convocation in the Diocese of Brooklyn, with the theme focusing on the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate. One of the speakers was Imam Khalid Latif, who may be familiar to many Americans as the Imam who sat next to Pope Francis during the interfaith ceremony at Ground Zero.

He was a compelling and persuasive speaker — and he has quickly become one of the voices calling for prudence and a measure of sanity in an environment that is increasingly insane.

This morning, he was one of the speakers at a press conference at City Hall in Manhattan, responding to the recent comments by Donald Trump.

The full text of his remarks, posted on his Facebook page, is reprinted below:

The disparaging comments that Donald Trump has made over the course of his campaign against minorities of all kinds — including Muslims, Latinos, African Americans, women, those with special needs — are but symptoms of a deeper and ever-growing bigotry that our nation must confront. It is hard to tell whether the news we are reading is new news or the same from a previous day. Every day seems to bring news of mass shootings, more displaced hate on minorities, and extreme voices from the Republican party being bigoted and silent when strategic for their campaigns. It is Ben Carson who said that he would never let a Muslim into his cabinet and that a Muslim could never be president, Marc Rubio who said he would be open to shutting down mosques and Ted Cruz who said only those refugees fleeing ISIS who could prove they are Christian should be taken into our country. And as these voices speak unchecked we see a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment that is arguably worse than even the backlash experienced immediately after September 11. They give rise and justify to those who in the recent weeks have burned down and vandalized mosques all over this country. Who have pushed women wearing headscarves on to train tracks, shot cab drivers, and even in our own city validated for three young men their beating of a 6th grade Muslim girl in Harlem. As they punched her, beat her, tried to rip the scarf off her head, they called her ISIS over and over. That is not okay. We have to be better than that.

I am a Muslim. I work as the university chaplain for New York University. I serve as a chaplain for the New York City police department and am given the rank of inspector. I have traveled on behalf of the State Department, met with the heads of homeland security, shared stages with the likes of Pope Francis and the Dalai lama. I am still one of the many Muslims in this country who have been detained, profiled and surveilled. My home has been visited by the FBI on numerous occasions where I have been told that I am being watched because I am too good to be true. As much as I am seen as antidote, I am first still seen as a poison for no other reason that I choose to practice the faith that I do. That is not okay. But I still stand in front of you believing that we can and will be better.

We as a nation have a choice to make. At a time when we are still debating whether Black Lives Matter or not, candidates for the highest office of our land are making statements that are indicated they speak for and to only a select group of Americans. We can no longer let our perspectives of each other be fueled through a media machine that seeks to sensationalize and bombard readers and viewers with narrative that serves to only segment and antagonize even further. The amplification of extreme voices has to be drowned out by our coming together. The ignorance of ISIS or the Republican right can no longer be the basis of how we function in diverse societies. We must learn the reality of struggles faced by those around us by actually being with them, as opposed to simply through the biased images that are cast in front of us every day. We do not have to be women to stand up for women’s rights, black to stand up for black rights, or Muslim to stand up for Muslim rights. If you see something, say something has to mean something different to us today. If you see bigotry, say something. If you see hatred, say something. If you see racism, say something. You and I have to be the change that this world needs. We can’t adopt a bitterness or passivity that lets people who have no interest other than their own self-interest succeed. We cannot lose hope — tomorrow will be better than today so long as you do our part. Our coming together of today is only meaningful if we continue to come together tomorrow. We are one NYC. Let us be the reason that people have continued hope in this world, and never the reason people dread it.

You can read more about Latif here.