In the Unintended Consequences Department, banning Muslim immigrants could make Islamic radicalization worse in the United States by exacerbating a shortage of qualified religious leaders for American mosques:
[San Diego mosque president Abu Marwan] worries that some mosque members, with no imam to guide them, could soon turn elsewhere for direction, with possibly radical consequences. Imams serve as prayer leaders at their mosques, but they also act as religious guides and community leaders. Young people, Marwan says, “have no good place to go without an imam. They go to the internet or Google and they can end up somewhere very bad. A good imam is the best answer to any evil thing.”
A shortage of imams is not a new challenge for America’s mushrooming Muslim population: More than half of the country’s estimated 2,500 mosques lack a full time imam. But the people trying to fill those slots say that Trump’s efforts to impose an immigration ban on Muslim-majority nations together with rising incidents of Islamophobia have worsened the deficit. It’s the kind of problem that members of the Muslim community as well as terrorism experts warn could contribute to a rise in extremism. “A strong leader who provides a sense of structure and what is right and wrong offers certainty,” says Sarah Lyons-Padilla, a researcher at Stanford University who studies terrorists’ motivations. “So when you remove leaders, like an imam, then you’re basically introducing more uncertainty into an already troubled domain” [Sally H. Jacobs, “America Is Running out of Muslim Clerics. That’s Dangerous,” Politico, 2017.11.26].
I adhere to no religion. I don’t stand in the way of those who want to adhere to a religion. But as the husband of a Lutheran pastor, I have a keen appreciation of the importance of rigorous, scholarly training for leaders within any religion. I don’t want the believers around me following whatever charismatic demagogue or prooftexting crank may get their attention by waving a Bible or Qu’ran on a street corner and extemporizing claims about what God or Allah wants. I depend on thinkers as devoted to reason and study as they are to their Divinities, strong intellectuals who can stand up to passionate congregants whose anger, fear, or frustration may lead them to misread their Good Books and mistake sin for good. Preventing error, radicalization, and political co-optation of a congregation requires that a pastor, imam, or other leader know the Scriptures, the historical context, and the subsequent analyses and arguments of generations of theologians better than any new radicalizers or false prophets.
Skip seminary, and you get pastors preaching dangerous pagan worldviews. Policies that make it harder for American mosques to get qualified imams increase the chances that American Muslims will suffer from bad preaching, and bad preaching leads to bad results for all believers and their neighbors.
Related Reading: Donald Trump grew up going to Norman Vincent Peale’s church. Peale went to seminary, but he is known for preaching more what people wanted to hear than what the Bible actually says. Theologian Stanley Hauerwas summarizes the Peale/Trump perversion of Christianity:
Trump identifies as a Presbyterian. However, he has said he does not need a prayer for confession of sins because he has done nothing that requires forgiveness, one signal that he does not believe in a basic Christian tenet. He has identified with Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote the book “The Power of Positive Thinking,” which does not represent Christian orthodoxy. Christianity in Peale’s hands was closer to a set of beliefs a follower could make up to suit their desires. Trump has adopted this strategy and applied it to the country [Stanley Hauerwas, “Christians, Don’t Be Fooled: Trump Has Deep Religious Convictions,” Washington Post, 2017.01.27].
It’s one thing to have deep religious convictions. It’s another to have convictions that reflect the religion one claims to follow.
Cheeto Jesus is a false profit.
[San Diego mosque president Abu Marwan] worries that some mosque members, with no imam to guide them, could soon turn elsewhere for direction, with possibly radical consequences.
Change a word or phrase here and there and you could be talking about almighty whitey wingnuts. Their leadership has failed for decades and now they are turning to skinheads and white supremacists for their religion. But, but….these whiteys ain’t darkies so we have nothing to fear from them.
Religion is a crutch for the weak minded. Hobble along now.
Interesting problem. Hadn’t thought about a lack of leaders such as Imams. Many Christian denominations have been struggling for decades to fill their pulpits. and It shows in the distorted messages that are being preached and slavishly adhered to by individuals that who are afraid of everyone who is even slightly different from themselves. Lack of knowledge and understanding of others leads to suspicion followed by fear that becomes hatred! We all need good leadership from our religious, educational and governmental leaders to preserve our democracy and freedoms for the generations yet to come!