Life in an interfaith society is rich, complicated

Well, that's embarrassing.

When seven religious leaders from Yemen, guests of the U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program, arrived at the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids Monday to talk about Muslim life in post-9/11 America, they found board-covered windows and doors.

Police say Eric Spencer, 19, of Swisher, admitted to breaking about $3,000 worth of glass at the center last week. Police said it wasn't a religiously motivated crime.

But though the glass was apparently broken in an act of idiocy, not hate, it still wasn't the best way to welcome the Yemenis to the neighborhood. Or maybe it was. They were here, after all, to learn what life is like in an interfaith community.

“They got a real sense of the fact that there is very real conflict sometimes,” Sharon Benzoni, executive director of the group's local hosts, the Council for International Visitors to Iowa Cities, told me Tuesday.

Then, too, there's this whole national uproar over the The American Society for Muslim Advancement's proposal to build a 13-story mosque and community center near the World Trade Center site in New York.

Although one of the non-profit group's main goals is to build interfaith collaboration and harmony, a few opponents have insisted on seeing the proposed house of worship as a gesture of disrespect or disregard.

Benzoni said the Yemeni leaders were sad and a little angry to hear that a few Americans persist in holding negative feelings about all Muslims, but were “heartened” to learn that it's a minority opinion.

She said they were impressed by the balance Iowa Muslims have achieved between staying strong in their faith and integrating into their communities. Which brings us back to the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids.

Police say Spencer turned himself in to them once he realized it was a house of worship that he'd damaged. He said he's got Muslim friends, that's why he came forward, Cedar Rapids police Sgt. Cristy Hamblin told me on Tuesday.

What's life like in an interfaith society? It's rich. It's complicated.

We're lucky enough to experience a diversity of ideas and beliefs that helps us grow in our own sense of the world; we sometimes step on each others' toes without intending to.

We learn in ways hard and easy that we don't always have to understand or agree, but we do have to respect one another.

Living in an interfaith community doesn't mean never making a mistake.

But it does mean admitting it when we do.

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