Faith Action Network Press Conference
Friday, December 11, 2015
Idris Mosque, Seattle

Father Ryan participated today in an interfaith press conference sponsored by the Faith Action Network. Many faith leaders gathered at Idris Mosque to speak out against Islamophobia. Father Ryan's talk at the event is below. Click here to read the interfaith statement.

It is a privilege as a religious leader in this community to join with other religious leaders from across the spectrum of the great religions of the world to express solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers in this community at a time when they and Muslims everywhere are being subjected to shameful expressions of hatred and hostility; at a time when a shocking and embarrassing number of people in this country – some of them in high places or who want to be in high places - are routinely referring to them as outsiders, and even treating them as enemies or potential threats to the public safety when in fact they are fellow American citizens, friends, and neighbors.
 
The desire of people for safety and security must never open the way for fear tactics. We’ve been down that road before.  Questioning the patriotism of people has its most notorious precedent in our treatment of Japanese American citizens after Pearl Harbor. A truly dark chapter in our history.   And religious bigotry expressed in ignorant, uninformed judgments about one of the world’s great religions and its faithful adherents is no less a sin.  We must never tolerate calling into question people who share the beliefs that so many of us share in the one God, merciful and all-powerful, the creator of us all.
 
All of us here stand in solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers now and in the days ahead, and we stand ready to do everything we can to assure them of safety and respect.  We also pledge ourselves to make use of our pulpits and our positions to awaken the consciences of our people to these matters and to help overcome prejudice and intolerance in all its many and ugly forms.

     Father Michael G. Ryan