RNS asked some of the country’s top faith leaders, scholars and activists to consider what changes the religion landscape will see in 2018. Find all their predictions here.
Four years ago, I joined an email exchange that would begin the launch of Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MuslimARC). I tweeted out to hundreds to join a hashtag conversation #BeingBlackAndMuslim during Black History Month and, together, we started a movement discussing race and faith. Since co-founding MuslimARC to address intersections of systemic racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, I have come to work closely with faith-based organizations such as IMAN, Bend the Arc and PICO. Leaders such as William Barber II, Rami Nashashibi, Stosh Cotler, Kameelah Mu’min Rashad and Valarie Kaur have been taking their liberation theology to the streets.
They are just a few examples of faith leaders who will continue to rise to the forefront in 2018. Importantly, 2018 will be a time when more people of faith will come together to build collective power. 2018 will be a year where interfaith work will be about recalibrating our nation’s moral and ethical social agenda.
2018 will be the year that churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, Gurdwaras and sacred spaces will work together to protect the most vulnerable. I see more people of faith coming together motivated to heal the divides and ugliness not just in their societies, but in their neighborhoods. 2018 will be the year that faith-based organizing will no longer be an aberration. I see faith leaders reaching across the aisle, pushing back against the nativism, xenophobia and partisanship. 2018 will be more investment in faith-based organizing, moving policies, healing on a city-wide, county-wide, state-wide and national level. City councils, state representatives, and government officials will get more calls and visits from people in congregations.
You’ll hear more about the wins from alternative media outlets and social media. So while the big media outlets won’t cover multi-faith movement making, movement is happening.
Margari Aziza Hill is the co-founder and co-director of Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MuslimARC), a human rights education organization.