“On behalf of Greater Chicago Broadcast Ministries, I am deeply grateful for your compelling and authentic contribution to our CBS/Different Drummers program on Islamaphobia. Your leadership and vision are vital gifts to Chicago and the wider community! We look forward to continuing our work together in partnership for the common good,” emailed Lydia Talbot, Executive Director of Different Drummers, after CIOGC Executive Director, Ms. Tabassum Haleem, spoke on the show on Sunday, January 10, alongside Reverend Deborah Rundlett, Transitional Executive Presbyter from the Presbytery of Chicago.
The topic is definitely a pertinent one in our current climate and it reinforced the premise of the show. To them, a Different Drummer is someone who walks to his or her own beat – particularly a teen who is not afraid to go against the flow and live our his or her faith in the real world. With Islamophobes and hate rhetoric being amplified louder and louder, the backlash against American Muslims is by all means noticeable. Does living out the Muslim faith now require the resolve of the Different Drummer, the one who goes against the flow?
How do we tackle the fear perpetuated by hate crimes? How do Interfaith relations play a part in this constantly unfolding story? What about Professor Larycia Hawkins of Wheaton College? What about Syrian refugees?
See below to explore some answers and watch the fifteen minute segment.