Understand religious beliefs of others, journalists told
By Dana Arellano
Diversity Institute Fellow
08.10.04
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Religion plays a central role in any community, but confusion about spiritual beliefs can lead to serious conflict, panelists said Friday at a discussion titled “God and Country: The Politics of Religion.”
Five panelists from a variety of backgrounds offered their experiences to illustrate why it is important for journalists to understand the spiritual beliefs of those they write about.
“We are criminalizing an entire religion, and it’s frightening,” Dalia Hashad said. She is an Arab, Muslim and South Asian advocate working for the American Civil Liberties Union. She said the U.S. government uses racial profiling to criminalize Arabs.
“The government uses ‘Arab’ and ‘Muslim’ interchangeably, when “most Arabs in the U.S. are Christians.
“The mark of a good journalist is going out and showing the other side of the story,” she said.
Other panelists were James Riding In, associate professor of Native American Studies at Arizona State University; David Cho, a general-assignment reporter for The Washington Post; Karen Lincoln Michel, freelance writer and former president of the Native American Journalists Association; and Lisa Cummins, a consultant to faith-based groups in urban settings across the country.
Riding In spoke about the disconnect between Native American beliefs about death and the government’s interest in taking possession of ancient Native American remains, calling the trend a “spiritual holocaust.”
“Our rights and our beliefs about the dead need to be respected,” he said. “We will continue to fight until all our ancestors are buried.”
Michel touched on the same theme, describing an assignment she had to interview the family of a dead boy from a Navajo reservation.
“In Navajo culture, after death there’s a certain amount of time before you can even say their name” she said. “We need to learn more about the people we cover, especially their religious beliefs.”
Cho offered advice to the audience about learning to juggle religion and objective reporting: “The best journalists, no matter what perspective they’re from, will put themselves in someone else’s shoes.”