Ingrid Mattson, Professor of Islamic Studies and Director of the Muslim Chaplaincy at the Hartford Seminary, Conn., spoke to an audience of about 20 yesterday in Goddard Chapel.
Her presentation focused on the diversity of religious beliefs and the respect and freedom that they should be accorded under U.S. law.
Mattson's lecture focused on American Muslims and how they should not be restricted in their religious practices in order "to model a moderate Islamic community for the rest of the world."
Her first example dealt with a legal case from Mar. 2002 in which a woman named Sultaana Freeman sued the State of Florida for revoking her driver's license. Freeman wore a veil in the picture of her license and refused to have an unveiled picture taken.
While Mattson agreed with the court's ruling to uphold the decision by the Department of Motor Vehicles to revoke her license - saying that even strict interpretation of Islamic law allows the removal of the veil if required by the state for identification purposes - Mattson did not agree with the court testimony of a certain prominent Muslim academic.
Mattson refused to disclose the name of the academic.
The academic brought up the allowance in Islamic law for the removal of a veil, but he proceeded to make the point that Freeman was an adherent to a minority fundamentalist school of Islamic thought know as Salafi, and as such, her claim could not be a valid religious right.
Mattson said that this scholar "invoked his view of normative Islam ... to ridicule this woman." She said she found it encouraging that in the court's decision, Freeman's status as a minority within her religion was deemed immaterial and not considered a factor in the case's verdict.
In Mattson's opinion, the scholar used this opportunity for national exposure in order "to diminish the power and authority of Salafi Muslims" - something Mattson said she feels misses the point of what American Muslims should be striving for.
While her personal beliefs lean toward an inclusive and accepting interpretation of Islam that would encourage reaching out to other religions, Mattson acknowledged that it is the right of any American, "to create a non-moderate" religious community.
This is already the case for many Christian denominations, such as Evangelicals, who espouse conservative opinions about their religion.
"If we don't support people who don't fit in the norm, we are buying our own freedom at their expense," Mattson said.
The focal point of Mattson's talk was represented in the story of the Florida legal case. She said that the witness for the prosecution used examples from Islamic texts and contemporary behavior in fundamentalist countries such as Saudi Arabia, to support the assertion that Freeman's conviction was unreasonable.
"In the American context, these things are irrelevant," Mattson said. "Americans have the right to interpret all aspects of their religious belief in any way they choose, regardless of whether these interpretations are characterized as modern or fundamentalist."
Mattson also spoke about the role of chaplaincy and how this position is often an intersection of religion and law, such as the chaplain in a prison or the armed forces.
"[A chaplain's] primary duty is to accommodate the diverse religious beliefs of their constituency," Mattson said.
She gave some examples of how straying from this definition can cause significant problems, reinforcing the idea that government selection of chaplains must be done carefully.
A Sunni Muslim chaplain of a New York State prison took the position that Shi'ite Muslims - a global minority sect of Islam - are not true Muslims, creating unrest amongst the prisoners.
Mattson also told the story of an academic advisor to a student Muslim group at an American university who encouraged non-traditional forms of worship and labeled those who felt uncomfortable doing so as inflexible and fundamentalist.
According to Mattson, the most illustrative example of the role of a chaplain has been found within the U.S. military. After the Gulf War, many American soldiers began converting to Islam, necessitating the creation of an Islamic chaplaincy in the military. Since very few military personnel had the necessary qualifications, exemptions in the rules for chaplain education were made to fill the positions.
When Muslim prisoners from Afghanistan began to arrive at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, they requested appropriate head coverings for praying. The commander of the base at the time consulted the military chaplain assigned to the base as to whether this was a necessary tenet of Islam.
The Guantanamo chaplain said it was not, leading the commander to deny the request. This denial caused a prison riot ending only with the granting of the prisoners' request.
This chaplain interpreted the question from his own point of view rather than considering the religious views of the prisoners, Mattson said.
Mattson's lecture was sponsored by the James A. Russell Lecture Series - the oldest endowed lecture series at Tufts.
Mattson was the first woman to be asked to participate, joining past speakers such as Bishop Desmon Tutu.
