Christians and book bans
Welcome to the 7th edition of North Carolina Religion Roundup: Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam's bid for U.S. Congress, the Christian roots of book bans and more.
Happy Monday! Thanks for reading the 7th edition of North Carolina Religion Roundup, a newsletter meant to highlight major religion news and trends in the Triangle and greater N.C. My name is Hannah. I’m an education and local government reporter at The Chatham News + Record in Chatham, N.C. and a M.Div. student at Duke Divinity School. (If you’re interested, you can read more about the newsletter and why I was inspired to start it here.)
This newsletter is coming to you just a bit behind schedule due to an unexpectedly hectic week of school/work — hence the biweekly(ish) note in my first newsletter — but I’m excited for the editions ahead and thankful to you for following along. As always, please reach out with any thoughts or feedback for anything you’d like to see me write about or include in upcoming editions.
Thanks for reading!
This week:
In Story to Follow, I take a look at what Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam — the first Muslim woman elected to office in N.C. who is now running for Congress — has shared about the relationship between her activism and her faith.
In Deep Dive, I briefly explore the Christian roots of American book bans, and the influence of Christians in current book challenges.
And In a Nutshell, I highlight some N.C. religion stories to keep an eye on.
Story to Follow: World Hijab Day and Muslim women in politics
Last Tuesday marked the 10th annual World Hijab Day, celebrated each year on Feb. 1 since it was founded by Bangladeshi American Nazma Khan in 2013 as a means of recognizing and honoring the many Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab.
In honor of World Hijab Day on Tuesday, the Muslim Student Association at N.C. State hosted a table on campus to invite fellow students to try out hijab for themselves, WUNC reported, and to work to correct common misconceptions about hijab.
“I think the biggest misconception is [that] you have to wear it, and it's to cover your hair, right?’” student Mariyah Modan told WUNC. “It’s not a piece of cloth. It's your whole lifestyle, the way you come off, the way you speak, the way you dress, act, everything.”
"One aspect of our identity is wearing hijab, but it opens up to like, how we found it and our religion and our own experiences," another student, Isra Siddiqui, said. "Especially as college students, I feel like college is like such an imperative time for people to discuss and learn."
Durham’s Nida Allam — the first Muslim woman elected to office in N.C., and who wears hijab — tweeted in honor of the day, accompanied with a picture of an old tweet by Yusor Abu-Salh, one of three Muslim students shot and killed by their Chapel Hill neighbor in 2015. Their murders drove Allam to politics.
“Hijab is my constant reminder that we aren’t living for this world,” Abu-Salh’s 2014 tweet reads. “Hope we ladies can reap the rewards of this daily test. #perseverance”
“My parents were afraid to let me wear hijab because being visibly different makes you a target,” Allam said. “For years now I have kept my friend Yusor’s words with me to remind me to be proud of my choice and my commitment. #WorldHijabDay”
Allam, a Democratic county commissioner in Durham, announced her run for Congress last November, for the seat currently held by longtime Rep. David Price — a Chapel Hill Democrat who is retiring at the end of his term in 2022. Since then, she’s been endorsed by U.S. Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, among other elected officials, organizations and community leaders. Notably, in 2019, Omar and Tlaib jointly became the first Muslim women elected to Congress.
Since then, both women have been the target of Islamophobia and far-right attacks, with fellow U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert even likening Omar to a suicide bomber.
Allam told the News & Observer in September she has experienced Islamophobia from Republicans and Democrats; after her election as commissioner, she received 15 voicemails from a Durham community member who asked about her birth certificate and repeatedly referred to Allam as “that Muslim woman.”
On a podcast episode of “Me & My Muslim Friends,” the second part of a series discussing Muslim women in politics, Allam spoke about being the first Muslim woman in the state’s elected office. She emphasized being taught by her family and her faith the importance of loving her neighbors.
“It’s definitely a huge weight to carry. It’s really exciting to be the first Muslim woman elected to office in North Carolina, but that’s something I definitely think about regularly,” she said. “…Even if I don’t believe I am a representation of every single Muslim in North Carolina — because we are our own individual people with our own thoughts and opinions — to people outside of our community, that’s what they view me as, and that’s what they view our other Muslim state legislators as.
“We are often tokenized — ‘Oh this is a Muslim elected official, they must represent all Muslims,’ which isn’t the case. But it’s still important for me to recognize that any action that I take that could have a negative impact on the Muslim community. … I am the first Muslim woman, but I do not want to be the last Muslim woman elected in North Carolina — and I don’t want any of my actions in elected office to close any doors for women behind me.”
The 2022 primary is currently scheduled for May 17 — after being delayed from March due to then-pending gerrymandering legislation. Attention should be paid to how Allam is covered and characterized as election coverage and campaigning increases, particularly given the history of media tropes regarding Muslims and Islamophobic rhetoric in political ads.
You can read my December Q&A with Yasmin Bendaas, who created and hosts “Me & My Muslim Friends,” to learn more about the podcast.
Deep Dive: Christians and book bans
America’s first formally banned book, by Thomas Morton, was banned in 1637 by the Plymouth Puritans (English protestant Christians in the 16th and 17th centuries) who did not appreciate the book’s criticism of Puritan customs and power structures. The practice of book banning spans back to efforts by the early Roman Catholic Church, in light of the Reformation, to prevent unauthorized readings among early Protestants and more radical Catholics.
In recent years, some fundamentalist Christians have called for Harry Potter books to be banned due to what they considered as glorifications of witchcraft and paganism; just last week Tennessee pastor Greg Locke took that sentiment further, hosting a book-burning event for books like "Harry Potter" and "Twilight," books he described as "demonic" material.”
Across the country, there’s been a recent spike in book bans and challenges — in school and public libraries alike — the majority of which target books about racism or sexuality, especially when the latter feature LGBTQ+ characters. The challenges also surround broader debates about what should be taught in schools in the first place.
In North Carolina, Republican lawmakers passed a bill last year ultimately vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper that would’ve limited how teachers could discuss race and history in the classroom. The introduction of the bill followed a larger statewide debate on how to teach history, including the passage of new social study standards last year in the state, and legislation proposed — some passed — across the country to ban the educational use of "The 1619 Project," Pulitzer-winning project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones as on ongoing initiative from The New York Times to explore the legacy and history of Black Americans and slavery.
Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is Christian, also created of a task force last March to collect complaints from parents, students and teachers in public schools statewide about classroom “indoctrination” — including things like the 1619 Project and critical race theory, that Robinson said teach people that “the systems of our Republic and the history of our great American experiment are shameful.”
Last October, Robinson led parent groups in characterizing several books with LGBTQ+ main characters as “obscene” material that should be removed from schools. Around the same time, Texas Republican Matt Krause created a list of 850 books containing material that "might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex," and asked the state’s schools to confirm if they had any of the books on the list. Krause is Christian, and his campaign website highlights his faith and church involvement as a Sunday school teacher. (The first word in his Twitter bio is “Christian,” and his header reads, “Faithful / Conservative / Fighter.”) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has recently challenged some LGBTQ+ books as “pornographic,” is also a Christian, and has given interviews about his faith and politics with conservative evangelical organization and lobbying group, “Focus on the Family.”
In North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Robinson repeatedly referenced his religious convictions in criticizing the LGBTQ+ books — including his belief that homosexuality, adultery, fornication and pornography are sinful. Robinson’s employment of conservative Christian values in his book challenges illustrate a more explicit use of family and religious values wielded by some Republicans promoting book bans. (To be clear, not all, or even most Christians are calling for book bans, but many Republican challengers do utilize conservative Christian rhetoric in their calls for book bans.) The last surge of book bans and challenges, many First Amendment scholars and historians have pointed out, was during the Civil Rights Movement, when book challengers also alluded to Christian values when criticizing the inclusion of premarital sex (or rape, as was the case with Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”) or feelings of bitterness toward white people in books.
In a Nutshell:
On the 62nd anniversary of The A&T Four’s Sit-In at Woolworth’s Lunch Counter, the North Carolina A&T Fellowship Gospel Choir performed in front of the Dudley Memorial Building in honor of the anniversary. The “mission of the Gospel Choir is to stimulate, promote and provide a socio-religious organization that embraces the love of gospel music,” the school’s website says.
Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, on reconciliation, healing and hope, from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Curry formerly served churches in N.C., and was elected bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina in 2000.
'We are all responsible' for fight against antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism: Winnipeg rabbi, from CBC. This piece features Durham’s Beth El Synagogue, and their invitation of Imam Abdullah Antepli, a local Muslim leader, to their Shabbat morning services following the Texas synagogue hostage situation. Antepli is an associate professor of the practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, holds an appointment at Duke's divinity school as associate professor of the practice of interfaith relations and was the university’s first Muslim chaplain and director of Center for Muslim Life from July 2008 to 2014.
Rabbi Fred Guttman: Don't punish, educate. Don't cancel, counsel, for the Greenboro News & Record
Jewish community striving to 'stay strong' after Texas synagogue terror, by ABC11 North Carolina. Rabbi Zalmy Dubinsky, the co-director of Chabad Young Professionals of Raleigh, said the incident was obviously frightening, but not the first. "We're doubling down - doubling down on our safety measures of course, but also doubling down in our conviction and commitment to stay vibrant and to stay strong," he said. "The response has been through the roof and the community is going to come together in a really strong way to sing, to pray, to eat of course, and to remind ourselves that the only way to fight darkness is to add more light.”
A recent New York Times column by Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest and award-winning author, was widely criticized on social media last week for its call to drop online worship services to prevent making worship a consumer experience. Two North Carolina authors wrote counter-pieces:
“Why My Church Isn’t Dropping Our Online Service,” by Raleigh Mennonite pastor Melissa Florer-Bixler, and “Quitting online church is abandoning the one for the 99,” by Raleigh disability activist Shannon Dingle both highlight the accessibility of an online-streaming option
From Christianity Today: Anti-Trafficking Ministries Now Fight QAnon Conspiracies Too (features a N.C. training event by Safe House Project, an anti-trafficking organization based in Virginia, where the CEO “recently spent 90 minutes after (the) event answering questions about why Safe House Project isn’t fighting the conspiracy theories attendees had read on the internet, like about US government operatives smuggling children.”)
And from the N&O: Looking to connect with a house of worship in the Triangle? Tips to get you started.
And if you’ve made it this far, here’s Dua Lipa interviewing Stephen Colbert last week regarding the relationship between his faith and comedy:
That's it for this week's edition of North Carolina Religion Roundup. Thanks for reading. Until next time. And in the meantime, I gladly welcome any tips, feedback or news you think I haven’t included but should in future editions. — Hannah