A discussion about neo-nationalism was held in Collinsville at Smith Memorial Methodist Church, featuring representatives from Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The panel discussed whether their religion should guide national values and how their faiths view the existence of people of different beliefs.
Imam Zaghad, Rev. Ryan Ware and Martha Woody discuss neo-nationalism and religious unity during an event in Collinsville.
Rev. Ryan Ware represented Christianity. He cited 1 Peter 2:11: “Dear friends, since you are immigrants and strangers in the world, I urge that you avoid worldly desires that wage war against your lives, live honorably among the unbelievers.”
“We run with this idea that you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,” Ware said. “God has established this, and then we ignore that you’re immigrants in the world. You’re not supposed to be one race, one people. This is a reminder that ensues.”
Ware said God’s promises to Israel remain, but Christians are called to love their neighbors, regardless of ethnicity. “Paul writes that there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” he said. “The labels of the world are not the labels God uses.”
“The idea is that we cannot condone ethno-nationalism,” Ware added. “We cannot uphold that one group is better than another. If we are in Jesus Christ, we are one—brothers and sisters, all one. No other labels matter.”
Imam Zaghad, representing Islam, noted many verses in the Quran begin with “O mankind,” addressing all humans, not just Muslims.
“The best in the eyes of God are the most pious, regardless of being Christian, Jew, Muslim, or otherwise,” he said. “We are all created from one—Adam.”
He said pride in family, community or country is natural, but feeling superior to others is wrong. “That’s where we get off the right path.”
Martha Woody represented Judaism. “In Genesis, it says every individual is created in the image of God,” she said, “reinforcing that we are all brothers and sisters.”
Woody acknowledged she was “a little scattered” after a late trip, but stressed unity. “There is no ‘we and they.’ There is just us. The sooner we figure that out, the better things will be for everybody.”
She addressed the “treacherous” situation in Israel, reading from the Israeli Declaration of Independence: “The state of Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants… It will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants, irrespective of religion, race or sex.”
“But I don’t think that is true right now,” Woody said. She criticized the phrase “from the river to the sea” as a call for Israel’s annihilation, calling it “a call to vengeance, not justice.”
She said peace has been elusive, noting that two Israeli leaders who made progress were assassinated by their own people. “If ethno-nationalism is bad for Jews as a minority, then it is equally problematic when Jews are the majority holding state power.”
