Throughout 2018 – the bicentennial of Frederick Douglass – The Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University and the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives are honoring 200 individuals whose modern-day work best embodies Douglass’s enduring legacy of social change. Imam Omar Suleiman is one of our honorees. The Guardian is publishing the names of all 200 honorees – 10 each week – between now and November.

Here, Christopher Petrella, Director of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships at The Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, speaks to one of the honorees.

Imam Omar Suleiman is an American Muslim scholar and civil rights leader. Recently named one of the 25 most influential Muslims in America by CNN, he has risen to prominence nationally and internationally as a theologically driven spokesman and activist for human rights. He is the founder and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research.

Christopher Petrella (CP): Your life and work are oriented toward a particular faith tradition. What is the role your faith plays in the pursuit of social justice?

Omar Suleiman (OS): Social justice, in part, is about welcoming people to the table in the fullness of their own traditions. I believe one’s commitment to faith can be to the benefit of all of humanity.

We’re in the middle of a protest movement. The chaos politics of Donald Trump’s presidency has many of us fatigued and in “response mode” where it’s hard to develop and strategize around long-term direction. And now, more than ever, I believe faith can move society in the right direction.

Those of us committed to our faith and social justice are the clergy in the streets. We’re the clergy who will lead the protests, the clergy who will not shy away from challenging the status quo. We will take on polarizing issues because we understand that many political movements are led by people who themselves have been disenfranchised by religion.

We are not here to say religion is still relevant but rather that religion should be used to uplift the most oppressed in society and to raise voices that have sometimes been silenced by pulpits, particularly white Christian evangelicals on the right.

CP: Two years ago you founded the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. What does Yaqeen aspire to do and why must its work matter to the larger public?

OS: The Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research is a thinktank with a megaphone. We are a non-profit research initiative that focuses on strong Muslim American identity formation.

Though I never met him, I consider myself a student of Malcolm X. I think his most important contribution to the revolution is his idea that the greatest casualty of the subjugation of African Americans was the loss of black consciousness. That is, he argued that black people internalized the sorts of racism that were used against them and, for example, hated the texture of their hair or the color of their skin.

Similarly, in the era of heightened Islamophobia, Muslims are internalizing hatred of self. We’re being taught to hate ourselves and our religion. I argue that this is neither good for Islam nor for America.

Part of what we do at Yaqeen is to nourish the roots of young Muslim Americans so they that can navigate difficult conversations about their faith and identity as a result of the way they have been portrayed in media as well as in the agendas of fear-driven politics that target and scapegoat the Muslim community for the sake of giving rise to an ugly form of white nationalism.

Muslims need to feel that they can be both Muslim and American and so with this goal in mind we fight for a dignified existence.

CP: On 4 July 2018 you published a message on your Facebook page. In part, it reads: “Freedom cannot be invoked when we have the largest incarcerated population in the world, and children being locked up in cages. America is a work in progress, and the most patriotic Americans are those that demand it live up to its promise. I will not be speaking at or praying at any July 4th celebration this year. Not because I hate America, but because I want her to love all of her people.” Why did you choose to post this powerful message?

OS: I’m from New Orleans, Louisiana. I feel fully American. I love my country. At the same time, we often conflate patriotism with nationalism. A demand for loyalty is not the same as a demand to live up to your ideals. This is why Colin Kaepernick, for instance, faced the backlash he did.

I could not in good faith celebrate the Fourth of July after standing in front of an Ice detention center [in Texas] watching kids being separated from their families. I simply could not in good faith participate in the usual respectability politics the day demands.

Right now we’re witnessing an emergence of a certain radical form of white supremacy which deserves nothing less than a radical response. Some people saw my Facebook post as extreme, but I am extreme in my pursuit of justice. I am sick of celebrating what America is supposed to be before we’ve gotten there.

It is not un-American to critique America. It makes you patriotic when you want to make it better. I want America to be better because I love what this country is supposed to stand for. We’re a work in progress.

CP: When did you first learn about Frederick Douglass in your journey to political consciousness and how does his legacy influence your own work?

OS: Douglass understood that theology can be a source of liberation rather than a source of subjugation. As a theologian, I appreciate the honest conversations Douglass was willing to have about the way his faith was being hijacked to subjugate fellow black people and, more generally, how religion was being weaponized to oppress black people in this country.

And within the context of his own faith, Douglass basically said: “Listen, we gotta tell America how we feel.” He was not afraid of losing certain orders of support by being authentic to his people. He was truly a spokesperson for his people, not merely from his people.

Christopher Petrella, PhD, is the director of advocacy and strategic partnerships at the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. His forthcoming book is entitled, Crimes of this Guilty Land: Histories of White Supremacy in New England (Haymarket Books).