The Politics of Vulnerability: How to Heal Muslim-Christian Relations in a Post-Christian America

Asma T. Uddin

Hardback, 336 pages

9781643136622

In The Politics of Vulnerability, Asma Uddin, American-Muslim public intellectual, religious-liberties attorney, and activist, provides a unique perspective on the complex political and social factors contributing to the Muslim-Christian divide. Unlike other analysts, Uddin asks what underlying drivers cause otherwise good people to do or believe bad things? Why do people who value faith support measures that limit others, especially those of Muslims, religious freedom and other rights? Uddin humanizes a contentious relationship by fully embracing both sides as individuals driven by very human fears and anxieties. Many conservative Christians fear that the Left is dismantling traditional 'Christian America' to replace it with an Islamized America, a conspiratorial theory that has given rise to an 'evangelical persecution complex,' a politicized vulnerability.

Uddin reveals that Islamophobia and other aspects of the conservative Christian movement are interconnected. Where does hate come from and how can it be conquered? Only by addressing the underlying factors of this politics of vulnerability can we begin to heal the divide.