What happens when people with differing religious views sit down for a conversation?
Fatima Saied is Executive Director of the Muslim Women’s Organization. She sat down with Robert Jackson, executive pastor of Orlando Grace Church for a guided conversation as part of StoryCorps and Central Florida Public Media’s One Small Step initiative.
“I'm usually in a little bit of a bubble, so I like to just get to know people that are a little bit different,” Saied said.
Meet Robert Jackson
Robert Jackson has lived all across the U.S.: Mississippi, Minnesota, Washington state, Colorado, Missouri, and Florida.
He’s got two children: a four-year-old and a five-year-old.
He originally started going to bible college, but dropped out because he couldn’t afford tuition. He worked in construction and project management before becoming the pastor at Orlando Grace Church.
“So it’s been a little bit of a trip, but yeah, so I'm grateful for God's providence,” Jackson said. “It's actually ended up being a really helpful path, because everything that I've had to do in construction and project management has been really informative for the types of work that I have to do with our church now.”
Meet Fatima Saied
Fatima Saied is the cofounder and executive director of the Muslim Women’s Organization.
Her father moved to South Florida from Pakistan in the 1970s. She said growing up, her parents helped to create Muslim organizations for immigrants in the area.
She’s a Sunni Muslim, and grew up following the Hanafi school of thought.
“So we grew up very Sufis-Sunni, so there was a lot of singing in my home,” Saied said. “It's not that traditional, very serious and strict kind of conservative home. It was a little bit conservative, but it was, looking back, a lot of fun. There was a lot of singing and music and love in that worship.”
The takeaway
Both Saied and Jackson have voted for third party candidates in elections, but for different reasons.
Saied said her father was a lifelong Republican, but she leaned toward the Green party.
“I always voted for whoever I thought was the kindest person, the most just person, the one who would care for the Earth, you know,” Saied said.
Jackson said growing up, the Republican party was talked about as the best representation of Christian values.
“I have become increasingly disillusioned with that idea and have consistently leaned third party,” Jackson said. “But I really appreciate how you said looking for whoever is just and kind. And we keep seeing those two things separated a lot.”
In the end, Jackson said it was really helpful to hear from Saied about how for her, the Mosque was a place where you would leave politics at the door. And, in her view, the faith was compatible with either a liberal or a conservative political view.
Saied said Jackson was not what she was expecting. She said when she hears the words Christian evangelical, she has a specific image.
“One thing I'll take away is that I need to not start judging people in my own mind based on these labels that have been put on by people in the media, and just really have more conversations like this,” Saied said.
Jackson laughed.
“I appreciate that,” Jackson said. “We also put a lot of those labels on ourselves.”
Check here to listen to the entire conversation on the StoryCorps archive.
StoryCorps’ One Small Step and the Radio Station Hubs are made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
