BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
• How do we keep public spaces
like the Park Blocks and Kesey Square
active, vital places where everyone
wants to be any day of the year? The
city of Eugene has started a Places
for People project, in partnership with
Project for Public Spaces, and will be
asking the community for input at
upcoming events and workshops in
October. Events include: “Transforming
Public Spaces: Talk and Open House
with Fred Kent,” 7:30 pm Thursday, Oct.
13, at the LCC Downtown Campus. At
10 am Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Atrium
Lobby, 99 W. 10th Avenue there will be
a “placemaking” workshop and tour
that the city says will take participants
to downtown public spaces and collect
feedback. Registration is needed at
the website below. There will be “pop-
up placemaking stations” 11 am to 1
pm Thursday, Oct. 13, at Kesey Square
(Broadway Plaza) and 2 to 4 pm at Bi-
Mart, 1680 W. 18th Avenue; Friday,
Oct. 14, 8:30 to 10:30 am at Market of
Choice, 2580 Willakenzie Road and 5:30
to 8 pm at the Pueblo a Pueblo Festival
at Petersen Barn, 870 Berntzen Road.
And Saturday, Oct. 15, 8:30 to 11 am,
at the Lane County Farmers Market,
8th Avenue and Oak Street, 7 to 8
pm in the Hult Center Lobby, 1 Eugene
Center. Finally, you can participate
in an online survey at eugene-or.gov/
placesforpeople. The city says the
public engagement effort will focus
on existing public spaces downtown
including the Park Blocks, the Plaza at
the Hult, Kesey Square and the Library
Plaza, as well as the pedestrian paths
that link them.
• Latinx Vote 2016 will feature
the Latinx community addressing local
representatives of this nation’s political
parties, according to Phil Carrasco of
Grupo Latino de Acción Directa. The event
is 6:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 13, at 145
Straub Hall on the UO campus and will
feature Associate Professor Julie Weiss
of the Department of History, Lane GOP,
Democratic Party of Lane County and the
Green Party of Lane County. For more
info email gladoflanecounty@gmail.com.
REZA ASLAN TO DISCUSS TRUMPISM
AND ISLAM AT THE UO
“T
• Starting Oct. 11, the Lane
County Circuit Court will implement a
Mental Health Court to divert eligible
participants from the traditional
criminal justice system and provide
them support and rehabilitation
through comprehensive mental health
and co-occurring disorder treatment,
education and vocational programs that
include resource referrals for housing,
childcare, transportation and health
care, according to the Lane County
District Attorney’s Office. District
Attorney Patty Perlow says in a press
release that “Mental Health Court is
intended for those people who have a
severe and persistent mental illness
and have come to the attention of the
criminal justice system. We are elated
that we finally have the resources in
Lane County to make Mental Health
Court available.”
10
October 13, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
he problem isn’t Donald Trump, the problem is
Trumpism,” Reza Aslan tells EW.
Known for his book Zealot: The Life and Times
of Jesus of Nazareth, as well as for his long, patient
interview with a Fox News reporter who could not
understand how a Muslim could write a book about Jesus, Aslan
comes to the University of Oregon Oct. 18 to present “An Evening
with Reza Aslan: Religion, Identity and the Future of America.”
Aslan will discuss Trumpism and more at his free talk. He says
of the current U.S. political situation and attacks on Muslims, “I
think that human beings are inherently tribal, and we are predis-
posed to try to connect ourselves with people who share aspects
of our identity, then identify ourselves in opposition to those who
don’t,” such as followers of Islam.
Aslan, who has a doctorate in sociology of religions from Uni-
versity of California, Santa Barbara, says religion is one of the
primary forms of identity in the world today, and “despite a cen-
tury of confident predictions about how eventually we will all just
abandon religion, it seems as though religious identity is an even
stronger force today than it was even 100 years ago.”
Aslan attributes this to factors such as globalization, the break-
down of nationalism and the dissolution of national identity, fac-
tors that make it easier for us to retreat to our own religious cer-
tainties and to “demonize other religions.”
Being more religiously literate not only lets us pursue a more
peaceful and prosperous world, but also benefits us as individu-
als, the Iranian-American says, and in the same way we encour-
age people to be multilingual, we should encourage people to be
multi-literate.
Aslan is a professor of creative writing at UC Riverside, but
he does not restrict himself to the “ivory tower” of academe when
it comes to shaping people’s perceptions. Through his BoomGen
Studios media company he provides alternative coverage of the
Middle East and its communities throughout the world. He is also
the executive producer of a new ABC TV drama, Of Kings and
Prophets, a retelling of the biblical story of King David, and in
2017 will host the CNN spiritual adventure series, Believer, ex-
ploring religious traditions from around the world.
Aslan says the single greatest misconception about Islam is
that it is somehow unique or extraordinary in some way. All re-
ligions are inherently different from others, he says, but Islam is
not “utterly foreign.” In fact, it is “deeply a part of the ‘Judeo-
Christian religious tradition.’”
Islam and Judaism are “intimately tied together,” he says, with
most of the same dietary traditions, many of the same ritual ex-
periences and the same concept of god. “When it comes to Chris-
tianity, people would be surprised to know that Muslims believe
Jesus is the Messiah,” Aslan says, and that “Jesus is going to re-
turn at the end of time to judge humanity.”
With the rise of Donald Trump, Aslan says what we are seeing
is a crisis of identity for Americans in a world they don’t recog-
nize anymore. “They don’t recognize the cultural, political and
racial landscape. Hence the Trumpian battle cry, ‘Make American
Great Again.’” The idea that we can return the U.S. to some imag-
inary past “is deeply embedded in this identity crisis,” he says.
According to Aslan, “Trumpism goes far deeper than just one
man running for office.” Harkening back to the idea that people
are tribal, he says that “when a group of people has trouble com-
ing to grips with who we are, they identify themselves in opposi-
tion to an ‘other.’” Something, he continues, “we have always
done in times of stress in the U.S.”
In the past it has been Catholics and Jews, but currently, “Is-
lam and Muslims have become the stand-in for that which is not
American,” Aslan explains.
His lecture, he says, will discuss this and what to do about it.
Doors open for Reza Aslan’s Oregon Humanities Center lecture at 7 pm Tuesday,
Oct. 18, in 156 Straub Hall on the UO campus. It is free and open to the public,
and will be followed by a book sale and signing. Seating is limited to 500, with no
tickets or reservations, and will be livestreamed at ohc.uoregon.edu. For more info
call 541-346-3934 or write ohc@uoregon.edu.