I was really excited to go to this past Tuesday’s Rose Scholars event: “Islam and the American Common Good”. The speaker, Professor Sherman Jackson, is a very acclaimed scholar, and I was looking forward to hearing his insight on such a powerful and relevant topic.

However, I was slightly disappointed that he simply read his speech from a paper. Word for word. This was unfortunate, because the thoughts he brought to the table were so brilliant, yet the delivery hindered the message.

Delivery aside, Professor Jackson made some really powerful points. Towards the end of his lecture, he noted that after the tragic event of 9/11, American ceased to be an ideological playground.

I would agree with this. Unfortunately, Islam suffered a collective indictment for the terrorist attack. ‘Islamophobia’ spread throughout a lot of the United States, and unfortunately, the repercussions are still visible.

I really wish that Professor Jackson looked away from his script to elaborate and expand on his ideas and feelings, because I feel like I really would have been able to learn something from him.