I'm Krista Tippett.

Today revisiting my 2007 conversation with Ingrid Matson, the first female president

of the Islamic Society of North America.

She speaks about her experience of Islamic spirituality, which she discovered in her

20s after a Catholic upbringing.

And she describes her original and determined approach to pressures within Islam and

outside it.

I wish people outside of our community want to understand this, that we could stand

on the soapbox from morning to night and say, I condemn this, I condemn that.

But it wouldn't have the kind of impact that our much slower, more patient work of building

a well-functioning model American Muslim community will have.

This is speaking of faith.

Stay with us.

This public radio podcast is supported by the Fetzer Institute as part of its campaign

for Love and Forgiveness online at loveandforgive.org.

And by the Plymouth Center for Progressive Christian Faith, hosting a national conference

on faith and politics in Minneapolis, April 11th through 13th, speakers include Ray

Suarez, Jim Wallace, and Rabbi Michael Lerner, information at PlymouthCenter.org.

I'm Christopher Tippett.

Ingrid Matzen is the first woman and the first convert to head the Islamic Society of North

America, one of the oldest and largest consortiums of Muslims in the US and Canada.

Matzen wears an Islamic head covering or hijab and leads a thoroughly modern life as a scholar,

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