“I’m interested in the intersectionality of religion and policy (…) [e]specially in today’s climate. Evaluating the ways in which your religious freedom affect other people is important. I personally define religious freedom should be as [allowing] for all people to be able to practice what they want without fear of repercussions or for their safety, like when people don’t want to admit their religious identity because of potential dangers, like with Islamophobia. Building on that, the right to exclude is very narrow. Educating yourself and recognizing religious privilege are huge, because you don’t want that burden to fall on someone when it’s already hard to speak up in the first place. I think many Christians feel persecuted even though they’re the majority and they’re – relatively speaking – privileged in many ways, when you compare them to Muslim or Jewish people. When there’s legislation up for debate that’s impacting religious freedom, the bare minimum you can do is call and write to your senators and tell them, ‘Oh, you know, this legislation is excluding this or that group’ or ‘It’s important you work to get this passed so we can live in a more unified society,” and stuff like that. Some things Duke could do to improve inter-faith life on campus – one is the community between religious life groups on campus, especially Christian groups are segregated and don’t mingle much with each other and I think it’s something to improve. I think they could get together – you know, Muslims, Christians, and other people like that, and do stuff like social projects and serving the homeless and doing something of that nature. I think it’s important to highlight what you have in common, rather than just focus on your differences, because that can be very polarizing. People should take time to get to know people of different religious backgrounds because that could really lead to some religious groups being better-represented in things like policies.” – Alli Fisher (PPS’19) #HumansofDukeSanford #Undergrad