NORTH CAROLINA – Catering to the religious needs of US Muslims students, a growing number of Muslim chaplains are being appointed in American universities to spread understanding of mainstream Islam to counter media stereotypes.
''As a chaplain you become a ‘resource person’'' Abdullah T. Antepli, a Muslim chaplain at Duke University, North Carolina, told Al Arabiya-English on Tuesday, June 25.
''You become Islam’s voice and the entire campus will turn to you on Islamic affairs.''
Completing his basic training and education in his native Turkey, Imam Abdullah came to the US as a student in 1998.
He later changed his profession to chaplaincy after noticing a dire need for Muslim chaplains to guide Muslim students at university campuses.
''I saw the real need, the vacuum of religious leadership for Muslims in the U.S. in an institutional setting,'' he said.
He was appointed as the first Muslim chaplain at Wesleyan University from 2003 to 2005.
He then moved to Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, where he was the associate director of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program & Interfaith Relations, as well as an adjunct faculty member.
Along with helping Muslim students, increasing misconceptions about Islam triggered the need for moderate voices to spread understanding of mainstream Islam.
''The post 9/11 challenges brought Islam and Muslims to the center of attention in the U.S.,'' Imam Abdullah said.
''The need for a moderate respectful voice for Islam… and the need to include Muslims into the society’s fabric, were all reasons behind introducing Islamic chaplaincy,'' he added.
Those chaplains were completing the effort done by Muslim imams in mosques.
''Chaplains complement the imam. They act as the ''religious leadership for members on their campus. This is more difficult than being an imam in any mosque,''Abdullah said.
An imam mostly deals with a less diverse population, he said.
''People who go to mosques, go for worship and thus, they are comfortable in their faith.''
Diversity
Developed from a Christian concept, a chaplain is usually entitled to contact with all sorts of people, including Muslim and non-Muslim students.
''Half of the people who demand my counseling services are non-Muslim students, among them are Jews and atheists,'' Imam Abdullah said.
Despite Muslim efforts to present a correct image of peaceful Islam, extremist views still face chaplains in campuses.
''They unfortunately exist and are getting vocal,'' Abdullah said, explaining that such negative attitudes are expounded by geographical factors.
''Islam is an unknown concept to them, they are struggling to understand it. They don’t hate Islam…they just don’t know it'' considering their distance from people who practice the religion.
US Muslims are estimated between six to eight million.
A growing number of American universities are hiring full-time Muslim chaplains to help meet their students’ religious needs.
Bard College in New York's Hudson Valley was the first US university to appoint a Muslim chaplain in the mid-1990s.
Among universities that appointed Muslim chaplains were also Yale, Princeton and Duke.
The latest university to join the list is Cornell University, which is planning to recruit a Muslim chaplain soon.
Source: onislam.net