Small Catholic university, big Muslim enrollment try to build bridges

Rasa - Zainub Fiaz did her homework on Benedictine University before enrolling in the quiet institution in west suburban Lisle. She found out that its education major is rigorous and has affiliations with strong school districts in the area, two factors that impressed her.

News ID: 426737

Date: 22 January 2017 - 19:08

RNA - Zainub Fiaz did her homework on Benedictine University before enrolling in the quiet institution in west suburban Lisle. She found out that its education major is rigorous and has affiliations with strong school districts in the area, two factors that impressed her.

"But then, coming here," said Fiaz, a Muslim who is a senior at the university, "I'm just like, 'Wow, there's obviously so many Muslims.' So, it's super comforting."

It also may come as a surprise to others that Benedictine, a Catholic institution in a suburban county that is 78 percent white and 86 percent Catholic or Protestant, may have the highest percentage of Muslim students of any Catholic university in the nation. As of last spring, 540 — or 24 percent — of the 2,250 undergraduate students at the Lisle campus who indicated a religious preference identified as Muslim, the school reported.

Benedictine President Michael S. Brophy said the number now may be 600, and other officials at the school said the level of Muslim students fluctuates between 20 and 30 percent at Benedictine. That percentage is rising and reflects a trend at other Catholic institutions of higher learning. It's a result in part from the church's effort to define its education as accepting all faiths in hopes of serving everyone in the search for what the president of the national Catholic association of universities called "transcendence and meaning."

One of Benedictine's latest measures to accommodate its growing Muslim student population occurred in July, when Brophy hired a Muslim faith adviser. Ali Yurtsever had been a math professor at Georgetown University — a Jesuit school — president of American Islamic College in Chicago and president of the Rumi Forum, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that promotes interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

"I honestly think most people thought it was overdue," Brophy said when asked if he had received pushback for planning the hire. He said Yurtsever is "worth his weight in gold," for his ability to help Muslim students and the administration to serve those students. Welcoming Muslim students aligns with the Benedictine value "to welcome the stranger as if they were Christ," Brophy said.

"Typically, we find they are very devout students," he said, "not only to their faith, but to their studies."

Why Benedictine?

Founded in 1887 by monks of St. Procopius Abbey, Benedictine has been an attractive college choice for Muslim students for years. In 2005, a survey of 250 freshmen showed that 13.5 percent of them identified as Muslim, up from 6 percent in 1999.

How Benedictine began drawing Muslim students probably centers on its location and curriculum. Muslim and Hindu populations settled in that area of DuPage County because of its science and tech jobs, Yurtsever and others said. Brophy said his predecessor, William Carroll, made a conscious effort to create a welcome atmosphere for Muslim students.

In addition, two Islamic schools educating students through high school are within a 20-minute drive of the campus. And, Muslim students said, many of them gravitate toward science curriculum in college, which is Benedictine's forte.

The school has adapted during that steady rise. For those students who prefer it, Benedictine's student cafe offers sandwiches with meat that has been prepared in accordance with Islamic law. At the school's Thanksgiving dinner, turkey prepared in the same manner, known as halal, is available. Benedictine also has an interfaith prayer room.

In addition, professors accept that Muslim students, whose religion directs them to pray five times a day, will leave class for several minutes to honor that commitment. The instructors also accommodate Muslim students' absences during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Eid al-Adha holiday.

"I think the way they receive Muslims is very welcoming," said Abdul Rahman Damra, a senior health science major who is applying to dental schools. "Benedictine caters to the needs of Muslims more than most schools do."

The two prominent Catholic universities in Chicago, DePaul and Loyola, also have sizable Muslim student populations and staff positions to accommodate those students. Loyola has 800 Muslim undergraduates, or about 7 percent of the population, said Muslim Chaplain Omer Mozaffar, who took that position in 2014.

At DePaul, Muslims number at least 716 students — or between 3 and 4 percent of enrollment — "and likely another couple hundred that did not identify for whatever reason," said Abul-Malik Ryan, the school's Muslim chaplain and assistant director of religious diversity.

University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Elmhurst College also have Muslim faith advisers or similar positions.

Muslim enrollment

Muslim students at Catholic institutions might seem unusual, and surveys of freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute show their levels remain between 1.1 and 2.1 percent nationwide.

But the charters of many Catholic universities and colleges, including DePaul, state that they welcome students of all faiths, said Michael Galligan-Stierle, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, based in Washington, D.C.

He also pointed to the "apostolic constitution," Ex Corde Ecclesiae, which Pope John Paul II issued in 1990 to explain the common characteristics of Catholic colleges and universities worldwide.

"The university community of many Catholic institutions includes members of other Churches, ecclesial communities and religions," the document states, "and also those who profess no religious belief."

Of the roughly 1 million students in Catholic colleges and universities in the U.S., Galligan-Stierle said, 400,000 are not Catholic. That mix on campuses provides "an important and vital place" and "an opportunity for dialogue and mutual understanding and finding better ways of going forward," he said.

"We have to be very committed to finding very concrete ways of building bridges," Galligan-Stierle said, adding that Muslim student enrollment is growing at Catholic colleges and universities, fueled in part by scholarships from Middle Eastern countries. "What better way than to have students of different faiths become best friends in college and go on to become leaders in their communities and continue those friendships?"

At Benedictine, Damra and Fiaz said they have never experienced discomfort or confrontation from non-Muslim students, although Damra said non-Muslims often ask about his religion. Some Christians have gone as far as tossing out popular Arabic Muslim phrases to him, such as the greeting "Salaam aleikum," which means peace be with you, and "inshallah," God willing.

"I think also in the Catholic way, just having a strong spiritual safe place is very key for students, for teachers, for humans in general," Damra said. "They understand what we need as Muslims."

Like Fiaz, Damra said that "safe place" allows Catholics and other non-Muslims to learn about Islam and vice versa.

The school has a student interfaith group in which Muslim and Christian students exchange and discuss holy readings over meals twice a month. The Muslim Student Association has hijab day, for women who want to try the headwear, and fast-athons. MSA also is planning events with the Black Student Union for Black History Month in February, said Damra, MSA vice president.

"You see people of different faiths, races, religions and whatnot, rather than letting our differences separate us, it kind of brings us closer to one another. You'll see a Muslim and a Christian hanging out together and it's completely normal."

New friendships

Nearly half of Benedictine students identify as Catholic. An additional 21 percent view themselves as within a Christian faith.

Rachel Majerczyk, a senior majoring in biology, is a Catholic who regularly attends Mass. When she arrived on campus as a freshman, she was surprised by the high number of Muslim students and wanted to learn more.

"I would just ask questions," said Majerczyk, from Chicago's Garfield Ridge neighborhood. "They were very open to answering." She found "sort of a beauty" to Islam, "not that I'd ever convert."

She said the school still has "a really strong Catholic presence on campus." And, although she has heard non-Muslims students — almost all of them freshmen — make negative comments about the number of Muslim students at Benedictine, "I think that comes from being ignorant," she said.

And, she has made a friend: Zainub Fiaz.

The two young women from different faiths have "an openness in conversation," Majerczyk said.

"It's still a very new friendship," Majerczyk said, "but when we hang out with a large group of people, it's very comfortable."

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