Muslims balance faith and campus life

"It's certainly a troubling dilemma, as Muslim students want to practice their religion while also fitting in and getting the most out of their college experience," Muslim Students Association (MSA) president Wasim Shiliwala '09 said. "But when it comes to being part of a culture that engages in drinking alcohol, those two desires don't mesh well together."

Views on alcohol aren't the only source of discord between religion and University culture. Another conflict arises when Muslim students set foot in dining halls. "A sizable part of the Muslim community on campus also follows Islam's dietary laws and eats only zabihah meat, which is akin to keeping kosher," Shiliwala explained. One such follower, Nabill Abdurehman '11, noted the difficulty of keeping such a strict diet on campus. "I have to avoid certain foods in the dining hall," he said. "My options are pretty limited."

Associate Dean of Religious Life Paul Raushenbush explained the root of the problems that Shiliwala and Abdurehman described. "The challenges that are brought up by Muslim students tend to be what many other immigrant or religious students face, including questions of identity and how to integrate being a religious person and an engaged Princeton student," Raushenbush said.

Outside of the demands of their religion, Muslim students are faced with a greater underlying problem. "I feel that the majority of students don't know what Islam is and tend to think of it in terms of stereotypes, and that can be pretty frustrating," Shiliwala said. The small size of the Muslim community on campus makes ignorance about the true nature of Islam a difficult problem to combat. "Before I came to campus, I was concerned about how big the Muslim community would be," Abdurehman explained. "If anything, my fears were just confirmed. Although there are some outlets and groups for Muslim students on campus, most of them are not very active, and not many people attend them regularly."

Though the small population of Muslim students faces the problems associated with being a cultural minority, the Office of Religious Life (ORL) and the Princeton community as a whole are assisting those students by making changes that will allow them to be both the religious and engaged Princeton students that Raushenbush discussed.

"The Office of Religious Life at Princeton University is being intentional and proactive in meeting the needs of the Muslim population on campus," Raushenbush said. The most pressing need of the Princeton Muslim community is for a new Muslim chaplain. Khalid Latif, the former chaplain, worked part-time at both Princeton and New York University and recently took a full-time job in New York. The ORL is now in the process of hiring a new Muslim chaplain.

The ORL is also actively addressing the problems that students like Shiliwala and Abdurehman face on a daily basis. The ORL sponsors groups like the MSA that hold social activities on campus for those students who chose not to engage in drinking on Thursday and Saturday nights. Currently, the ORL is also attempting to get more Halal food, the acceptable food for students who follow the dietary laws of Islam, in dining halls.

Where the ORL stops, the student community steps in. Many student organizations hold events in conjunction with the MSA to express their acceptance of and appreciation for the Muslim community on campus. "I am impressed with the great interfaith work that is happening, including the Muslim-Jewish dialogue that led to a combined trip to the South of Spain last spring break and a Muslim-Hindu henna study break to which over 200 people came," Raushenbush said.

Even students outside of these organizations have worked to make Muslims on campus feel comfortable, and it seems that they have been quite successful in spite of the challenges Muslim students continue to face. "I feel the University community is very accepting, and I rarely face any discrimination," Shiliwala said. Abdurehman likewise noted that, despite his original fears about life at Princeton as a Muslim, "I haven't experienced any discrimination ... I don't feel persecuted here. I feel comfortable."