Abdul Rahman has deep ties to the Bronx. He serves as deputy imam at Masjid Al-Haram USA, a mosque in the borough’s Bedford Park neighborhood. He’s also affiliated with the Gambian Youth Organization, which was how he came to attend the Fordham Center for Community Engaged Learning’s annual back-to-school festival on Fordham Road last year. When he learned that Fordham was creating a role for a Muslim chaplain, the University’s commitment to the Bronx played a major role in his decision to apply.

“But what really made me want to join Fordham is the fact that it’s a Jesuit institution that focuses on faith and spirituality,” he said.

“The commitment to community service and creating a diverse faith community for students was very important to me.” 

What are your hopes for your first year?

I’d like to build a community where Muslims and non-Muslims alike feel comfortable and empowered to explore different faiths and ask questions. One of my immediate goals is to answer questions and dismantle stereotypes about Muslims. 

There’s so much that needs to take place to educate people about what Islam is. Islam is not something that one person gets to define; it’s a holistic way of life that is defined in the Quran and through the Hadeeth, which is a collection of traditions containing the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad with accounts of his daily practice. While different schools of thought will give different interpretations, at the end of the day, God has given each individual an intellect to be able to deduce conclusions from those interpretations

I want to make it clear that Islam is something that is for everyone, from students who are at different levels of faith to non-Muslims who can inquire and learn more about the practice and perhaps take a lesson or two to apply to their own lives. 

What do you see as your larger role at the University?

My role is to add to whatever existing voices there are here from a Muslim perspective and to promote a relentless effort to engage students with their faith and their spirituality. One of the things that makes Fordham amazing and unique is the fact that faith and spirituality are taken really seriously. It provides an environment where students don’t feel awkward for being someone who has faith. I’m also going to provide basic chaplaincy services, including counseling and pastoral care. 

You worked for the Interfaith Center of New York before you came to Fordham. Why is interfaith dialogue so important to you?

There’s so much polarization in our world today. It’s either black or white. Either you’re Republican or Democrat, you support Israel, or you support Palestine, and there’s nothing in between. All these topics really polarize our communities. I find that, especially within the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there’s a tie that binds and provides us with a framework within which we can work toward harmony and peaceful coexistence.

There is a mosque in the Bronx where the imam is from Senegal. Last summer, asylum seekers from Senegal were rushing there because that was where they felt at home.

The mosque did not have the capacity to feed them, so the imam reached out to us. We got a Mormon church to donate $10,000 worth of food. We couldn’t find anywhere to cook it, though, so at an event, one of my colleagues asked a Buddhist monk if they had a commercial kitchen. So we took food that we got from a Mormon church to a Buddhist temple and shared it at a mosque for Muslim migrants. That’s why a dialogue between faiths is important to me. Regardless of people’s faith, we believe that they’re the creation of God, and they have the dignity that God has given them. 

Muslim Life Events:

Beginning next week, Abdul Rahman will lead a weekly Jumu’ah prayer on both campuses from 1 – 1:30 pm. on Fridays. He will also lead a weekly Halaqa (circle) where participants will discuss topics relevant to contemporary Muslims’ lives. These will take place on Mondays at the Rose Hill campus and on Thursdays at the Lincoln Center campus. For more information, visit Muslim Life at Fordham or contact Abdul Rahman at [email protected].

“For such a long time, we felt like we’ve needed more interfaith and multifaith things, especially here at Lincoln Center—that’s really who our community is,” she said.

The picnic inspired members of Campus Ministry and the Center for Community Engaged Learning to look for other ways to celebrate and learn more about the variety of faiths at Fordham.

Kujegi Camara, the assistant director of community engagement and operations for the Center for Community Engaged Learning, said that while on a coffee break at a recent divisional meeting, she began thinking about the many religious holidays at the end of March and into April—Easter, Ramadan, multiple Sikh holidays, and more.

This time of year, she thought, offered a perfect opportunity to “celebrate our cultural diversity at Fordham.”

That’s how Faith Fest was born.

Connecting Through Events

Over the next few weeks, there will be events to help students, faculty, and staff learn, serve, and pray together. Hoffman said that Campus Ministry and the Center for Community Engaged Learning organized three main events, but student groups and other organizations are adding others. This allows them to “showcase the way faith is alive at Fordham,” she said.

“Because we’re at a university, it’s an opportunity to really engage faith and spiritual diversity from different perspectives,” she said. “We have the academic perspective, the learning about faith, engaging in intellectual discussion about it. There’s the implementing it—the call to serve that’s a value that most faiths have. And then there’s the experience of faith itself through prayer and spirituality.”

The series kicks off on Wednesday, March 29, at 6 p.m. with a panel discussion,“Welcoming the Stranger: Hospitality and Faith Responses to the Migration Crisis.” The event, which will take place at the Lincoln Center campus, will feature faith leaders from across the city in conversation about how they are responding to the needs of migrants in their communities.

On Saturday, April 1, at 10 a.m., all are invited to participate in a day of service focused on caring for the Earth “our common home.” Attendees are invited to meet at the Rose Hill campus before heading to Mosholu Park to work with the local group Bronx is Blooming.

Finally, there will be two interfaith “prayers and fairs”—one on Thursday, April 13, at 12 p.m. at Lincoln Center, and one on Thursday, April 20, at 1 p.m. at Rose Hill. Faith-based student clubs and groups will showcase their faith traditions through food, sacred items, prayers, and more.

The events will also serve to highlight two important social justice issues—migration and environmentalism—that are at the center of many conversations and policy decisions.

“Those two issues are completely related in many ways, especially as we look to the future—care for home, care for one another,” Hoffman said.

Importance of Coming Together to Celebrate

Camara and Hoffman emphasized that one of the main goals of Faith Fest is to highlight the religious diversity of all groups. Camara said that as a Jesuit university, Fordham is the right place to host an event celebrating different faiths, allowing them to both share common themes and better understand each other’s differences.

“Creating a space where students, faculty, staff are joined together in celebration, but also have an avenue for questions, is something that Fordham is uniquely positioned to do, which is why I think Faith Fest is really powerful,” she said.

Hoffman also noted that there’s a misconception about students’ interest in faith that comes from a focus exclusively on attendance rates at religious services.

“There’s a lot more spiritual and religious depth to the students that I think they’re given credit for, and that’s something that we really wanted to highlight and to help them find each other,” she said.

To learn more about Faith Fest and see the full calendar of events, visit fordham.edu/faithfest.

I want to invite you to my favorite part of the academic year. For almost five centuries, since 1548 in Sicily, Jesuit universities have begun their fall semester with a Mass of the Holy Spirit. It is the moment we remind ourselves that the purpose of our work is so much bigger than the immediate tasks before us. And as we celebrate with 170 other Jesuit universities worldwide, we remember that we are part of an ancient and global tradition.

We have an exciting academic year ahead of us, and as I welcome you to campus—or back to campus—I invite you to two celebrations and hope you come to both. First, an interfaith prayer service at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, August 31, at 4:30 p.m. on the Plaza; and then the Mass of the Holy Spirit in the University Church at Rose Hill on Sunday, September 11, at 5 p.m. The University Choir will pull out all of the stops (that’s actually an organ metaphor, so it’s literally true here).

We are proudly a place of unabashed faith for people of every faith. We are a community that delights in the common themes of the world’s great religions—empathy and generosity, welcoming the stranger, celebrating fundamental human dignity. We do that not by diluting our different faiths into an ecumenical mush but by learning from each other’s rituals.

And for those of you not part of a religious tradition, or who have chosen otherwise, I hope you’ll come and be inspired by the rituals humankind have engaged in for millennia. We know that you come to many of the same values from a different source and appreciate your deep respect for what makes Fordham so special. We are grateful that, in an increasingly secular world, you connect with us as our full selves here, as people of goodwill of all faiths and none.

I hope to see you there, and to get to know you at the receptions thereafter.

All my best,

Tania Tetlow
President