Rumee Ahmed arrived on campus a little over a month ago to fill the long-anticipated role of associate Muslim University chaplain. Staff members at the Office of the Chaplain and Religious Life said they believe this position will help promote awareness of Islam on campus.
Brown has a dearth of Muslim faculty members and is one of the only schools in the Ivy League without an Islamic Studies department, according to Ahmed and University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson.
Hiring a Muslim chaplain has been a priority for the OCRL since re-organization of the office was approved in 1998. Over the past year, a search committee that included students, faculty and top administrators sought an experienced academic who would actively contribute to the University rather than merely serve as a representative of the Muslim community.
"They should come believing whatever they believe," Cooper Nelson said, but she also stressed the need for someone in Ahmed's role to "be Brown."
Ahmed earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 2001 from the University of Maryland, College Park. He continued his studies at Abu Nour University in Damascus, Syria and Qur'an College in Karachi, Pakistan, focusing in Arabic language studies, Islamic jurisprudence and Urdu literature. Since 2001 he has been working toward his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia. He is currently in his fourth year of a program that combines current Islamic studies and philosophy of religion courses.
Throughout his schooling, Ahmed has been a leader in Muslim campus organizations and community youth groups. He is currently involved in Peace Projects, a group of intellectuals that discusses modern theories and Islamic thought. He is also a member of the Society of Scriptural Reasoning, a division of the American Academy of Religion, and a board member for an international forum called the Children of Abraham Institute.
The OCRL hopes Ahmed's hiring will inspire a greater educational effort to understand Islam by members of the Brown community. "The climate is good here. People are very open, considerate of different viewpoints," Ahmed said.
Muslims are underrepresented at the University and at other colleges throughout the country, even though there is a high percentage of Muslims within academia, according to Ahmed. Cooper Nelson hopes the University's efforts will increase the international enrollment of Muslim students in the future.
According to Nelson, the OCRL has served as an "incubator" for new programs promoting underrepresented groups in the past, as it when it helped create the Sarah Doyle Women's Center and the Third World Center in the 1970s. The OCRL plans to collaborate with student groups and local community organizations to increase awareness of Islam on campus.
In addition to combating the "ignorance and ridicule" Islam faces throughout the world, Cooper Nelson said she thinks it is important to "institutionally reflect the needs of the scholars and world around us."
Often frustrated by the academic environment and the pressures to publish, Ahmed said he believes the job of associate chaplain is perfect for him. "I may be in academia but I'm an activist at heart - it's what I wake up every morning to do."
Ahmed said he wants all Muslims on campus, including those not associated with the Brown Muslim Students' Association, to feel comfortable expressing their religious identities. However, he is perhaps an even bigger advocate for interfaith com-munication, understanding and appreciation, recognizing the importance of issues that cut across religious lines. He said he strives to create a "safe open space to express religiosity and to allow us all to grow as human beings."
It is his regard for Brown's rich diversity and potential that will be beneficial for all students on campus, according to Saad Yousuf '08, a member of the BMSA.
Ahmed has been working with his colleagues in the OCRL, his wife, Ayesha, the incoming Muslim chaplain at Connecticut College, the BMSA and others to organize activities for the Brown and local communities.
He is currently working on the March of Remembrance and Hope, a student trip to Poland. Other projects include a lecture series titled "Islam and Practice," the Muslim Awareness Week in March and "Muslim Encounters," which is an opportunity for graduate students to make presentations on campus and build an intellectual Islamic community.
