Community Matters
Muslim Among the Select Few Rahaf Safi, an Indiana University Bloomington junior from Plainfield, Ind., has been named a 2013 Truman Scholar. She is one of only 62 undergraduates from 54 U.S. colleges and universities to receive the award; and the only Truman Scholar this year at a college or university in Indiana. “I am delighted that Rahaf Safi has received the prestigious Truman Scholar-
ship—our second in a row,” said IU president Michael A. McRobbie. Madeleine Albright, president of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation and former U.S. secretary of state, announced the 2013 scholarship recipients April 10. Each scholar receives $30,000 for graduate study along with priority admission and additional aid at premier graduate schools. Safi, who is majoring in political science and philosophy and is earning a certificate in the political and civic engagement, wants to attend law school. She has been deeply involved in civic activities and campus leadership at IU and in Bloomington. She founded and serves as president of the IU campus chapter of Oxfam America, a relief organization dedicated to finding lasting solutions to global hunger, poverty and injustice. Safi was recently appointed to the IU Board of Aeons, a student board that advises the IU president, for 2013-14. She served as student body representative to the Committee for Fee Review in 2012 and has served as student representative to committees for the university’s Wells and Stahr senior awards.
■
Hartford Seminary Celebrates Islamic Chair The Hartford Seminary community and guests from across Connecticut and the nation celebrated the successful completion of funding for an endowed faculty Chair in Islamic Chaplaincy, March 17. The Chair is currently occupied by Timur Yuskaev, assistant professor of Contemporary Islam and director of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program at the Seminary. The lead gift for the Chair, of $1,000,000, was made by Herndon, Va.-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). “Islamic Chaplaincy embodies the threefold mission of IIIT to encourage worship, community, and service, and there is no better place for this Chair to be established than at Hartford Seminary, which shares our commitment to these priorities,” said Dr. Abubaker al-Shingieti, IIIT executive director. Another significant donation for this Chair came from the estate of Hartford alumni: the Revs. Jane and William Inderstrodt. The Hartford Islamic Chaplaincy program, initiated in 2003, prepares Muslims for chaplaincy positions in hospitals, prisons, universities and the military. The only such accredited program in the U.S., its graduates 18
have been named to positions institutions nationwide, most notably at Yale, Williams College, and Princeton. “IIIT and Hartford Seminary have established a productive, creative and effective relationship which is advancing the vitality and impact of Muslims in this country, and this most generous gift to the Islamic Chaplaincy Chair dramatically embodies that relationship and our shared mission,” said Hartford president Heidi Hadsell. Dr. Saleem Bajwa of Holyoke, Mass., a former trustee of Hartford Seminary and long-time supporter of the Seminary’s Islamic Chaplaincy program, acknowledged the visionary leadership of Dr. Ingrid Mattson, founder of the program, and former director of the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations and professor of Islamic Studies and Christian Muslim Relations at Hartford. Mattson, a former ISNA president, is currently chair of the Islamic Studies Program at the University of Western Ontario. Founded in 1833, Hartford Seminary has had a commitment to interfaith dialogue for more than a century.
■
AP Disarms Islamist
The Associated Press Stylebook, considered the “bible” of the media industry, responding to requests from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has disassociated the term “Islamist” from its negative connotations with “Islamic fighters, militants, extremists or radicals, who may or may not be Islamists.” Last year, CAIR had pointed out that the AP’s old definition of “Islamist”—a “supporter of government in accord with the laws of Islam [and] who view the Quran as a political model”—had become a pejorative shorthand for extremist Muslims or “Muslims we don’t like.” The Stylebook’s entry for Islamist now reads as follows: “An advocate or supporter of a political movement that favors reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam. Do not use as a synonym for Islamic fighters, militants, extremists or radicals, who may or may not be Islamists [added]. Where possible, be specific and use the name of militant affiliations: al-Qaida-linked, Hezbollah, Taliban, etc. Those who view the Quran as a political model encompass a wide range of Muslims, from mainstream politicians to militants known as jihadi.” CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said, “We believe this revision is a step in the right direction and will result in fewer negative generalizations in coverage of issues related to Islam and Muslims. The key issue with the term ‘Islamist’ is not its continued use; the issue is its use almost exclusively as an ill-defined pejorative.”
■
Islamic Horizons May/June 2013