The Statement: Is faith falling behind?

is fa th falling behind?

statement THE MICHIGAN DAILY JAN UARY 15 , 2014

2B Wednesday, January 15, 2014 // The Statement

THE

list | B

uzzfeed, but better

Five Unexplored Study Abroad Destinations The University ranks 16th nationwide in total number of students studying abroad. Find out some of the lesser-known options to consider for your study abroad experience.

1. Havana, Cuba

Studying abroad in this land of archipelagos became possible following President Obama’s ease on the US ban on Cuban travel in 2009. Soak up the sun and embrace multiculturalism in the nation’s capital. Cuba’s where it’s at!

2.

Bkejwanong, Canada Our neighbors to the North have way more to offer than hockey

and maple syrup. While Canada may not qualify as the most exotic destination, we believe that an adventure is waiting for you in Canada’s lesser-known corners.

3.

St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands Although you’re technically on US soil, it’s still v... the beach.

Time to put the Polar Vortex behind you, once and for all.

4.

Semester at Sea We never said you had to stay in one place the entire time you

were studying abroad. Take a tour and make your way across the globe — all while “studying.”

5.

Semester in Detroit You don’t have to venture far from Ann Arbor for a great study

abroad experience. Semester in Detroit has been going strong since 2006, and having you in the bunch can only make it stronger.

it’s goin’ down, i’m yellin’ TWITTER you better move, you better dance

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@thestatementmag COVER BY NICK CRUZ

THE

statement

Magazine Editor: Carlina Duan Deputy Editors: Max Radwin

Photo Editor: Ruby Wallau Illustrator: Megan Mulholland

Amrutha Sivakumar Editor in Chief: Design Editor: Nick Cruz

Peter Shahin

Managing Editor: Katie Burke Copy Editors: Mark Ossolinski Meaghan Thompson

campus mechanics: the donors and the best by amrutha sivakumar Four billion dollars. That’s how much the University will raise in the Victors for Michigan campaign, its most ambitious fund-

University apathy; the resources that have gone into developing its Counseling and Psychological Services and countless other prevention programs say otherwise.

However, an eagerness to donate stems from a positive zeal. An inspirational, and optimistically presented “Leaders and the Best” video does just that.

When the campaign finally launched in the beginning of November, it faced its share of setbacks.

ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND In the midst of the Victors raising initiative to date. But don’t for Michigan campaign rollout, expect the University to just sit the Michigan football team played back and relax, hoping donors will and lost against Nebraska at the act under their own philanthrop- Big House, and Coach Brady Hoke ic impulses to put their money faced his first loss at home, falling toward the University. Everything short 13-17. Happiness research that the University does can be suggests that good feelings transexpected to be a carefully calcu- late to good deeds. If potential lated endeavor, and the process of donors and alumni were in attenconvincing donors to invest their dance that windy Saturday before resources in the University may the campaign celebrations, the just be a formula. game’s loss would have likely upset A Viewpoint published in The their philanthropic mindset.

Michigan Daily not long after All hope was not lost. If anything, the capital campaign’s launch the Victors for Michigan campaign expressed contempt over the fact and the University have an advanthat while promotional materials tage over most other organizations showcased the remarkable feats fighting for donations. The celebraof the “leaders and the best” on tions leading up to the Victors for campus, they failed to address the Michigan campaign launch that needs of students that feel unsafe, cost the University over $750,000 are suffering from mental health was, according to a Nov. 13 report illnesses or were survivors of by The Michigan Daily, not only sexual violence. It’s unlikely that used to motivate donors, but to this neglect was a result of the commemorate the donors that had

THE

already contributed. Philanthropic psychologist Jen Chang told the New York Times in a Nov. 2012 interview that trust and appreciation act as primary incentives for donors. The combination of thankful reciprocity that donors receive and their ability to direct their gift to an area that inspires them makes an enormous difference.

No one does anything without getting anything in return, and for donors, payback comes in the form of happiness. Economists widely uphold the view that our monetary spendings reflect the utility we receive from it. In other words, donors will spend as long as they receive something worth the donation in return — whether it be a physical form of appreciation, like a named building, or general sense of pleasure. A study conducted by academics at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found that the happiness that came from pro-social donations was largest when donors were giving to a cause that fostered high social connections.

So tell me, what has larger social connections than giving back to the University largely responsible for your professional success, joined by more than 540,000 other alumni all over the world and appreciated for years to come by a 200-year-old University and its students? When University President Mary Sue Coleman recognized University alum Steven Ross’ $200 million donation to the Business school and the Athletic Department, Business students congregated before their early-morning classes to celebrate. At the following Saturday’s football game, students held up a Thank You banner in his name.

And that was Ross maximizing his utility. But we are happy to let him.

rules TMD’

s weekly survival guide

No. 525:

No. 526:

No. 527:

CSG is funding an off-campus bus route that runs 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. for all your drunk-oncentral-campus-as-a freshman needs #vomitcomet2

Syllabus week is over, which means it’s time to actually get your shit together.

If you’re still mad about not getting into Pike last Fall, winter rush is your chance to throw on that Motivation snapback and try again.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 // The Statement 3B

“

the thought bubble

on the record

“The show’s current conception of love resembles that of a pre-teen who still doesn’t know or understand anything about this nebulous concept beyond the borders of their diary.”

– KAYLA UPADHYAYA, Daily Arts Columnist, on the fifth season of “The Vampire Diaries.”

“We hope that Governor Snyder will see this and reflect with his team the impact that his decisions have had on the environment. We think that he has not been primarily concerned with that.”

– MIKE BERKOWITZ, legislative and political director of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, on Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s environmental negligence.

“Getting the highest-ranked recruits and more stars to fill up an elementary school bulletin board doesn’t mean a damn thing if those recruits don’t get developed properly. That is where Hoke and company have failed so far.”

PHOTO BY RUBY WALLAU

“You’re never out of touch with (history). It’s always living and breathing ... Understanding history is not just about understanding yourself, but about understanding why we are the way we are — currently. And maybe where we’re going.”

– ABRAHAM LIDDELL, LSA senior

– EVERETT COOK, Daily Sports Writer, on overestimating the significance of athletic recruitment.

trending #AcousticLevitation #HealthCare #SubwayVentriloquist

RT.COM

Japanese scientists have discovered a way to levitate small objects using sound waves. Four speakers are set on either side and ultrasound waves act as the moving force. Look out: You might just own a hoverboard by 2016.

AP PHOTO/ Paul Drinkwater

When are you most likely to find celebrities at a bar at 2 p.m.? The Golden Globes, of course! The Golden Globes kicked off the 2014 award season, and celebrated some of the best talent in Hollywood on Sunday night.

#AlexRodriguez #GoldenGlobes2014 #GirlsHBO #MHacks #NuclearIran

AP PHOTO/Charles Sykes

It’s about time that TV bigwigs got with the times. HBO has announced that it will upload the first two episodes of the new season of “Girls” onto YouTube only 12 hours after its airdate.

Has the looming nuclear threat been dissolved? On Jan. 20, Iran will take some big steps toward locking down its uraniumenrichment program and per a deal with six world powers, begin to destroy several of its stockpiles.

AP PHOTO/Majid Asgaripour

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 // The Statement

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 // The Statement

On the Decline: Why Religion is Fading from Campus

tion, 300 students attend Friday prayer services every week. The organization has active student committees that range from community service and outreach to lectures around religious topics.

Soubani discussed how the Muslim Students’ Association has to be mindful about being inclusive of different kinds of Muslim practices.

“We are realizing that we are a big (organization), so we are trying to figure out how to maintain our values but also keep expanding and doing new things,” Soubani said.

However, not all religious groups on campus feel the pressure to actively pursue more student involvement.

The Baha’i Club is a smaller campus organization that practices the faith Baha’i, a religion that traces its roots to a 19th-century Persian religious authority, Bahá’u’lláh. The Baha’i Club has no formal recruitment process. While membership levels have remained steady, club activity has increased.

Guidance, ground, direction

by Charlotte Jenkins, Daily Staff Reporter

I

t was past midnight on a cold Friday, the weekend of Halloween, and LSA junior Harleen Kaur, an Honors Resident Adviser and Michigan Daily columnist, had to make a decision. On duty in West Quad, she had spent most of the evening dealing with noise violations and drunken decisions of her freshman residents. Students returning from their respective Halloween parties, clad in minion and cat costumes, had kept her busy all night.

By the time Kaur had completed her shift and filled out the required duty logs recording all the night’s incidents, it was around 5 a.m. She soon found herself wondering if she should stay up and pray, or sleep. If she slept, she knew she would be taking a risk. The morning was already only four hours away, and she might not have enough time to pray then.

After deliberating, Kaur chose to pray. She showered and returned to her room to pray, going to sleep around 7:30 a.m. Soon after, she woke up to attend her 10 a.m. resident adviser

staff meeting.

As a practicing Sikh, Kaur is required to pray five times daily. Sikhism, the world’s fifth largest religion, is a monotheistic faith established in northern India in the 1400s. Like many religions, practicing Sikhism requires time and effort. And like many religious students, she has to make decisions on how to balance the obligations of her faith with the demands and rigors of a modern university.

Kaur is part of a group on campus that has been declining in recent years. The CIRP Freshman Survey, administered by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, given to all incoming students at orientation, shows that in 2012, 27.2 percent of incoming freshmen self-identified themselves as having no religion.

The latest results are consistent with a long-running trend. In 1998, only 19.7 percent of incoming freshmen identified as non-religious.

Broadening the definition

Although insightful, surveys fail to capture depth and complexity of religious beliefs on campus. Because of the noted decline in religious students, student groups are broadening their required levels of devotion to keep membership high.

The main focus of the Sikh Students’ Association is to unite the Sikh community on campus. Two to three times each semester, the organization hosts faith-based events and community service events. The group has 50 active members, and despite the campus trend, membership in the group has remained steady.

Kaur explained how the Sikh Students’ Association is inclusive to students who practice varying levels of Sikhism.

“A big facet of Sikhism is that religion is a journey,” Kaur said, “so we accept where everyone is on that path.”

Even organizations with a larger student population on campus have made similar efforts to recruit more students.

According to LSA junior Nour Soubani, president of the Muslim Students’ Associa-

Gifford was raised as a Baha’i. His parents became Baha’i in college after finding the faith and realizing that its set of core beliefs aligned with their own. Gifford said that he would have trouble navigating his undergraduate experience without his Baha’i faith.

“Religion is a way to help guide you in one direction,” Gifford said. “On college campuses, I have no doubt that being associated with a religious or spiritual group is helpful because college is such a confusing time.”

Kaur echoed Gifford’s beliefs, adding that her faith has been a steadfast part of her college experience.

“Religion has been something that has helped ground me as I’ve gone through undergrad, it has been consistent,” she said. “I know if I have a rough day that in the morning I have this hour to myself to center myself and do prayers.”

A sense of community At such a large university, it can be difficult to find one’s own community. For some students, the existing 106 student religious groups provide a sense of belonging.

“I haven’t felt isolated as a religious student,” Soubani said, “It gives you a community where there are so many types of people.”

Despite the existing sense of community, others feel that religion could be a larger part of Michigan culture.

As a freshman from Rochester, Mich., living in Helen Newberry, LSA Junior Laura Fleming was overwhelmed by college life. She had expected to make friends easily with the girls on her hall, but found herself lonely.

Fleming was raised as a Lutheran, and had planned to find a church at college. She tried out New Life, and immediately found a place she felt at home.

“I was blown away by the community,” Fleming said, “I’ve searched my whole life to feel like I fit in and am truly loved and cared for and the people at New Life have done that for me.”

The ‘invisible divide’ Despite a strong sense of solidarity within one’s belief group, students remain conscientious of the boundaries between religious communities and the rest of campus. LSA senior Mary Hemmeter, secretary of the Secular Student Alliance, explained that being secular limits her access to other communities.

“Being secular, it can be difficult to speak to non-secular people,” Hemmeter said, “you feel like you always have to self-center.”

Hemmeter speaks to an invisible divide that many students on this campus may experience. Like many religious students, she is constantly aware of her identity. “(I) rarely tell people I’m on the board of (the Secular Student Alliance),” she said. “It’s not something that comes up often in conversation and I don’t feel the need to bring it up a lot.”

Meanwhile, joining such a tight-knit community has also left students isolated from others. As part of her religion, Fleming does not drink alcohol or swear, and will not have sex until she is married. She said that these values are in stark contrast with the popular culture on campus.

“There have been a lot of people who are like, ‘Why don’t you do that,’ or don’t understand,” Fleming said.

Soubani added that students on campus often refer to stereotypes and have misconceptions about Muslims. She said she wishes students were more mindful of what they say, especially in academic settings that are supposed to be safe spaces.

Student priorities Nate Ardle has been the Michigan campus director of Cru, the largest interdominational evangelical Christian organization in the country, since 1999. When Ardle first came to the University, he said he expected the students to be highly intellectual and philosophical. Instead, he said he found that students have less time to be involved because of the rigorous academics.

However, Ardle noted that this is to be expected. “Students here are not different from students everywhere,” he said.

Other challenges include trying to fit religion into a busy schedule.

Fleming has to balance her religious commitments with academic and social ones. As a pre-health student, Fleming feels the pressure to volunteer and be in clubs to build her resume before applying to graduate school.

“Part of me feels like someone who is in an organization where they’re sending money to kids in Africa, that might be looked at more highly than being really involved in a church,” Fleming said.

After all, many college students, according to Chabad House Rabbi Alter Goldstein, are here primarily to get an education.

“The main obstacle is that spirituality may not be a priority, academics is the number one thing,” Goldstein said.

Some students deal better with the balance of academics, religion, and extracurriculars because they overlap.

LSA sophomore Ali Meisel revitalized the defunct Jewish Greek Council after Hillel Director Tilly Shames reached out to her with the opportunity. Meisel said she has found it easier to balance her school and social life with her religious commitments because the two generally intertwine.

“It’s not hard to balance,” Meisel said, “because most of the extracurriculars I’m involved with — Hillel, Jewish Greek Council, my sorority — are Jewish.”

As religious identification declines, it seems students have turned increasingly to the concept of ‘spirituality.’

LSA senior Farid Dimag, a practicing Baha’i, views religion as “rules of enforcing stuff,” and spirituality as a “wholesome purifying experience.”

Sitting in the secluded quiet of the Chabad House in the early morning, Goldstein explained the pattern of society’s movement, “The world is a heartbeat, and everything comes in trends,” he said.

According to Goldstein, the trend of modernity is one of informational access. Today’s students utilize the Internet, and as a result, have instant access to information — including immediate access to religious resources.

“We used to have at our front entrance a huge display of all kinds of information,” Goldstein said. ”Today, it is there with a click of a button — the website has a wealth of information.”

The trend of modernity has led to a change in student attitude and background, according to Ardle, the Cru campus director.

“Students are less ‘churched’ than they have in the past,” Ardle explains, “It’s become prevalent for students to not have gone to church growing up.”

Ardle believes this decline in “churched students” impacts the level of student involvement on campus.

“In the late 90s and early 2000s, students would come in and say ‘I should get involved (in religion)’, and some wouldn’t, but many would because they thought they should,” Ardle said, “And now that sense of thinking you should is gone.”

The trend to modernity has, indeed, left fewer religious students on campus. Meanwhile, secularism — the belief in the separation of church and state — has a solid, while small, following.

Just as religious students may feel that they have to defend their religion and values to others, secular students can have a hard time

5B

“coming out” as atheist. Students who come from religious families face losing support from their loved ones if they reveal this part of themselves.

The Secular Student Alliance meets every Thursday night. Meetings include discussions, such as reviewing recent court cases that have to do with separation of church and state. Over the summer, board members traveled to Skepticon, the largest secular conference in the Midwest.

Hemmeter said Student Secular Alliance has racial and ethnic demographics consistent with that of the University, but also has strong representation from many members of the LGBTQ community. She added that Skepticon also had many LGBTQ activists and feminist activists.

“I think there are a lot of students who identify as secular or atheist or agnostic who do not feel the need to be involved in a secular group,” Hemmeter said.

Taking ownership College is a time in everyone’s life where students are actively trying to figure out who they are. As a result, religion — or lack of religion — can be a shaping factor in this stage of student life, Gifford said.

Within the religious community at the University, some students are religious due to familial background. However, students stress college as a time where one can seize and shape one’s own religious ideology. Soubani was raised Muslim.

“You’re raised something and you do that because your family does,” Soubani said, “but once you’re in college you have opportunity to take ownership of your own beliefs.”

Kaur’s expression of her religion has shifted significantly while in college. As a freshman, she was less involved in the Sikh Students’ Association and did not wear a turban. Kaur felt very affected by the August 2012 shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that killed six people, and following the incident, made the decision to start wearing a turban.

“I wasn’t sure how to talk about it with my roommates,” Kaur said, “People may look at me differently and think that I’m coming from a different place than them.”

Regardless of the social challenges, Kaur holds steadfast to her religion. “I’m sticking to my identity and my beliefs,” she said.

DESIGN BY NICK CRUZ

ROMAN CATHOLIC

25%

OTHER RELIGION 2%

PRESBYTERIAN 3%

MUSLIM 2%

METHODIST 4%

LUTHERAN 4%

HINDU 3%

CHURCH OF CHRIST 3% EASTERN ORTHODOX 1% EPISCOPALIAN 1%

BAPTIST 3% BUDDHIST 1%

12%

The trend of modernity

A (non-religious) ‘coming out’

2012 INCOMING FRESHMEN RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE

JEWISH

Gifford echoed the ways in which religion and spirituality contrast.

“The modern day connotation of religion is changing,” he said. “Spirituality is like an independent investigation of something.”

Meanwhile, Goldstein emphasized that spirituality and religion are inexorably tied.

“When someone is seeking a higher spiritual level, they must also understand God,” Goldstein said. “Good values and spirituality are synonymous.”

A spiritual landscape

OTHER CHRISTIAN 9%

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NONE

27%

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Wednesday, January 15, 2014 // The Statement

Synagogue and Mosque: uniting communities on campus and beyond

by Carolyn Gearig While Muslim-Jewish relations have, at least in the modern era, been marked by conflict, MuJew, an interfaith campus organization composed primarily of Muslim and Jewish students, strives to create an alliance between the two campus communities through dialogue, intercultural events and community service work.

LSA sophomore Saara Mohammed, LSA junior Jesse Moehlman, LSA junior Laura Katsnelson and LSA senior Mariam Khan make up part of MuJew’s executive board.

Moehlman and Katsnelson are Jewish while Khan and Mohammed are Muslim; Moehlman and Katsnelson are co-chairs of the organization and Mohammed is outreach chair, coordinating work MuJew does around campus and with other organizations. Khan was a chair in 2013.

“The goal is to create a community and a safe space for Jews and Muslims, and really anyone who’s interested on campus,” Khan said. “Both of us come from marginalized communities in the US — you see a lot of anti-Semitism, a lot of Islamophobia.

So I think there’s a lot of value in our communities coming together in creating a new community and being able to support each other.”

MuJew was founded in October 2010 by University alums Jenna Weinberg, Molly Mardit and Husnah Khan in an effort to create dialogue, understanding and friendship between Muslim and Jewish students. The organization was born out of the yearly MuJew Alternative Spring Break trip, which was previously the only formal medium where Muslim and Jewish students formally worked together.

Muslims and Jews are comparatively small minorities in the United States, both practiced by fewer than 2 percent of the population. They are minorities on campus as well, with around 3 percent of University undergraduates identifying as Muslim and 12 percent identifying as Jewish.

MuJew meets once a week to engage in a dialogue centered around weekly topics that have previously included gender relations, members’ relationships with religion, holy books, fasting and personal stories about religion. Members are encouraged to share thoughts, experiences and insight. Between 10 and 20 students attend dialogue meetings, depending on the topic.

However, according to Khan and Mohammed, the most important MuJew traditions are the the Juma’a Shabbat event once a semester and the yearly Alternative Spring Break trip.

Juma’a Shabbat aims to expose people of both faiths to each other’s religious traditions. On Fridays, Jewish students are invited to traditional Muslim afternoon prayers and Muslim students are invited

SARAH SQUIRE/Daily

Students participating in the 2013 MuJew Alternative Spring Break trip prepare to demolish a house damaged in a tornado in Joplin, MIssouri.

to Shabbat services and dinner before with a different Muslim graduate student the weekly holiday in which some Jews each year. abstain from using technology and do not LSA senior Jesse Moehlman, the work from sundown Friday to sundown MuJew co-chair, said he applied to go on Saturday. his first MuJew ASB trip because of the After the Friday prayers and again after interfaith focus.

Shabbat dinner, Hillel assistant director “The different discussions related to Rabbi Seth Winberg, assistant director of our faiths, our reactions to the work we Hillel, and Muslim Chaplain Mohammed were doing, and our conversations with Tayssir Safi lead discussions and answer different members of the Joplin commuquestions. As the first endowed Muslim nity proved to be an incredible and diverse Chaplain at a public university, Safi works experience,” he said in an e-mail interwith students of all faiths, but primarily view. “I especially enjoyed meeting with the approximately 850 Muslim students local Muslim and Jewish congregations, on campus. He works and hearing their with other religious experiences “There’s a lot of value in leaders on campus as after the tornado well as the Muslim Stuand as members our communities coming dent Association. of the Joplin together in creating a new This is Winberg’s community. The third year at Hillel. community and being able to trip built new The Rabbi who previfriendships both support each other.” ously held his position with the comwas involved in creatmunity members MARIAM KHAN, 2013 MUJEW CO-CHAIR ing MuJew, so Winberg we spoke with became involved in and among the ASB, accompanying them on trips he also ASB participants, and created a new kind helped organize. of community fostering continued service MuJew runs one ASB trip a year. Mus- and intercultural understanding.” lim and Jewish students plan a community The 2011 and 2012 ASB trips involved service trip to a distressed area: Through- disaster relief after tornados. In 2011, out the school year, they learn about the MuJew went to Birmingham, Alabama, to culture and history of the area and com- provide help after the April 2011 tornado munity they will be serving. During that killed 64 people and injured more spring break, they travel to the area and than 1,500 — leaving thousands of damengage in manual work and toward under- aged homes, buildings and communities standing the issues at hand. One Muslim in its aftermath. In Birmingham, students and one Jewish leader advise the group stayed in a synagogue and worked with and travel with students — Winberg has the Islamic Circles of North America’s been the Jewish adviser since 2012 along disaster relief unit, the Jewish Disaster

Response Core and Habitat for Humanity in rebuilding two houses that had been destroyed.

Less than a month after the tornado in Birmingham, there was a tornado in Joplin, Missouri that killed 158 and resulted in $2.8 billion in damage. MuJew traveled here in March 2013 and worked again with the Jewish Disaster Response Core and the Islamic Circles of North America.

“The thing about disaster is there are usually needs in the community for rebuilding long after the disaster,” Winberg said. “It’s also a compelling service project because it’s a time in a community where you don’t need to have expert manual labor skills. If you can hold a hammer and put on gloves, there’s usually something to do. It’s always been important to me that the service trips Hillel is part of meet a real need in a community, the kind of service that can be a short term commitment because they need whatever help you can provide for as long as you can provide it — not like some other service projects that raise moral questions of dropping in and build something the community may or may not need, and then going back to Ann Arbor.”

In Joplin, MuJew students stayed in a church set up to house volunteers. They worked on demolishing a damaged house so it could be rebuilt. Both trips involved manual labor during the day and bonding activities at night. On Fridays during ASB, MuJew had lunch and afternoon prayers with local Muslims and Shabbat dinner at a nearby synagogue.

For Mohammed, participating in a MuJew trip was her first experience with MuJew. She joined the organization soon after she traveled to Joplin.

“It’s a unique space where both groups come together,” she said.

Mohammed and Moehlman will lead seven other students in the 2014 MuJew ASB trip. Nine students and two advisers will travel to the south side of Chicago to work with the Inner City Muslim Action Network, which advocates for social justice and runs a variety of programs in the city including health and youth services and art programs.

“The MuJew ASB (is) a unique opportunity to serve with both Muslim and Jewish students and to have a meaningful impact on the community,” Moehlman said.

Winberg said he thinks the work MuJew does has the potential for greater societal impact.

“Judaism and Islam have much in common that Jews and Muslims don’t realize,” he said. “You go down to Birmingham and Joplin to help others, and the added bonus is you discover that your peers of another religion and culture have similar experiences and traditions. It’s very powerful.”

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 // The Statement

7B

Personal Statement: ‘Am I fighting with God?’

by Amre Metwally “Memleket ne?” (“What’s your country?” or for the dramatically oriented, “What’s your homeland?”)

“Teacher, you are Arab, not American.”

“Teacher, don’t worry, you are like us.”

“Teacher, are you Muslim?”

These questions and remarks have become the soundtrack to my Life After Graduation, my new life in Turkey. While such directness and generalizations (Have you heard of hybridization?) may have bothered me in Ann Arbor, I find myself sighing in relief when my new Turkish countrywomen and countrymen assure me that I belong. They consider me one of “Them.” It feels like a tease, this idea that I could be a part of their community.

I’ve always been a thinker. An over-thinker. I read books until words literally don’t make sense; I mull over things until I’ve made myself dizzy from going in circles. The constant self-reflection and inquiry is fuel for a perpetual identity crisis. Am I like everyone else? Am I Arab, Egyptian or American? Am I Muslim?

During my time at the University, I became increasingly interested with personal and academic questions on migration, identity and community. This obsession only grew as I got the chance to travel and do research every summer, visit countless countries and swap life stories with people whose narratives countered, complemented and contrasted my own. Late night conversations with Muslims in diaspora inevitably reached the topic of religion. Some practiced Islam’s pillars with devotion, others couldn’t care less about what the Qur’an told them and the rest quietly stifled doubts and frustrations. They all called themselves Muslim.

We seek religion to answer fundamental questions about our existence. We seek religion to provide us with a moral compass.

We seek religion for its potency as a political organizing force.

We also seek religion because it can shelter us from loneliness and isolation. It is, at its very least, an efficient community builder: It makes us feel like we belong in some group, in some place.

We seek community out on a daily basis. It’s not only a religious desire, but a human one. It’s what makes Football Saturdays so memorable, graduation day so bittersweet and postgraduate life so hard to adjust to. Community sustains us and drives much of what we think. It explains our desire to stay on an athletic team, join a student organization or pursue a new career path.

My most defining experiences as a Muslim on campus were most clearly illuminated when I questioned the notion of community that we create for ourselves at the University. Cultivating community is an active process but it isn’t easy. It asks us to self-reflect and to make difficult decisions about what values are important for us to live by. Yet, if we take a shared identity and simply accept it, then that passive acceptance also removes the personal growth necessary to build the sustaining communities and relationships we all want and deserve.

Whenever I got involved with

way of thinking and living as the minority in a minority in a majority is completely unraveled. It becomes unnecessary, even boring, to talk about religion. If everyone is of the same faith, a broad label, then what creates community? It is an active process, people choosing who they want to be around based on compatibility and other intangible values. But I’ve been told growing up that your friends are the Muslims, and that’s where to start.

Where do I go now? In my four months here, I’ve seen all sorts of Muslims, from the secular crowd to the wholly devout, hold hands and walk together, choosing not to exclude based on how they choose to practice.

I’ve met some of my closest ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND friends through the Michigan Muslim community. The comMuslim affairs on campus, I mately does, exclude others from found myself dispirited, angry, participating. How, then, do we munity has done so much: invited in denial. They really didn’t say address diversity in the Muslim Prof. Tareq Ramadan, launched that, did they? They punished her community? Sounds a lot like try- civic engagement and coalifor ... dancing? They are desper- ing to fit a square peg in a round tion building efforts, organized weekly Friday prayers, conductate for power! In spite of that and hole, right? much more, I found myself stayMany problems our commu- ed intragroup dialogues and held ing with the group. The intra- nity has faced, from classism to large public events such as the group tensions I witnessed — and racism and sexism, are not inher- Hijabi Monologues to celebrate ultimately embarked upon to ently Muslim problems. They being “Muslim” in the face of address with a passionate group become Muslim problems when harmful stereotypes.

Whenever I encountered the of role model individuals — are individuals comfort their antiproblems within any community, quated ideologies and selves by good and the bad that came with within any religion that tries to cherry-picking lines and verses this group, that nagging question define itself statically and one- from the word of God. When oth- emerged: Is this a forced, piecedimensionally. ers defend every offensive stance, meal community held together Muslim intragroup dynamics, comment, question and action by a religious label that every in my limited personal and aca- with line and verse from the individual sees differently? Or is demic knowledge, can be boiled Qur’an, it becomes hard to speak this an organic one formed out of down to a few mindsets: up and refute. Am I fighting with a purely innocent desire to cele1. Put on a happy face. Known God? Am I saying the Holy Book brate our shared experiences and differences? in other circles as the Fighting is wrong? Are they ... right?

Now as I find myself — an Parents Syndrome.

Despite the frustrations and 2. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. alienation I’ve felt for thinking alumnus, an American, a Muslim, 3. You either join us, or leave differently — or in some situa- an Egyptian and so much more us. tions, just thinking in general — I — alone and painstakingly tryWhile all three prove difficult find myself asking the same ques- ing to create my own community to witness, learn about, or experi- tion I do whenever I go to a new in Turkey, the question becomes, ence, I want to focus on the third place: Where are my Muslims at? “Does it even matter?” one here. It is especially problem- Now, as I try to settle into life Amre Metwally graduated atic: It espouses conformity. away from my friends, family and from the University in 2013. He Community building, at its community, I find a new parareceived a Fulbright grant, and is foundation, is about balancing digm, one that is the exact oppocurrently working in Turkey. plurality and commonality. The site of my own upbringing. Nearly “Muslim” label helps its adher- everyone in Turkey is “Muslim” ents but can, as any label ulti- in some sense of the word. My

8B

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 // The Statement

RESALE RELIGION The Statement staff explored The Daily archived advertisements to give you a glimpse at religion on campus throughout the University’s history.

March 23, 1969

December 12, 1949

April 13, 1969

April 2, 1944

September 9, 1993