A LESSON IN FAITH
Rice University class challenges stereotypes while exploring what it means to be Muslim in America
On the first day of the Muslims in America class, Rice University instructor Craig Considine places students in the driver’s seat.
He tells them: “I’m giving you the keys to the car. I’ll be sitting in the passenger seat, but you’re going to go out there and do this.”
On their second meeting, Considine divides students into groups, each charged with finding an area of interest to explore throughout the semester. Each group also determines how they will showcase the results of their efforts in a final project.
“We’re not writing papers, and we’re not making Power Points,” Considine says. “You have to do something different.”
His focus is on self-directed, active learning. Students come up with their own questions and their own parameters.
Considine’s role is to offer advice and suggestions. “I’m here to guide you on your journey,” he tells his students.
Considine neither assigns readings nor leads lectures. Instead, he arranges a series of guest speakers to visit the class. He wants his students to gain knowledge directly from the source.
This semester, for instance, he invited Pastor Bob Roberts from
North-Wood Church in Dallas; Imam Mustafa Carroll, director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations in Dallas; and Imam Mohammed Khan of the Maryam Islamic Center in Houston.
Team members and founders of IslaminSpanish, a Houston nonprofit that educates Latinos in the U.S. about Islam, spoke to the class, as well as Shahid Shafi, vice chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party.
In addition, the class was visited by Steve Slocum, former Christian missionary and author of a “Why Do They Hate Us?” The book explores Islamaphobia in the U.S.
Misunderstandings involving Islam are what spurred Considine on this path. His own interest in the religion dates to 9/11, when he was 15-years-old, living in the suburbs of Boston.
Raised as a Catholic, Considine had no knowledge of the Islamic faith, but he quickly became aware of the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media. He also realized the power that education had to clear up misconceptions and combat bias.
Considine says he sees the same lack of understanding of Islam today. As an instructor, he wants to have a role in reversing that.
“A lot of students go into class with hardly any knowledge of Islam and Muslim Americans,” he said. “I try to bridge the gap in their minds about what it means to be a Muslim and what it means to be American.”
And Considine wants to accomplish that goal in the most effective way possible. When students finish his class, he hopes that they will be better able to hold up an educated discourse on the subject, debunk conspiracy theories and challenge stereotypes.
“I try to empower them,” Considine said.
By placing students in control in the course, he wants to show them their own potential to make a positive impact.
“It’s not just learning what to think; it’s bigger than that,” Considine said. “They have to learn to create in a way that’s constructive and can build bridges in their communities.”
This semester, one team interviewed Muslims who identify themselves as Republicans, while another group explored negative portrayals of Muslims in the media.
Some students decided to explore Hindu and Muslim relations; others looked at how the physical space of a mosque displays Islamic values. One group learned about Muslims involved in civic engagement.
Noor Gamal Eldin, Emma Siegel, Eden Desta, Amanda Ochu and Alina Zhu formed a team to more deeply examine IslaminSpanish.
Sophomore Gamal Eldin, a Muslim with parents who emigrated from Sudan, was interested in ways other minorities combined their identities as Muslims and Americans. She also wanted to learn more about the rising number of Latinos who are converting to Islam.
After conducting four interviews at IslaminSpanish, she gained a new perspective. “We were able to gain a better understanding of who they are as individuals, why they chose Islam and how Islam affected their lives,” she said.
Questions involved prior religious experiences and how converting affected them and their families.
The team members found that the subjects of their interviews benefited from their conversions, Gamal Eldin said. They seemed to feel better equipped to search for peace in their lives.
Desta, a junior and a Catholic, admitted that her knowledge of Islam was limited prior to the class.
“It’s a topic I was relatively uneducated about,” she said. “The only thing I knew about Muslims or Islam was anything I heard in the media or in my social sphere. I wasn’t exposed to the actual experience of people who are Muslim.”
The project with IslaminSpanish taught her a lot, she said.
“I learned how similar Islam is to Christianity,” Desta said. “They’re both Abrahamic faiths. It helped me grow as a person — seeing our connections to other people.”
For Siegel, a junior, the course applied to her double-major degree in history and sociology. She’s Jewish and is the co-president of Rice’s interfaith council.
“I saw similarities between Judaism and Islam,” she said. “Seeing that commonality was really important to me.”
Working in a group that came from all different backgrounds also was affirming to Siegel. “We all vibed really well,” she said. “I think that’s because of our differences, not in spite of them.”
Group member Zhu, a sophomore who is agnostic, also wanted to learn more about the Muslim Latinx community through the project.
“In the media, we have representations of the Latinx community and the Muslim community,” she said. “A lot of times, the media misconstrues both of these narratives.”
Through the group’s interviews, she learned about the backlash that individuals faced from their families and peers when they converted. “They had negative stereotypes in their own communities,” Zhu said. “They faced discrimination in that sense as well.”
Still, she found that the subjects they interviewed were inspired by what they found in Islam.
“Religion became a rock in their lives,” she said. “It was something they could derive passion from and find community in.”
Zhu wrote about her experience with the group in the Rice Thresher newspaper. “Even in our group of five, we can take steps in changing media relations for another community,” she said. “Our projects are making real contributions. I’m not just learning about things, but I can also make a difference.”
Considine has offered this class for his five years as lecturer at Rice University.
Past projects have resulted in fundraisers, dinner dialogues, websites, blogs, documentaries and socialmedia accounts.
Considine’s mission is that team members will carry a lasting impression of the research they did this semester and the projects they created.
Desta said she is confident that she will carry this experience forward in her career in public health.
“Being mindful of other people who don’t share the same backgrounds as me, it broadens my perspective,” she said. “People have more than one identity. They don’t have to fit in a singular category.”
Gamal Eldin plans to work further with IslaminSpanish. “Our professor fostered our intellectual curiosity, facilitated our learning and helped us make connections” she said.
Being in a classroom full of students interested in learning more about Islam made a lasting impression on her.
“Seeing students act as allies for other minority communities shows they care and these issues are important,” she said. “It’s easy to stay silent, to be among people who care about the issues and want to see change, that’s really powerful.
Considine encourages his students to be “cross-cultural navigators.” This is not something he sees as limited to the classroom or to Muslims in the U.S. There are a number of minorities who have been negatively stereotyped and deserve to be heard firsthand, Considine said.
“I’m just laying a foundation,” he said.
His studies of Islam have strengthened his own faith in general.
He pointed to a verse of the Quran that says humanity was formed purposefully into “nations and tribes so that you would recognize each other.” He explained the point of being different was to get to know and care for each other.
“That’s what Jesus was attempting to do as well,” Considine said. “He was trying to bring the most destitute members of society into the fold.”
Considine recently wrote a book title “Islam in America: Exploring the Issues” and is at work on “The Dialogue of Civilizations: Muhammad’s Interactions With Christians.”
He also wrote “Muslims in America: Examining the Facts” and “Islam, Race, and Pluralism in the Pakistani Diaspora.”
He hopes to foster further exploration of Islam in his books and his classes. Interfaith dialogue is essential.
“It’s important now, but it will be even more important in the future,” Considine said. “Tensions can be lessened when we get to know each other. You have to go out and get to know each other, before there is any real understanding at any level.”