EDUCATION | Driving tomorrow’s achievements
04 April 2007
U.S. College’s “Coexistence House” Promotes Religious Tolerance
Muslim, Jewish, Christian women learn from each other by living together
Washington – Spring in the United States is often the time when university students get together with friends to submit their fall housing requests, hoping to share living spaces with people they know and who share compatible lifestyles. Not so for the 14 Muslim, Christian and Jewish women who have chosen to room together at the Middle East Coexistence House at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
By agreeing to live with each other, students also agree to accept each other regardless of their religious beliefs, Dalia Gheith, a Muslim and a freshman at Rutgers' all-female Douglass College, said in a USINFO webchat on April 4. “We try to understand each other's points of view and learn more about each other's backgrounds.” Gheith and several other residents of the house participated in the hourlong webchat.
The Middle East Coexistence House is part of a growing grassroots effort on American campuses to bridge cultural gaps and embrace diversity, according to Danielle Josephs, a senior, who founded the house in 2005. Josephs’ father is an Iraqi Jew and her Iraqi grandparents lived among Arab and Muslim neighbors. “I am determined, through this project, to help demystify misperceptions about Islam and Muslim women,” said Josephs, who speaks Hebrew and is studying Arabic.
“There are ‘ah-ha!’ moments every day,” Josephs said. “Every encounter broadens your knowledge base. For example, at the outset of the project, I was unaware that Muslim women could take off their hijab [traditional headscarf] in the presence of other women. During the first week, when one of my residents took off her scarf, I practically ran the other way so as not to embarrass her.” (See related article.)
“Sometimes we see similarities among cultures and philosophies that one may not expect,” said Samantha Shanni, a sophomore majoring in psychology and Middle Eastern studies, whose mother is Christian and father is Jewish.
“I was used to dealing with other religions because half of my family is also Jewish. But I do find that when talking about Christianity in American society a lot of people only talk about the evangelicals or extremely conservative Christians in the government. It is similar to the way people can stereotype Muslims as one certain thing. The more knowledgeable on the religion you are the less this happens,” Shanni said.
For Muslims to live in peace with non-Muslims in the United States, Gheith said, Muslims themselves must “have a good understanding of the tolerance of which our faith speaks and which it promotes. Consequently, we will become more open and accept dealing with and living amongst people of different faiths.”
“I … believe in the power of American Muslims in the Arab world,” said Sara Elnakib, a Muslim and a senior studying nutritional sciences who was born in Egypt. “I personally am planning to go back to Egypt to live there after I graduate and hopefully somehow change health care in the Middle East.”
Because Coexistence House residents are beginning to understand how to bridge religious differences, Gheith said, the students try to promote the message of coexistence on campus and outside school. Few pressing issues of the day, including environmental problems, poverty and security can be solved without working together as a global community, according to Josephs. “There are many inspiring examples of Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East collaborating on environmental projects in the region. These gigantic problems will only be solved if we put our minds together and commit to work as a team.”
Ultimately, it might be easier for women of different faiths to cooperate with each other than it would be for men, observed Josephs, who encourages women’s involvement in international conflict resolution and negotiation.
“In collaboration with men and existing leaders, I think that women can make a significant change in the [Middle East] region,” she added.
The transcript and information on upcoming webchats are available on USINFO's Webchat Station.
For more information on U.S. society, see Population and Diversity and International Religious Freedom.
