Imam Khalid Latif Builds Communities of Faith and Diversity

18 September 2008

Latif serves as head of university Islamic center and police chaplain

By Howard Cincotta
Special Correspondent

Washington — At age 25, Imam Khalid Latif already has achieved important leadership responsibilities as chaplain and director of the Islamic Center at New York University and the Muslim chaplain for the New York Police Department.

“The university and police department are obviously very different,” Latif said.  “But they're also very similar, as American institutions with growing Muslim populations who are trying to find their way.”

Latif is deeply committed to interfaith dialogue and community service as integral parts of what it means to be Muslim in a modern, multicultural world. “Each of these interactions can be an opportunity for spiritual growth,” he said.

As head of the rapidly growing Islamic Center at New York University (NYU), Latif is planning an ambitious fundraising campaign that he hopes will allow him to hire a full-time staff and appoint a scholar-in-residence within three to five years.

However, Latif never forgets he is, above all, the spiritual leader of a young and varied congregation. Most are students seeking to find their spiritual path as Muslims while also facing the challenges of young college-age people anywhere.

In 2007, he was named as only the second Muslim chaplain to the New York Police Department. Latif, who serves with Catholic, Protestant and Jewish clergy, already has been called to hospitals several times to comfort injured officers and their families, none of whom has happened to be Muslim.

Latif grew up in Edison, New Jersey, the son of Pakistan-born parents. He was one of only a small number of Muslim students at school. But in a pattern that has carried on through his life, Latif also sought out wider leadership positions, becoming student council president and captain of his football and track teams.

Inquiry Into Faith

Latif majored in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University and found himself continuing his inquiry into his faith and his role as a Muslim American in perhaps the most ethnically and religiously diverse metropolitan area in the world. (See “One New York City Neighborhood Is a World of Religious Diversity.”)

He also began to perceive the extraordinary diversity of Islam itself. “As a freshman, I met an Indonesian with a scraggly beard — and a surfboard. That was something new. But I also met Muslims who were African American, African, converted Muslims and the children of converts.”

Throughout his university years, Latif continued his informal study of Islam, and at age 18 he was cajoled into giving his first sermon. “It seemed to go fairly well, and I was asked to give them on a regular basis,” he said.

In 2005, after graduating from NYU, Latif entered the Islamic Chaplaincy Program at the nondenominational Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, the only accredited program of its kind in the country. (See the America.gov video Training for a Religious Call.)

Around the same time, Latif volunteered as the first chaplain of NYU's Islamic Center. He also co-taught courses on conflict resolution at Abraham's Vision, a Muslim-Jewish interfaith organization for young people.

In 2006, Latif accepted a part-time position as the first Muslim chaplain of Princeton University in New Jersey; soon he was commuting between Princeton and NYU. Both schools offered him full-time positions, and Latif accepted NYU's offer to serve as director of its Islamic Center.

School Chaplain

In many respects, Latif is a pioneer at a time when the growing Muslim student population, coupled with large numbers of international students, has greatly increased the need for Muslim chaplains on campus.

One of Latif's most successful undertakings was almost an afterthought: podcasts of his 20-minute Friday sermons. A friend suggested they record and post them on the Islamic Center Web site.

The response far exceeded expectations. The podcast Web site averages 15,000 visits a month. He has listeners from 40 to 50 different countries, notably Indonesia and Malaysia, although he also receives appreciative messages from schoolteachers and followers in Europe.

Latif regards his commitment to interfaith activities as central to his mission as an imam in today's multicultural world. “Interfaith work can be frustrating at times,” Latif said, and requires both time and hard work.

He cites a trip to New Orleans with members of the Islamic Center and NYU's Jewish Bronfman Center to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

By working and living together over a period of time, he said, they overcame their mistrust, “and they all learned not to define students by religion or background, as the ‘Other.’”

“This is real, effective change,” Latif said, “change that can emanate into the broader community.”

For more information, see Diversity at Worship.