Diana Park and Farah El-Sharif, Honorable Mention
This essay is co-written by Diana Park (SFS ’09) and Farah El-Sharif (SFS ’09)
I am an evangelical Christian at a Jesuit university and often wonder what God had in mind when He decided to use me to fulfill His purpose here. There were two problems. First, most of my classmates were already Christian or seemed to have a good understanding of the message of the Gospel. Second, I wondered how God would want to use a kid who was struggling with serious doubt issues about Him at the time.
I am an Arab Muslim woman whose love for life and the Islamic faith has been nourished by Georgetown: a Catholic University. The haunting serenity of Dahlgren Chapel could move me just as much as a late night Qur’anic recitation in the Muslim Prayer of Copley Hall. My friends and faculty inspire me, Muslim be they or atheist, for it is in the diversity of conviction and outlook that puts me at awe of the divine plurality that makes this world a more beautiful place. There is a verse in the Qur’an that says: if Allah had willed, he could have created you all the same. Indeed, God or Allah had not; so who am I to opt for a narrow-minded lens when creation itself is so multiple in its outlook?
On the first day of my Problem of God class, however, I began to understand what exactly was being asked of me. Twice a week, I would sit through an hour of lecture that espoused a theology that seemed heretical, according to my lifelong indoctrination into the Presbyterian Church through the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. I was shocked to find that the professor had no problem repeatedly stating that the Bible is, at times, erroneous. This was very unnerving to a Christian whose faith is based solely on the divine inerrancy of the Word. However, when the professor often criticized evangelical Christians for their “fundamentalism”, I made no attempt to defend or explain our beliefs. It was not that I was ashamed of my faith or that I felt a particularly supernatural ability to forgive her for what she was doing. Instead, I admit that this resignation came from the fact that I was closed-minded and unable to accept her or others’ beliefs.
In many of my classes, 9/11 and terrorism would come up and so would the inevitability of tackling about “Islamic radicalism” or “fundamentalism.” Although many people at Georgetown know better than to confuse the Islamic faith with the violent and non-Islamic ideology of a minority of Muslims, I am still surprised at the hasty and subliminal connections people make with Islam and terrorism: “with the growth of the Muslim community in Europe, France has taken measures to improve its internal anti-terror policy,” would Professor so casually state. Forgetting that if Muslim communities withdrew from Europe or the United States, those countries would probably experience a serious halt to their social, civic and economic interests. How surreal, I would think to myself, to hear my faith spoken of in vain in an indifferent college auditorium.
This brings up a key problem as an evangelical Christian in a post-modern world. We are seen as closed-minded individuals who take the Bible too literally and believe that all other religions are wrong. However, for the most part, this is all true. We do take the Word of God as the truth and believe that Jesus is the only path to salvation. Furthermore, out of gratitude and compassion, we want to share this faith with everyone around us. On a campus dominated by principles of pluralism and interreligious understanding, I felt shut up, drowned out, and confused.
This brings up a key problem as a young Muslim in a post-modern world: we are seen as conservative and backwards individuals who take the Qur’an too seriously and believe that all other religions are wrong. While we too take the Word of God as absolute truth, Muslims want to live and be their peaceful religion with peoples of all faiths and backgrounds, to uphold the verse in the Qur’an that say: “and we have created you of tribes and nations so that you may know one another.”
I was surprised, though, at who came to my aid during my time of spiritual doubt. Her name is Farah El-Sharif, a Muslim girl from Jordan. We rarely spoke about our religious conviction, and focused on the more pertinent issues that pulled together most friendships between most young women, namely the guys, fashion, and gossip. However, I remember one important conversation between Farah and me that helped me during times of my hardest spiritual struggle over the validity of my faith. The conversation was not much, simply how she was excited to see the eminence and brilliance of God’s love throughout her life. Farah explained to me what moved to her to don a hijaab (headscarf), which was a sign of conviction, allegiance, and gratitude to her Allah. She gently reminded me that we must strive to see the beauty in His creation, and thank Him for it, everyday.
Spending time with Diana reminded me that faith and the struggle to maintain it, manifests itself in different ways. For, though the paths may differ, the destination is one. I will always remember walking up and down M street with her under the rain, trying to decide on a place to grab a quick bite, laughing hysterically on an empty stomach about life, love and simply remembering: you are my sister in humanity, and I would take a bullet for you.
It was then that we realized that the meaning of interreligious understanding simply meant God’s divine ability to transcend religious boundaries. It is something we can strive to achieve, but is still effortless on our part. Only God has the power to bring people of different religions together, like our unlikely friendship. Furthermore, we believe God uses these opportunities to bless His creation and show, again and again, how much He loves all of His children. All that is asked of us is to simply wait, prayerfully, and let His love do the work in us, through us, and all around us.
Therefore, we urge the Georgetown University help nurture more unlikely friendships such as ours through interreligious training during orientation activities for faculty and students alike. We believe that personal relationships are the true medium through which God can allow for interreligious understanding on this campus and throughout the world. So, we invite you to join us as we continue to pray together and work toward forging new friendships everyday.