Berkley Center

Background: In April 2014, Aamir Hussain, an undergraduate student in the Georgetown College class of 2014, interviewed Imam Yahya Hendi, director of Muslim chaplaincy at Georgetown University. In this conversation, Imam Hendi talks about how he came to Georgetown and his unique perspective on interfaith discourse.

How did you hear about the position at Georgetown, and what led you to take it?

The position was announced professionally. I applied, was interviewed, and I understand that 33 people applied for the position, and were narrowed down. They were narrowed down based on 1) academic background; 2) professional experience; 3) the ability to do interfaith programs; 4) the ability to engage in the interfaith environment; and 5) an academic and professional background engaging with Muslims and catering to their needs.

Georgetown is a Catholic university. How did that influence your decision to work here?

To tell you the truth, I did not know much about the Catholic-Jesuit identity before coming to Georgetown University. I only knew that it had a religious affiliation with the Catholic Church, but I wasn’t clear on what that meant. I came to know more through my experience. I had done five years of chaplaincy with the US Navy, so I had done interfaith ministry and I had engaged in an interfaith setting, and I had been able to engage and counsel and offer support to a broader community and therefore I already had that experience with interfaith work. My master’s [degree] education in Christian theology and interfaith relations added to that. I already had exposure to Christianity. I already knew what it means to be Christian, with Christian values, Christian ideals, and I already knew about challenges of interfaith dialogue from my own studies. Therefore my professional and academic background helped introduce me to an environment that may be new, but may not be new. It might have been new in terms of its particularities, but it was not new in terms of my academic and professional background.

I decided to come to Georgetown because I love to work with young women and men. I love to be both intellectually stimulating and stimulated. Challenged, if you will. I love to teach. I love to be in an academic environment which is different from serving in a mosque. Many masjids or mosques, churches, and synagogues tend to be unwilling to change or reform. [There’s] always the same, routine kind of work. On campus, nothing is routine. Everything’s different. Every day has its own challenges. Every year, you have new students coming in with new blood and new interests. I wanted to be a part of that environment. But I also believe, have believed, and will continue to believe that the young women and men of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Therefore, if I am able to engage with the young generation of today, possibly I will be contributing to a better tomorrow.

Why do you think Georgetown hired you? It was before 9/11, so what do you think was the motivation behind it?
 
I think Georgetown hired me because of my academic background, and also because of my professional background. I don’t think that any of the other people that applied for the position had either or the academic or the professional background to serve in a university with the diversity that Georgetown has. Therefore, they chose me for what I could bring to the table. You have a Muslim, [who is] young, yet able to engage with people of other religions and other faiths. The fact that I was young was an important factor, since my age was closer to that of the students I was expected to serve.

Why do you think it’s important that they have any imam on campus?

I was told that I was not hired to take care of the Muslim students alone. But rather, to cater to the needs of everyone, including Muslims. So yes, I’m expected to take care of the Muslim community, but the point here is that none of our chaplains are expected serve only to their community. Actually one of the things I was told was that, “Imam, we want you to be present for other people who want to know about Islam. Whether its students, faculty, or staff.” Georgetown wanted someone who was able to provide that diverse, pluralistic view on issues that others (a rabbi or a Christian priest) may not necessarily have.
 
Also, the university saw a growing, increasing need from the Muslims of Georgetown for ministry. Back in the 1990s, there was a growing need for a Muslim counselor, a growing need for someone who understands Islam and Muslim students and where they come from, and the kind of needs they have. And none of those needs could be provided by a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, or a rabbi. And therefore you needed someone that knew the Muslim particularities.

Additionally, at Georgetown as interfaith relations continued to grow, they needed someone who could provide perspectives on interfaith and interreligious relations from a Muslim perspective. This is something that I was able to contribute. The final reason is if you think back to the Catholic Church, back to the 1960s with Vatican II, there was a demand from within the Catholic Church to be more inclusive. The Jesuits, being what Jesuits are (catering for the needs of the mind, the soul, and the spirit) had required a Muslim presence who was able to cater to the mind and the soul for both Muslim and non-Muslim students. So [having an imam] meets a demand of a changing Church and its dynamics.

Why are you as a Muslim motivated to do interfaith work?

I do interfaith programming as a Muslim because I believe that it is God’s command. The Qur'an is very clear on the need to have interreligious relationships, communication, and work. From the verse that says, “Come to a mutual understanding between us and you,” to the fact that the Qur'an speaks positively [of other religions], especially of the “People of the Book” (Jews and Christians). Islam speaks about how we are human beings and we are meant to be different. Our challenge is to celebrate differences and come to know one another and come to coordinate with one another. Therefore, for me, I do this [interfaith work] because I believe it is what my religion wants me to do. That’s number one.

Number two, I think that the reality [of the world] requires it. How can we move forward in a world with so much pain, wars, and hatred? How can we move forward if we don’t remember that we are all in this together? And therefore, I do interfaith dialogue because I believe God demands it, I believe every religion wants it, and I believe reality requires it.

Through interfaith dialogue we come to discover that we are no longer isolated; we live in a big village and we are all interconnected politically, economically, financially, socially, morally, environmentally, and we face so many of the same challenges. We can only solve those challenges when we learn to interact with one another and we learn to be sensitive to each other. Therefore, there is no other choice but to be involved with interreligious engagement.

How do you think Georgetown has changed since you’ve been here?

Without any doubt, Georgetown University has done more interfaith programming in the last 15 years than it did before. Before I came on board, it was either a Christian-Christian or Christian-Jewish interfaith dialogue. Now you have a new piece: a Muslim partner in the dialogue. But also, after I came here, interfaith programs became engaging of more than the other Abrahamic traditions. After awhile, they started including Buddhists, Hindus, and people of traditions other than the Abrahamic ones. Within the Christian tradition, it started involving more Protestant churches and more traditions that [identify as] Christian such as Mormons, Unitarian Universalists, and the Unity Church. And therefore, interfaith relations became more embracing of more Christian churches, more embracing of Jewish diversity, and of non-Abrahamic traditions.

In the past 15 years, we now have a special assistant to the president [of Georgetown] on interfaith relations: John Borelli. The Berkley Center, with the kind of work it does on interfaith relations, is a new reality. The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding is not new, but at that time [in the early 1990s], it was very new. Therefore it has developed and grown within the last 15 years. I dare to say that interfaith relations became more institutionalized in the last 15 years than it was before. I dare to say it has become more influential, not only in Washington, DC, but nationwide. More Catholic universities have taken what happens at Georgetown seriously, and have imitated what we do.

In a way, Georgetown has pioneered interfaith work across the country.

How have you personally grown or changed since coming here?

I became more humble about who I am and my understanding of others. I think I became a better listener, not only in theory but also in action. I’m more able to embrace now than I was before, and I was embracing. And again to embrace something or someone takes time. Being here taught me that things can change and that there is a hope in tomorrow.

Again, interfaith work was present at Georgetown, but was not as present—especially among students—as it is now. And that has influenced how I see things and how I program things. So now, if you look at my agenda for last year and for the coming year, I dedicate more time for interfaith dialogue than I used to 10 years ago. And that is a change in me. I had to rearrange my priorities to meet more of those demands.

Describe your typical day. What kind of programs would you run?

I would rather discuss a typical week. A typical week is a meeting with my fellow chaplains—the Jewish, the Protestant, the Catholic, and the Orthodox [Christian]—to talk about successes and failures, to talk about how we can empower each other and how we program things together. A typical week is preparing for Friday services. A typical week is to attend a Sabbath, or Sunday worship service (either Catholic or Protestant). A typical week is to counsel students: spiritual counseling, professional counseling, interfaith counseling, marital counseling, or personal counseling. A typical week includes speaking in classrooms about Islam or things related to Muslims or interfaith dialogue. A typical week includes meeting with delegations that have come to Georgetown University and to give them a glimpse of how we do things here. A typical week is answering questions about Islam at Georgetown from students or parents who are thinking about Georgetown University for themselves or their children. A typical week is to respond to a growing massive inbox of emails that are related to things happening on campus, and how to respond to this or that challenge.

What’s your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part is the last week of the semester, when I see students on the stage getting their diplomas. I go through in my memory, the first moments when I met them when they were walking into Georgetown: the challenges and the good times I had with these wonderful young women and men. That’s the most exciting part of my experience: knowing that as he or she walks on that stage, I have somehow contributed to their success. Sometimes the students themselves don’t realize that, but I have had students who emailed me five or six years down the road and said, “You may not know this, but I came to discover now that you have had an impact on my life.”

Today, I received an email from a student who graduated 10 years ago, in 2004, and she’s about to get married. As she puts it in her email, “When I thought about someone who would preside over my wedding, I only thought of someone who shaped my life and changed it back in college.” This [woman] is someone who has been in the Foreign Service who has been around the world in the last 10 years, but she looks back now (I never heard this from her before) but obviously I had enough impact that she now wants me to preside over her wedding. So she was able to discover what I was able to instill in her in a subtle way, after she left college rather than before she left.

I have had so many of these experiences of people who only came to services but that was it, or sometimes even hated me because of what I said in the sermon or because of some of my stances, but 10 years down the road they look back and say, “Now I know why he said this.” Some people come in expecting the khutbah [Friday sermon] to go in a specific way and I don’t do that, or sometimes I surprise them in the way I react and interact with students.

I’m not perfect, I make mistakes myself and I know that. Some people may not like what I did or how I said it, but down the road they think about and understand exactly why I didn’t talk about prayers in every Friday sermon and instead focused on social justice. They think, “Now I know why he focused on Islam and tolerance and Islam and peace.” These are very important moments where you’re able to impact or shape someone that made a difference to him or her.

Do you have any advice for students for getting involved with interfaith work?

In terms of how to run interfaith programming, I say number one, take a few courses that will teach you about other religions. Make sure you take these courses with people who believe in these traditions rather than just with academics who will teach it from an academic perspective. Religion is really lived, rather than just taught. Study other religions from within rather than from without. Find a way to immerse yourself in that tradition, whether you are of that faith or not.

Number two, I would say, we have so many religious services from [so many] traditions. Take [advantage] of these opportunities. Go, watch, learn, participate, because you will never have this opportunity anywhere in the world. The moment you are out [of college] you will be busy with your kids (if you’re married), or your job, or your Ph.D., and you will not have the time that you had as an undergraduate. Attend as many services as you can, attend as many interfaith events as you can. Challenge your perceptions of the other, and of yourself in relation to others. This is what I would advise people to do if they want to be active in interfaith relations.

Do you have any general advice on how to succeed in college?

Read, and read, and read. The more you read, the better person you are. Do as much research as you can. Do not be satisfied with the one or two books that the professor assigns. Read more on that topic. This is why you are at any college: to read. I would also say that on campus, especially at a campus like Georgetown, you have more opportunities to build a network for yourself. A network of people who will run for office somewhere around the world, people who will become CEOs of companies, people who will become teachers, athletes, etc. Someone sitting next to you will one day make a difference in the world. Don’t lose that opportunity of being in touch with him or her.

This [networking] is in terms of students, but it’s also [true] for professors. Many of the professors have their own relationships and their own networks. So as you tap into your professor’s network, that will help empower you in the network that you want to build. So read more, build a good network, engage, do research, and remember that the sky is the limit!