Another Successful Year with Muslim Voices

The Muslim Voices Public Scholarship Project has grown even more in 2023 as we organized several events, developed new campus partnerships, enriched our Blog, and increased our active social media presence across X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram! 

Lecture Series and Other Events

Our first event of the year was the screening of the Emmy-award winning documentary “Arab Indianapolis: A Hidden History,” followed by an engaging presentation by Dr. Iman Alramadan. Our second documentary screening was “Stranger At the Gate,” nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film, with Richard McKinney (featured in the documentary) as our host. This event included a talk with Mr. McKinney on how to fight Islamophobia and a community Iftar dinner as it took place during Ramadan. 

We organized a discussion, “Exploring Culture, Customs, and History of Uyghur and Hui Muslims,” with two graduate students as panelists. IU Central Eurasian Studies doctoral students Jing Xu and Ardahbek Amantu presented on Hui and Uyghur Muslims respectively. Dr. Gardner Bovingdon from the same department led their discussion and provided substantial feedback to our student panelists for their future work. 

We started our lecture series with “Deterring Islamophobia with Citizenship Diplomacy” in which Attorney Sahar Taman, Esq. shared with us her 20-year-experience in both formal and informal roles as a citizen diplomat addressing Islamophobia. She discussed how what was once xenophobia evolved into anti-Islamic discourse and violence after the events of September 11, 2001. Our second event was a webinar lecture, “Fourteen Centuries of Trans-Civilizational Discursive Tradition of Islam,” as Researcher Saulat Pervez from the International Institute of Islamic Thought discussed her work in which she traced the foundation of early regional centers, the side-by-side formation of disciplines, and the development of the various legal schools, as well as the main strains of Islam thought with an overview of the impact of modernity on it. We had participants from seven countries across the world at this specific event (U.S., Canada, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, South Africa, and the U.K.). 

Our November lecture was on “Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism” with Dr. Mohammad Hassan Khalil, Director of the Muslim Studies Program at Michigan State University. He problematized the populist interpretations of the concept of jihad (e.g. by writer Sam Harris and journalist Graeme Wood) for representing literalists or “mainstream” believers. He also discussed that targeting of innocent civilians involve interpretive acrobatics and are contrary to the widely accepted rules of armed jihad. IU’s Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures professor Dr. Asma Afsaruddin was his discussant which made the entire conversation incredibly engaging for the audience. 

Interfaith America

The Human Library of Religions (HLR) tabling took place three more times with volunteers from some of the less represented religions (e.g., Mennonite, Hinduism, Buddhisim, etc.) in the spring. Our “Ask a Question, Get a Donut” call captivated the attention of the people passing by our booth as they stopped to have brief engaging conversations with our volunteers and enjoy a donut. Each HLR activity allowed us to provide outreach to over 200 participants across campus. 

Our first workshop was the “Interfaith Leadership Workshop'' for those who were seeking professional development in how to engage in interfaith dialogue. Trainees at this workshop took active participation at the “Interfaith Dialogue Dinner”, both of which were facilitated by American Studies graduate student Lisa Doi. Our last workshop was “Building Community Through Dialogue: An Interfaith and Interideological Workshop and Dinner” with our team member, Isaiah Green, PhD Candidate in Ethnomusicology. At this workshop, he focused on developing skills that encourage curiosity, honesty, respect, and empathy through listening for participants who seek to engage in meaningful dialogues. Participants gained skills in the way they approach conversations through communicative skills, such as listening and storytelling to embrace differences. These workshops and the HLR booths were part of the “Interfaith/Intercultural Conversations: Broadening Horizons at IU'' sub-project of the Muslim Voices and were sponsored by Interfaith America, an independent organization based in Chicago. 

Publications and Partnerships

We have also been able to expand on the topics in our Blog publications. Our content now varies from Arab agricultural revolution, American politics, Muslim women making history, critical media reviews, celebration of American holidays, and many more! We are back on Facebook with daily content about the Muslim world. While we take pride in our X (formerly Twitter) outreach with over 120K followers, on Instagram we still need your support to reach more audiences both in the U.S. and the world. 

Last but not least, I would like to thank our partners this past year who have supported us generously. Although the Muslim Voices Public Scholarship is mainly sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Middle East and the Center for the Study of Global Change, thanks to the thoughtful co-sponsorships and support coming from Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, East Asian Studies Center, Islamic Studies Program, Dhar India Studies Program, African Studies Program, IU’s Arabic Flagship, Department of the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures Club, Indiana Humanities, IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and IU Arts and Humanities Center, we have been able to realize our events by reaching a larger audience across our campus and Bloomington with in-person events, and the world with our online events.

Thank you for your continued support of the Muslim Voices Public Scholarship Project, we look forward to furthering our mission in 2024!