Duke University hires Muslim Chaplain (imam) + New Center For Muslim Life
Today on NPR there was an interview with Duke University’s first Muslim Chaplain: Imam Abdullah Antepli.
In even more remarkable news, he has helped form the new 1,400 square-foot Center For Muslim Life on campus!
Talk about upgrading your campus prayer room, Mashallah! 
The news is quite astonishing considering he was hired full time by Duke University to serve as a Muslim Student Association Muslim Chaplain / Adjunct Faculty of Islamic Studies. Duke University’s praiseworthy commitment to proactively moving beyond political rhetoric and instead focusing, as an educational institute, in serving it’s Muslim population’s needs and the educational needs of the campus, I hope will encourage other universities to follow suit. Only three other U.S. universities have full-time Muslim chaplains — Georgetown, Princeton and Yale.
“Chaplain Antepli was the overwhelming choice for the position by students, staff and faculty,” said Zoila Airall, assistant vice president for campus life at Duke. “He brings a wonderful combination of spirituality, inspiration and wisdom to this position.”
The new CENTER FOR MUSLIM LIFE is located in the old Robertson House which is right next to the Plant Accounting building on Swift Avenue. Please click here for map
————————
More News Stories
————————
Full NPR Interview: Meet Abdullah Antepli
“Duke is today a leading international university in an increasingly cosmopolitan social and religious culture,” explained Sam Wells, dean of the chapel. “If Duke, alongside other leading Western institutions, is to become a hospitable environment for the formation of a new generation of international Muslim leadership of a broad-minded character, it has to take proactive steps to show the Muslim world here and abroad that it is open for business.”
In December, on the last day of classes, he led Muslim students into a home of their own, a 1,400-square-foot bungalow on the central campus that will serve as the Center for Muslim Life, a place where students can pray, study and eat pizza late into the night.
“We couldn’t imagine ourselves as a community because we never saw it,” said Ali Aslam, a graduate student in political science, who was among about 20 students at the unofficial opening. “Now we can.”
“People need to learn about Islam and Muslims from Muslims, not from popular media or others who are not qualified to speak on behalf of Muslims,” he said. “The Duke leadership admirably recognized this. They had the vision to create this position. It will be my role and responsibility to shoulder that vision.”
