University gets first Islamic chaplain

The room is bare. The white walls are unadorned, and the shelves sitting on cinderblocks behind the lone desk are empty.

It's the first time Khalid Latif has seen his office in the Thompson Center. But then, with Latif's appointment this August, it's the first time an Islamic chaplain has ever taken office at NYU.

"Pretty much what we want to do is establish the position and see what grows," Latif said modestly.

Muslim students began searching for a university chaplain in 1998, said Stephen Polniaszek, associate director of NYU's Student Resource Center Spiritual Diversity Network.

They needed a qualified chaplain who could volunteer or find outside financial support from the community - as with the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant chaplains already recognized by the university - and the approval of both the Spiritual Diversity Network and the Chaplains' Circle. Without a Muslim spiritual leader, the university largely relied on students to recommend guest speakers to represent their religion at interfaith events.

Latif began as a guest speaker at such events during his undergraduate studies at NYU and continued after he graduated in 2004. After majoring in politics, he spent six months at the Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, N.J., before having a change of heart.

"I thought I could do something more beneficial in a different field," the 22-year-old said.

That something turned out to be studying for his masters in Christian-Muslim relations and Islamic chaplaincy at Hartford Seminary.

"When I heard he was intending to attend seminary, I asked him if he was interested in taking on the role of chaplain at NYU," Polniaszek said.

Polniaszek had worked with Latif before, when Latif - then the president of the Muslim Students Association during his senior year at NYU - established the Mission: Masjid program to raise funds for a permanent Islamic Center on campus, complete with a prayer space and a full-time chaplain.

Polniaszek said he remembers being particularly impressed when Latif hosted an event during Shuruq Week, NYU's celebration of Middle-Eastern and Muslim culture. Though quiet in person, the undergraduate was confident speaking alongside the university's seasoned chaplains and other guest speakers from the community, Polniaszek said.

"There he was, holding his own," he said.

Latif followed in his brother's footsteps, who had also been the association's president while an undergraduate at the university. During his brother's tenure, 20 to 30 students attended Islamic Center events. Now, nearly 300 Muslim students pack weekly prayer services and free dinners during the month of Ramadan, which begins this year on Oct. 5.

"We are a minority religion on campus, but we are active," said Maheen Farooqi, the organization's current president.

Latif never imagined he would one day occupy the chaplain position he was seeking to create through Mission Masjid, he said. Though the mission makes provisions for a chaplain, he said he wouldn't feel comfortable taking money that could be going towards securing the permanent prayer space.

Currently, the group leases a room in the basement of the Thompson Center for students to use for their requisite five daily prayers, and Latif is applying for additional funding through grants as he also puts himself through seminary.

Aside from the six-hour round-trip to study in Connecticut each week, Latif's chaplain duties include providing general advice and counseling to NYU undergraduates, acting as a liaison between Muslim students and the NYU administration and delivering Friday sermons twice a month at NYU's Islamic Center, as well asat other times at various mosques and universities throughout the tri-state area.

In addition, he teaches a class called "Abraham's Vision," emphasizing similarities between Islam and Judaism, at exclusively Muslim and Jewish high schools in the city. He also said he looks forward to organizing community-service events for university students of different faiths.

The new chaplain gives the Muslim students' association a sense of legitimacy and credibility, Farooqi said.

"It definitely reflects our growing community," he said. €¢