Class trip to a mosque
I wanted to introduce my students to Muslims, not just to Islam.
It’s always a challenge introducing Islam to undergraduates. I am out of my depth with the subject matter, and our cultural moment is inimical to nuance. But the stakes seemed even higher this time, amid travel bans and fearmongering. So I didn’t want simply to introduce my students to Islam; I wanted to introduce them to Muslims.
Our host greets us outside the mosque on a bright, brisk day in late autumn. He and I have only exchanged emails, so it is good now to put his kind face to a name I have typed many times. I and several women in the class have hastily donned head scarves in the stiff breeze. All 30 of us are ushered up the steps and into the building. We remove our shoes. We are glad for the warm socks we knew to put on this morning.
They say you never really learn something until you teach it. I know this to be true in ways both humiliating and humbling. I didn’t sign on to teach other religions back when I began graduate study in Christian theology and liturgy. But neither did I know then that higher education would face enormous pressures from shrinking enrollments, revenue shortfalls, and downsized departments.
