Rumee Ahmed Appointed Brown University's First Muslim Chaplain

Brown University 's Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life (OCRL) has realized a long-time commitment to appoint a Muslim chaplain to its staff. Mr. Rumee Ahmed, an associate University chaplain, arrived at Brown this past month to take up his duties supporting the spiritual life of the Muslim student community. He is one among a handful of Muslim chaplains beginning to populate university/college campuses across the country. Ahmed brings to his new duties extensive experience working with Muslim and interfaith campus groups and an investment in teaching Islamic studies. In addition, he is leading an initiative to network all the Muslim chaplains in New England institutions of higher education.

The Reverend Janet Cooper Nelson, the chaplain of the University, stressed the importance of Ahmed's appointment at this particular time in the history of Brown. “As the campus' multicultural qualities are recognized and supported in so many areas of Brown's common life, the religious and spiritual aspects of Brown's Muslim community very much needed to be represented in a distinctive way within the University. The commitment to create the position for and to hire a Muslim chaplain truly brings greater wholeness not only to the chaplaincy itself but also to Brown's religious life. We are very fortunate to have someone of Rumee's experience with Muslim student communities, his excellence in scholarship, and his infectious enthusiasm for Brown.”

Ahmed, who is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia in Scripture, Interpretation, and Practice, expressed his aspirations for this new position: “As chaplain, I hope to bring my diverse experiences in the Muslim and interfaith community to create a safe and open space for Muslim and non-Muslim students to find their own answers to problems of the universe….I also hope to contribute to building a community that is based on our mutual respect for each other's humanity; a community that does not erase our differences, but rather recognizes them as essential to forming our identities—and therefore pivotal for fruitful interactions—and celebrates them as such.”

Brown Muslim Student Association (BMSA) President Lamia Khan '08 commented on the new position within OCRL and Ahmed's appointment: “Brown's commitment to a Muslim chaplaincy reflects its dedication not only to supporting the needs of the Muslim community at Brown but also to enhancing the rich intellectual, ideological, and cultural diversity that already exists here….Rumee's enthusiasm for supporting and working with students is evident in his eagerness to become involved with the activities of the BMSA, and we are absolutely delighted to welcome him to our organization and to Brown. We are confident that he will serve as a great asset to the association and to the entire Muslim community.”

The nationwide search for a new chaplain began over a year ago, but the idea of having a Muslim chaplain dates to 1998, according to search committee member Fatima Quraishi '06. She said that it was important to have as many students as possible on the search committee representing a breadth of Islamic experiences at Brown, including members of each undergraduate class, multiple backgrounds, men and women, and a full range of perspectives on Islamic tradition and knowledge. Eventually, eight to nine students served on the committee, which also included Professor William Beeman of the Anthropology Department, Professor Engin Akarli of the History Department, and Janet Cooper Nelson.

BMSA Vice President Youssef Garcia-Bengochea '08 explained that as the search process progressed it helped to hone the committee's expectations for a new chaplain: “The qualities we decided to focus on were along the lines of approachability, Islamic knowledge, enthusiasm for the job, being able to relate to the students, an understanding of American university life, and finally the Brown imprimatur of allowing students' opinions to matter. Chaplain Rumee did not just fit ALL these qualities, but he helped us define most of them.”

The benefits of the new chaplain are already being made real as students join Ahmed and his spouse, Ayesha, who will be the incoming Muslim chaplain at Connecticut College , for student sessions, prayer, and preparation for spring semester events. Another search committee member, Saad Yousuf '08 noted, “Muslim students until now never had the opportunity to ask specific questions they had about the religion of Islam, questions that would be too personal or awkward to ask Brown professors. Fortunately, now they have a great resource on campus.”

Ahmed did his undergraduate studies in philosophy at the University of Maryland at College Park . He has studied in traditional Islamic learning institutions in the United States and abroad, delving into Arabic language studies, Urdu literature, and Islamic jurisprudence. At the University of Virginia , Ahmed is focusing on Islamic studies and the philosophy of religion with the intent of connecting classical Qur'anic exegesis with semiotic theory.

During his undergraduate and graduate studies, he was a leader in Muslim campus and youth organizations, including serving as an executive board member of the Muslim Youth of North America, and a founder and leader of Saleheen, an organization dedicated to teaching Muslim youth Qur'anic exegesis and developing leadership skills. In addition, Ahmed was a lecturer and trainer for the Islamic Organization of North America. A key element to his work has been interfaith initiatives, becoming a student board member of the Children of Abraham Institute, an international forum for disseminating scholastic religious thought, and promoting dialogue among faith traditions; a member of the Society of Scriptural Reasoning, a division of the American Academy of Religion involving scholars from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions; and a member of the Peace-Project, a group of doctoral candidates who meet to consider the application of modern Western theories and Islamic thought.

He is available for office hours by contacting OCRL at 401.863.2344 or emailing Rumee_Ahmed@brown.edu.