Editor's Note: This is the second installment in a four-part series examining religious life at Dartmouth.
The Upper Valley is not exactly teeming with religious diversity, but the resources available to practicing Muslims are especially low, even for tweedy rural New Hampshire and Vermont. Al-Nur, which has served as the Dartmouth Muslim Student Association since 1984, is the main Islamic institution for the entire Upper Valley -- the College is the only place within a 90-minute radius that offers an area for Muslims to gather and pray, according to Al-Nur President Adrian Wood-Smith '10. Often, as many as 30 people from outside Hanover come to Al-Nur's Friday congregational prayers, called Jum'ah.
"It creates a strange dynamic of a vibrant community on Friday afternoons but not much going on the rest of the week," Wood-Smith said.
Roughly 60 students on campus describe themselves as Muslim, according to Wood-Smith. Of the 60, about one third are practicing Muslims involved in Al-Nur, which facilitates Friday prayers, occasionally invites speakers to campus and sponsors Tuesday night dinners and discussions, followed by night prayer.
Al-Nur -- which means "the light" in Arabic and is one of the 99 names of God, according to Wood-Smith -- functions under the auspices of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation, which sponsors many of the group's activities and provides Muslim students with a prayer room located in the Tucker Foundation's North Fairbanks Hall. Muslim students do not have a chaplain, though the Tucker Foundation provides the students with a Muslim Student Adviser, a part-time employee who visits campus twice a week.
"I was the first advisor simply because they needed someone to sign the paperwork," said Kevin Reinhart, a religious studies professor who served from 1984-1988 as the first MSA. "But Muslims have needed a chaplain. Several local folks have heroically served as advisers, but it is time for a trained expert."
Reinhart attributed the lack of an official College chaplain to the small size of the Muslim student body. Compared with the larger Jewish student population, which has maintained a strong presence on campus for decades and currently includes two established student groups, the Muslim population is constrained by its smaller community.
While most students know the branches within Judaism and especially Christianity, many tend to view Islam as one uniform, undivided faith, several students interviewed by The Dartmouth said. This perception presents a difficult task to Muslim leaders on campus.
"It is a challenge to build a community for Muslim students that takes into account their diverse backgrounds in Islam in a way that affirms each and every student and emphasizes what they share in common," David Coolidge, the current MSA, said. "They could be from Arab or South Asian, Shia or Sunni backgrounds, and they all bring different things to the table. Al-Nur has to have a 'big-tent' philosophy while making sure all students feel supported and can grow in whatever way they want to grow."
The diverse backgrounds of Muslim students can make it difficult to find common ground in many areas of student life, especially their social lives, according to Wood-Smith.
"Some of us have lived in Muslim communities almost all our lives, some are from the Middle East, some are from Africa, some have spent their whole lives as minorities in America and some are recent converts," Wood-Smith, who is himself a recent convert, said. "It is not easy to create an alternative social environment in which all Dartmouth Muslims will feel comfortable."
In recent years, colleges across the country have developed new ways to meet the needs of Muslim students. In early March, for example, Harvard University established women's-only gym hours to accommodate female Muslim students.
Considering the small number of Muslim students on campus, the College does everything within its power to make these students feel comfortable, a female member of the Class of 2011, who preferred to remain anonymous, said.
"Honestly, it's not that Dartmouth isn't an accepting community -- it's just that the Muslim community here is extremely tiny," she said. "It's so tiny that it's very, very difficult to make an impact."
Students interviewed by The Dartmouth cited the specialized dining options offered at the Pavillion as one way the College attends to the needs of Muslim students.
"The staff at Pavilion, especially Robert Lester, always make sure that our specific dietary restrictions -- mainly no alcohol and pork -- can be upheld, and often go out of their way in this respect." Wood-Smith said.
During the holy month of Ramadan, Pavilion opens before other dining facilities to allow Muslim students to take meals home to eat after sunset and just before sunrise.
Incorporating Islam into their lifestyles, however, means more to Muslim students than simply following certain dietary restrictions.
"As far as day-to-day life goes, there are certain activities that interfere with prayer times," Ahmad Nazeri '11 said. "For example, some classes interfere with Friday prayers so you have to be careful when picking classes and it sort of limits your choices. On the bright side, the professors are very understanding and flexible about it."
Midday prayer can often be misunderstood by non-Muslim students, according to Wood-Smith.
"I often have to pray in a public space, such as the library, and the motions of standing, bowing and kneeling can confuse people," he said. "I am regularly approached and asked if I'm feeling okay."
Certain tenets of the Islam religion, such as praying five times a day and avoiding alcohol, seem inherently incompatible with the typical college lifestyle -- especially at Dartmouth where the social scene is heavily centered on Greek life -- but Wood-Smith said that he thinks his lifestyle as a Muslim does not necessarily conflict with his social life.
"We just find ways of dealing with it, like anyone else," he said. "Most of us choose not to drink, and a few feel uncomfortable with the drinking culture, but we don't really feel too pressured to drink. Many don't go to frat parties, but those of us who do are able to have a good time without drinking."
Islam Fayed '10, a member of Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity, also said that he has been able to reconcile his religion with his social life.
"Things are obviously a little different for Muslims, but I still feel very comfortable within the Greek scene," he said. "Fraternities are still very open to Muslims."
Nazeri, however, said he finds it hard to participate in the typical Dartmouth social scene.
"I feel left out of the social life, especially on Friday nights and weekends when most people go to out," he said. "I wish that there were more alternatives on Friday nights for students who are not interested in the Greek life."
The female '11 who wished to remain anonymous said she, too, finds it hard to navigate the social scene and simultaneously practice her faith.
"It's super hard being a Muslim with the huge party scene," she said. "I know you can have fun without drinking, but it's just such a deep part of Dartmouth culture that its hard to avoid. I feel like there's a strict division between, 'Oh she doesn't drink, she must be a loser with no friends' and, 'Oh she drinks, she must be fun.'"
This fixed image applies to most religious students on campus, she said.
"If I say I'm Muslim I feel like people automatically think that I fit a stereotype, and it's usually not a good one," she said. "It really bugs me that being religious, no matter what religion, is considered bad and uptight. That's what it feels like when people hear that I pray five times a day or something."
No matter how accepting the Dartmouth community may be, life on an American college campus is challenging for Muslims, students interviewed by The Dartmouth said. Their religion is often associated with terrorists, September 11 and other negative portrayals routinely seen in the media, they said.
Some students who grew up in communities with a strong Muslim presence said they were unused to these perceptions of Islam when they first arrived at Dartmouth.
"It really sucks that the media has portrayed such a negative view of Islam all over America," said the anonymous female '11. "I never really ran into problems at home, because there were so many Muslims and so many people knew my family. They knew we are nice people and that all that stuff that happened with September 11 was because really crazy people did a really horrible thing."
Wood-Smith agreed, attributing negative perceptions of Islam to a lack of information and the small size of Dartmouth's Muslim community.
"It's sometimes difficult to feel completely comfortable in American society given that many people who call themselves Muslims have done and continue to do some terrible things in the world," said Wood-Smith. "News showing Muslim suicide bombers and Muslim leaders preaching hate and violence can be persuasive evidence when you haven't learned about Islam or don't have Muslim friends to converse with."
Regardless, all students interviewed by The Dartmouth agreed that the Dartmouth community is generally very accepting of their faith and willing to learn more about it.
"My experience as a Muslim at Dartmouth has been nothing short of excellent," Haitham Ahmed, a third-year student at the Dartmouth Medical School, said. "Considering that we are located in a small college town in rural New England, I find our campus population to be extremely diverse, informed, and eager to learn about 'the other.'"
Fayed agreed with this assessment of the College.
"I definitely find Dartmouth an accepting community," he said. "People are very interested in my religion whenever the topic comes up."
