c. 2007 Religion News Service

WALTHAM, Mass. _ Exams were over, dorms had emptied and only 16 Muslims _ about half the usual number _ had arrived for Friday prayers at Brandeis University, a predominantly Jewish school near Boston.

It was a far smaller number than the 200 or so worshippers Imam Talal Eid was used to preaching to when he was imam of a prominent suburban mosque. Nonetheless, the Lebanese-born imam delivered an energetic khutba (sermon) and afterwards munched on marinated chicken prepared by a Palestinian grad student. The atmosphere was warm rather than anti-climactic.

Eid may be in a smaller space preaching to a smaller flock than he had at his mosque, but as the Muslim chaplain at Brandeis University, where roughly half of the 3,300 undergraduate are Jewish, Eid has a job that is perhaps more challenging and important yet.

His role at Brandeis is one that ultimately shapes what international Muslim students will tell their friends and family about living among Jewish Americans, and perhaps what Jewish students will say about living with Muslims.

Eid originally came to his old mosque, the Islamic Center of New England in Quincy, Mass., in 1982. During his tenure, Eid, who is in his 50s, oversaw the opening of a second mosque in suburban Sharon, Mass., steered his flock through the troubled times after Sept. 11, and earned a doctorate from Harvard Divinity School.

He also built a loyal following, regularly packing his mosque for Friday prayers, and emerged as a moderate voice committed to interfaith activity. But some of his supporters have privately said that some members of the mosque thought Eid was too liberal. When Eid resigned in 2005 over a contract dispute but then sought his job back, the mosque’s board refused to rehire him.

Suddenly, the long-time imam was without a mosque.

But Eid’s followers continued to seek him out for spiritual advice. They hired him to perform weddings and officiate at funerals. On major Islamic holidays, they even rented hotel ballrooms so he could lead them in prayer.

Eid’s fortunes rebounded further when Brandeis hired him in February 2006 as its first Muslim chaplain; the school previously had Muslim professors serve as advisers to Muslim students.

Rick Sawyer, the dean of student life at Brandeis, said Eid’s hire was a natural response to a growing Muslim population on campus.

“We never felt that we needed to have someone to bridge any sort of gap between Muslim students and Jewish students,” said Sawyer, who estimated that about 300 of Brandeis’ 5,300 students are Muslims. “Our Muslim population had grown a bit, and we had the opportunity to look at the group as a growing cohort and sensed that an adult adviser would be a good option for them, and for us.”

Since joining Brandeis, Eid has sought to be a spiritual leader to Muslim students and an ambassador to non-Muslim students. He and Muslim students have gone to Seders and interfaith conferences, while non-Muslim students are invited to observe Friday prayers.

“I want non-Muslims to be exposed to Islam because that’s the only way for them to learn about the religion,” said Eid, who comes off as mild-mannered yet affable. “The more people are exposed to Islam, the more it is helpful for American Muslims and Muslims of the world.”

Along with his responsibilities at Brandeis, Eid also serves as chaplain at Massachusetts General Hospital, and sometimes gets called as an expert witness in divorce cases involving Muslims.

In May, President Bush appointed Eid to a two-year term on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, a role that in part involves traveling to Islamic countries to speak about Muslim life in America. Eid said most followers have congratulated him on the appointment, but acknowledges that some Muslims may criticize him accepting an appointment from the president, who many Muslims believe has done great harm to the Muslim world.

“We have to increase our efforts in building relations with non-Muslims so that trust can be established, and work together to respond to terrorists,” said Eid, defending his acceptance of the Bush appointment. “The right way is positive communication.”

Eid’s approach to interfaith coexistence is fairly simple. Islam’s Prophet Muhammad carried himself calmly and never became angry, Eid says, and contemporary Muslims would be wise to follow his example.

Eid is hoping to engender this spirit among his students at Brandeis, many of whom never dreamed that an American university would provide them with a prayer space and an imam, or that they could pray freely almost anywhere they wanted.

“At first, I was kind of worried that I may not be able to do my religious activities openly, but now I know it’s free,” said Aminul Huq, a doctoral student from Bangladesh, who sometimes prayed in the hallways of Harvard, where he took classes one semester. “Nobody bothered me, and I was so relieved. It was very nice.”

When he returns to Bangladesh, where 83 percent of the population is Muslim, Huq said he plans to tell people about his experience living as a religious minority in America.

“I never had any experience with non-Muslims the way I’ve had when I came here,” said Huq. “I was very amazed at how the coexistence of different religions is so nice here.”

Naima Al Rawagh, a Palestinian grad student at Brandeis’ Heller School for Social Policy and Management, said she plans to share her experiences when she returns to the Gaza Strip.

“People won’t expect that we have a place to pray here, at a Jewish university. That is the first thing that I will let them know,” said Al Rawagh. “I think my experience will add to peace. Its hard for my people to accept that I came to a Jewish university, and that I was feeling good and I had my rights. Maybe this will give them a view that there are people all over the world who are Jewish, and they are interested in humanity and making peace with us. There is another face.”

KRE/JM END SACIRBEY1,000 words, with optional trims to 750 words

Photos of Talal Eid are available via https://religionnews.com.