Imam Adeel Zeb, who is going to be the next president of the university, is currently serving as the Muslim chaplain at the Claremont University Consortium in Southern California
The National Association of College and University Chaplains (NACUC), a multifaith professional community supporting spiritual and ethical life in higher education, for the first time elected a Muslim president, reported The Huffington Post.
Imam Adeel Zeb, who is going to be the next president of the university, is currently serving as the Muslim chaplain at the Claremont University Consortium in Southern California and will assume the one-year, volunteer position at NACUC this summer, the daily reported.
“When we were being sworn into our new positions, it felt like a civil rights moment,” Zeb said, adding that his election serves not only as a personal milestone, but hopes will inspire other non-christian religious leaders.
According to HuffPost, colleges frequently have one position that fills the roles of both top spiritual director and minister of the campus chapel. Since many colleges have Protestant roots, that role typically needs to be filled by a minister of that faith.
And with majority of Americans identifying themselves as Christians, there is a lack of diversity at such positions. “So when they’re looking to hire chaplains, universities typically hire Christians,” said Zeb to the daily.
It was further reported that in this academic year, Dartmouth College appointed Rabbi Daveen Litwin to its top chaplaincy position. The following year, the University of Southern California hired Varun Soni, a Hindu lawyer and scholar, to head its office of religious life. Zeb meets students of all religions and his personal faith makes no difference to those coming to him for counselling.
“I do feel that in the future people will start looking at the candidate not because of their faith, but because of what impact they can have as ethical leaders for their college campus,” said Zen.
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