230 years after its establishment, the Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, has appointed Sidra Mahmood as the first-ever full time Muslim chaplain.
Mahmood, who graduated from Mount Holyoke College with the intention of pursuing a PhD in biology, turned to chaplaincy after feeling isolated while working and living alone in Boston.
She spent around five years studying at an Islamic seminary and completed training to be a hospital chaplain before moving to Phoenix, where she served as a hospital chaplain.
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“There were 238 end-of-life cases that I personally attended to, and that was very hard on my soul,” she said in an interview with the Williams Record.
“I see college chaplaincy more as shepherding, which is a very Islamic concept. The Prophet [Muhammad], peace be upon him, said that each of you is a shepherd, and you will be responsible for your flock.
“I see [being a college chaplain] as a kind of companion along with people and shepherding that flock, as opposed to healthcare chaplaincy, which I saw as [being] a spiritual paramedic, where you’re seeing people for just one or two meetings,” she continued.
Mahmood succeeds Aseel Abulhab ’, who served as Interim Muslim Program Coordinator through the end of the last academic year while also holding a full-time position at the Davis Center.
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Helping Muslim Students
Taking her new role, Mahmood hopes to help Dining Services provide food for Muslim students in accordance with Islamic dietary laws.
She hopes to be an inspiration for other Muslims.
“We didn’t have a Muslim chaplain for my first year of college, but we got somebody my sophomore year… and so she was really instrumental in my [spiritual] journey,” she said.
“I used to attend Shabbat [in college] for example — and that was my entryway into knowing who the chaplains were and what impact chaplains can actually make,” she said. “I felt like a seed was planted at that time, even though it didn’t sprout until years later.”
Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men’s college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was killed in the French and Indian War in 1755.
Muslim Chaplains in US
Muslim chaplains often serve both Muslims and non-Muslims, offering spiritual support and guidance, and in recent years, chaplains have acted as intra-institutional leaders who work towards greater interfaith understanding and community engagement.
Today, Muslim chaplaincy in the United States has moved away from da’wah towards a focus on support and pastoral care, according to the Association of Muslim Chaplains, a professional organization begun in 2011.
The Association of Muslim Chaplains, along with Boston University School of Medicine, April released a survey of Muslim chaplains in America.
It found that challenges included the need for more “strong Muslim institutions” to conduct the training and provide financial support, personal support, gender expectations, and the social climate.