07 February 2008
Muslim Student Discusses Teaching Others About Islam
Nevine El Shazzley heads Muslim organization at Seton Hall University
The speaker is Nevine El Shazzley, a student at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and the president of "SALAAM," a Muslim organization on campus.
The video was produced on behalf of the Department of State by Whetstone Productions, a woman-owned media production and consulting firm dedicated to improved understanding about Islam and the Middle East.
(begin transcript)
[Bell ringing.]
Nevine El Shazzley: My name is Nevine El Shazzley. I am a student at Seton Hall University, currently a junior.
Both my parents were born in Egypt, and I was born in Brooklyn, New York. Well, the challenging thing about being a Muslim student in a Catholic university is that not a lot of people know about Islam and about the Muslim religion, and about Muslims in general.
I have a work-study job. I’m a lab consultant and I work in any of the computer labs that are on campus.
[Teacher: What does rehabilitation look like? And what are they like internally as a result of this? Yes?
El Shazzley: I think this is where we can put the link between ...]
El Shazzley: The feminist theory class actually makes me think about women’s rights and I take from what I know from my religion and try to incorporate it inside the classroom as well.
I am currently the president of a Muslim organization on campus called “SALAAM,” which means peace.
This is our second iftar, and we invite both Muslims and non-Muslims to attend.
We have a chance to educate people who may have maybe never even heard about Islam and it’s good to see that people are actually interested.
[Speaker: As you are going to college, I think that’s what they teach you. You know, leadership 101, no obstacle is an obstacle, but every difficulty is an opportunity to rise above it and say I can do this. Thank you very much for your attention.]
El Shazzley: The challenging thing about being a student here during Ramadan is that we just have to go about our normal lives, just like we do every day, Ramadan or not.
[Slide:
Produced on Behalf of
The Department of State
by Whetstone Productions
AMERICA.GOV]
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
