Lecture Series Aims To Break Stereotypes About Islam

Miami Dade College welcomes its first lecture series on Islamic studies, aiming to break widespread stereotypes.

The project is a collaboration with the Coalition for South Florida Muslim Organizations and the Mohsin & Fauzia Jaffer Foundation. It will be anchored by Mohamad Homayounvash and is scheduled to start in January 2018.

The program will be based out of Homestead Campus with Homayounvash there to provide students information. That will complement his lectures, which will be free to the public.

Homayounvash’s lectures will focus on topics associated with the Muslim community, such as jihad, sharia and political violence, in an effort to break through stereotypes associated with Islam.

“I’m trying to debunk a lot of misconceptions through student engagement,” Homayounvash said. “We want to talk about it through a geopolitical lense, not just the ideology.”

Eventually, Homayounvash hopes to tour all nine of the College’s campuses, expanding his outreach among students.

“My goal is for them to have a sophisticated understanding of these issues so they don’t have a tunnel vision of them,” said Homayounvash, who holds a doctorate in international relations. “Giving them exposure will give them more sophistication about the Muslim community. It will have a good ripple effect.”

The series is in collaboration with Islam Today, a series launched by Randall Kaufman, the dean of faculty and student services at Homestead Campus, to increase awareness on the Islamic community. Kaufman was approached by COSMOS,a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding outreach among the Muslim population in South Florida, because of his work on Islam Today, which led to the introduction of a visiting lecturer.

“We wanted to have a resource at the college,” Kaufman said.

That need for a resource was brought forth by the students, Kaufman said, as a way of better understanding the Muslim community. He aims to use this new platform to help break through the media glass and shine a light on the true nature of Islam.

“You can’t always be a bystander,” Kaufman said. “If you understand someone, it’s harder to hate them.”

Kaufman’s desire to bring awareness comes from personal experience. He grew up in a Jewish household in New York. His family struggled with the ramifications of the Holocaust, leading him to help launch the Holocaust Genocide and Education Program in 2008 at MDC, which currently hosts five courses and other events.

“We have no survivors [of the Holocaust] in my family,” Kaufman said. “What we hoped with the Holocaust genocide program, we hope for this.”

This view is shared by COSMOS.

“We want to share our stories” said Tehsin Siddiqui, a board member for COSMOS. “We are here, we are neighbors, and we want what is best for the community collectively as Americans.”

Homayounvash will also take over the Islam Today series from Kaufman, hoping to expand the program with courses and programs centric to the Muslim community. Classes will center on topics such as Islam in America and an introductory course into Islam, both taught by Homayounvash in an effort to view the community both as an ideology and civilization.

When people think of Muslims, Kaufman said, they are usually unknown and unaccustomed to their beliefs.

“They’re [thought of as] outsiders to the traditions of the country,” Kaufman said. “Similar, but not the same.”

With this series, Kaufman hopes the lines will finally begin to blur.