ICNY Video: Diversity in Religious Traditions
Hussein I participated in a conversation on diversity of religious traditions at an Interfaith Center of New York teacher session. Below is an excerpt of my longer remarks.
PBS POV Discussion Guide for “An Act of Worship”
The director of the documentary film An Act of Worship, Nausheen Dadabhoy, suggested to that I contribute to the PBS/POV discussion guide for the film. Thankfully it I was able to contribute and you can download the file from here.
Chapter on Ihsan in Pillars Fund Khayal
I’m honored to have contributed a chapter on “Ihsan: Aesthetic Ethics,” in the digital book Khayal, sponsored by the Pillars Fund. From their description:
In January 2020, we assembled a group of brilliant Muslim poets, writers, activists, scholars, historians, and artists to develop a roadmap for telling authentic Muslim stories. And for more than three years, these MNC Fellows were vital thought partners, helping us build our Culture Change program from the ground up.
To honor their contributions to Pillars, we’ve assembled “Khayál: A Multimedia Collection by Muslim Creatives,” a publication co-authored by the brilliant minds of the MNC Fellows.
Visit the link below to page through this digital, multimedia collection and learn about the creative inhale with Zaheer Ali, examine Malcolm X’s letters with Maytha Alhassen, dive into philosophy with Hussein Rashid, explore Su’ad Abdul Khabeer‘s memories of ’90s Brooklyn, go behind the scenes of Omar Offendum’s hip-hopera Little Syria, and experience Asad Ali Jafri’s comic from the future.
We hope this collection inspires you as much as it inspired us.
Cover by Alaa Musa
The full archive can be downloaded from here.
New York City’s religious diversity bucks stereotypes
“You can’t go more than a block without finding a house of worship in New York City, an actively used house of worship,” said Hussein Rashid, a scholar of religion with The New School and Union Theological Seminary.
While accurate and up-to-date data on the state of religious identity in the five boroughs is hard to find, Rashid and other scholars say the city is as spiritually diverse as it’s ever been, even as religious affiliation is declining here in step with the rest of the country.
Source: New York City’s religious diversity bucks stereotypes
University Distinguished Teaching Award 2023
Since 1988, The New School has recognized outstanding teachers with the Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2014, the university established an Award for Outstanding Achievements in Social Justice Teaching to recognize members of the faculty who significantly advance social justice through their teaching and research. Listed below are individuals who have been recognized for their outstanding commitment to teaching.
2023 Distinguished University Teaching Awards
- Anjali Khosla, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Design, Eugene Lang College
- Kenneth Millington, Part-Time Assistant Professor, Parsons First Year, Parsons School of Design
- Hussein Rashid, Part-Time Lecturer, Religious Studies, Eugene Lang College
From The New School
Can the World’s Religions Help Save Us from Ecological Peril?
Can the World’s Religions Help Save Us from Ecological Peril?
Visotzky brought in theologian Hussein Rashid ’96CC, who was exploring similar questions from a Muslim ethical standpoint. The scholars, who had spun off from a larger interfaith study group at Fordham Law School, decided to examine the issue of water as a way to focus their work, and for World Water Day 2017 they published a series of tracts around water-related themes. That got them invited to the Vatican to meet with the pope about Laudato si’.
“For me, reading the encyclical made me think of an eighth-century figure named Ja‘far al-Ṣādiq,” says Rashid, who teaches at the New School and UTS. “There’s a work attributed to him where he says for a believer there are four relationships that keep you in balance: to God, to yourself, to other people, and to the rest of creation. My understanding of what Pope Francis was doing really resonated with that.”
Video: Critical Conversations: Exploring the Shi’i tradition: Understanding the Continuity of Imamate
ITREB USA presents Critical Conversations: “Exploring the Shi’i tradition: Understanding the Continuity of Imamate”, where we explore the vision of the Imams’ guidance across the centuries on ethic of the spirit of inquiry and compassion, and sharing. This Critical Conversation features Dr. Hussein Rashid and is moderated by Dr. Naaila Hudani.
Video: Critical Conversations: Faith and Practice – Service as a Way of Life
ITREB USA presents Critical Conversations: “Faith & Practice – Service as a Way of Life” where we explore the concept of service in Islam and within the Ismaili Tariqah and how service is practiced in our lives. This Critical Conversation features Dr. Hussein Rashid and Zahra Kassam and is moderated by Shamsah Malik.
Event: Religion, Race, and Urban Space in NYC – Museum of the City of New York
1 December 2022, 6:30PM EST
Curator Azra Dawood talks with Nathaniel Deutsch, Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada, and Hussein Rashid, three leading scholars of religion in New York City, about the intersections of the public and private, the political, secular and sacred.
This program accompanies our new exhibition, City of Faith:Religion, Activism and Urban Space (opening 11/18).
Video: 6th Annual Symposium on Muslim Philanthropy – Creating an Ecosystem of Change
Click here for the video, no embedded video available. My comments are the first ones.