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 Omer Bajwa has been appointed the "Coordinator of Muslim Life" at Yale beginning Fall 2008. Born in Pakistan, Omer emigrated to the United States at the age of three, growing up in Upstate New York. He is presently completing his Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary, and he has been engaged in religious service, social activism, and educational outreach for the past eight years.
Before coming to Yale, he served as the Interim Muslim Chaplain at Cornell University from 2007-2008. He received his MA in Near Eastern Studies, with a specialization in Islamic Studies, from Cornell's Department of Near Eastern Studies, where he also served as the Outreach Coordinator. He also earned an MS in Communication from Cornell, and a BA in English Literature and Rhetoric from Binghamton University. In addition to his academic training in Islamic studies, he has also studied Islam from a traditional, normative perspective. He spent considerable time throughout his undergraduate and graduate career studying several classical Islamic sciences with traditional ulama from Pakistan, England, and the United States.
His interests include Islam in the United States, interfaith activities, Islam and the global media, and transnational religious and intellectual networks.
Read up more on Omer Bajwa here:
Office Hours
Iam holding regular Office Hours on Tuesdays (1 - 3 pm) and Wednesdays (11 am - 1 pm). I'm also easily available to meet by appointment. My office is room 21B in the Chaplain's Office in Bingham Hall (http://www.yale.edu/chaplain/contactinfo.html).
Please feel free to stop by to share concerns, to ask questions, or to just chat!
September 11, 2008
Assalamu alaykum,
I hope this letter finds all of you in the best of health and faith.
I have the distinct honor and responsibility of serving as Yale University's first full-time Muslim Life Coordinator. I am both excited and humbled to be working in this capacity. The university should be applauded for understanding the need for this position and being among the first of only a handful of academic institutions to make a serious commitment to the continuing growth and development of Muslim life on campus.
With this position, I hope to offer the community a wholesome experience of religious rites and rituals, spiritual counseling, advocacy, learning, interfaith engagement, and institution building. I look forward to community conversations on how each one of these areas can be enhanced and improved in the coming year and beyond. I do not intend to replace any of the great work already being done in any of these areas. Rather, my role will be to support and improve what we have, and to coordinate whatever we will need to grow. I hope all my experiences will bear fruit as we, together, build an even more vibrant, confident, and engaged Muslim community.
I look forward to meeting and getting to know you all in the coming weeks and months. Please consider me your brother, friend, and sincere companion. I may not always have the answers to everything you bring to me, but I promise to always try my best and to be there for you to the end.
Fraternally yours,
Omer Bajwa
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