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Islamic scholars at Faculty of Law Summer Institute visit gay and lesbian mosque

sgupta — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 10:17:11 +0000

Islamic scholars at Faculty of Law Summer Institute visit gay and lesbian mosque sgupta Wed, 09/04/2013 - 06:17

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Professor Anver Emon (centre, blue shirt) leads participants in Summer Institute on Islamic Studies on one of their visits (photo by Lucianna Ciccocioppo)

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Vito Cupoli

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Most visitors to Toronto are not taken on a surprise trip to the city’s only Islamic mosque for gays and lesbians.

This wasn’t the case for a group of international Islamic scholars who recently attended a nine-day institute at the Faculty of Law’s Connaught Summer Institute on Islamic Studies.

Faculty of Law professor Anver Emon says the Summer Institute introduces participants to Islam’s diversity. His challenge to the visiting scholars was to be honest, upfront and engaged, noting the “theme of the Institute is belonging and difference.”

Toronto offers a laboratory to explore Muslim diversity unlike any other in the world. Unlike most Muslim countries, Toronto’s cultural masala attracts Muslims from all over the world, adding context to the study of Islamic diversity and its intersection with legal plurality, politics and the academic method.

The Summer Institute is conducted in collaboration with Emmanuel College and supported by a grant from U of T’s Connaught Fund, which aims to foster new methods of research and innovation. It includes formal classroom about research design and method, informal small group discussion about each individual’s research and site visits to mosques representing diverse approaches to the practice of Islam.

One of these is the El-Tawhid Juma Circle mosque, one of the very few in the world to minister openly to gay and lesbian Muslims.

Professor Mark Toulouse, principal of Emmanuel College at Victoria University, who co-designed the institute with Emon, says it was designed to “force the graduate Fellows to reflect on their own perspectives and experiences when they approach the field of Islamic studies.”

As the scholars – who hailed from Bulgaria, Pakistan, South Africa, Germany, Canada, USA, Serbia and Indonesia – arrived outside the nondescript office building where the El-Tawhid Juma Circle mosque is located, several seemed ready to challenge their own assumptions.

Ayat Agah, a doctoral student at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California, says she encounters more and more Muslims who are struggling with the reality of “queers” in their community.

“They have this very human response: Someone is being harmed, denied their rights and they view that as a negative thing that needs to be addressed.” Yet, at the same time, she says, this desire to address injustice is coming up against a lifetime of teaching that particular practices or actions are sinful. “How do I deal with that – and especially when I recognize what’s going on as an injustice – how do I reconcile that with what I’ve just always been told growing up?”

To prepare for the prayer, co-Imams of El-Tawhid Juma Circle, Laury Silvers and El-Farouk Khaki add some Islamic touches such as prayer mats and a few hangings to the generic room, which is used for other purposes except on Friday afternoon when the community meets. Concerns about security and discretion mean challenges in finding a permanent full-time home.

Silvers, herself an Islamic Scholar at U of T, says the gender-equal, queer-friendly, and religiously non-discriminatory environment can sometimes be too much for visitors, who take one look and leave.

“When people come in here, some with short-shorts on or tank tops, our attitude is we want people to pray. There’s one person who wears a thong you can see when she bends over. Instead of telling her to dress differently, we told people who are uncomfortable not to pray behind her.”

Although Mustaghfiroh Rahaya, a scholar from Indonesia’s Centre for Religious and Cross Cultural Studies, has gay friends at home and has led prayers in a mosque, she had never prayed beside a man.

“I was surprised. They break all the traditions that I have in my mind,” she says. Initially hesitant about joining the prayer, she eventually decided to take part with the dozen or so members who arrived for Friday prayers. “It won’t distract me from God.”

For Mohammed Waqas Sajjad from Pakistan, the trip to a gay mosque wasn’t as surprising as anticipated. Currently a PhD student at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkley, California, Waqas found the visit, “enjoyable in an academic sort of way” but says he will have to reflect on his feelings about the new experience of prayers led by a woman.

“As a scholar I need to be able to meet those people on their own terms and not come across as somebody who is studying them for the sake of criticising them,” he says.

Emon says the community’s broad invitation to pray, regardless of Islamic tradition was eye-opening. Mosques have different rules about the prayer and who may participate.

“The prayer at El-Tawhid Juma Circle reflected a strong communal aspect of Islamic history, but how they organized their sacred space speaks volumes about how they imagine themselves as a distinct community,” he says.

This article has been edited and condensed by Lanna Crucefix. Read the full version.

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Analyzing food content, genetic disorders, and who rules Pinterest

sgupta — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 11:23:41 +0000

Analyzing food content, genetic disorders, and who rules Pinterest sgupta Fri, 08/09/2013 - 07:23

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Undergraduate students discuss computer science research projects over cookies with graduate students and alumni.

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Alice Han

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Computer Science summer internship

Twenty-two elite undergraduate students from a range of disciplines are conducting research and participating in a unique summer-long agenda of social events, student mentoring, and opportunities to present their research to an audience at the University of Toronto.

It's all part of a revitalized summer research internship program at the Department of Computer Science.

This new program allows recipients of the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) and the U of T Research Experience in Computer Science (UTRECS) to not only do exciting research projects with computer science faculty members, but also to receive mentorship from graduate students along the way.

“Networking is critical for undergrads,” says Peter Marbach, one of the faculty members on the program’s departmental steering committee. “Research is not only about the knowledge you acquire, but how to build contacts from the discussions you have with your research peers."

During the winter, undergraduate students sign up for the internship program. They are then matched with computer science faculty members and graduate students to do hands-on research throughout the summer, designing applications and contributing to real-world projects.

Students in the summer research program come from U of T and beyond, and are working on a variety of interesting projects. They include:

U of T computer science undergrad Elaine Malit is analyzing social media site Pinterest, determining influential users who might provide interesting marketing opportunities
U of T computer science undergrad David Hidru is working with researchers at SickKids, exploring ways to interpret genetic data to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases
U of T electrical engineering student Phoebe Chang is designing an Android app that provides customized information about food content
U of T computer science undergrad Steve Tsourounis is working with TAGlab on VocabNomad, a mobile app that helps with language learning
Waterloo mathematics undergrad Tom Yan is improving an Internet encryption system – work that may impact how sensitive information is transferred via cloud computing.

For the first time, each student participating in the research program will present his or her work to the entire group, providing exposure to that critical aspect of research: being able to describe your work and explain its potential impact. A Graduate Student Organizational Committee matches each undergraduate researcher with a graduate student mentor in their subject area, and the department now offers student participants a number of networking opportunities that aim to build community amongst the aspiring researchers.

“We want to bring all the students together in one room to expose them to different facets of computer science,” says Marbach. “The events are created to communicate results, exchange ideas, and [ultimately] broaden their horizons.”

Diane Horton, another faculty member on the committee, is equally passionate about the new-and-improved summer research program: “The undergraduate experience is about more than just the courses. Having each undergrad student paired up with a graduate student lets them know what graduate school and life as a grad student is like. I hope this will inspire the undergrads to take their work further – some might publish an academic paper after this summer.”

For Engineering's Phoebe Chang, working on the Android nutrition app has been exciting.

“This summer, I am paired up with graduate students and a post-doc who have really provided me with great advice about my work," says Chang. "Also, the program provided me with the added bonus of really getting to know students in computer science – for me, being an engineering student, this was an opportunity I would not have had otherwise."

The summer students will present their research projects at a public showcase on Thursday, August 22 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology.

Alice Han is a work-study student with the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.

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