In 2015, Dr. Aslan participated in a Teaching Interfaith Understanding faculty development seminar, run in partnership between the Council of Independent Colleges and Interfaith Interfaith America, and generously funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. For information on future seminars, and to access more resources created by seminar alumni, visit The Council of Independent Colleges.

Activity Background

Dr. Rose Aslan, Assistant Professor of Religion at California Lutheran University, developed this role playing activity for use in her courses as a way to help make real for students moments of interfaith encounter, tension, conflict, or cooperation. The text below is an annotated version of the handout that Dr. Aslan uses in her course; the annotations help describe pedagogically how the activity plays out in the classroom. Faculty who are not familiar with this issue should also read the materials and watch the films suggested to students. The event involved real people who lived in NYC at the time and deals with a topic of a very sensitive nature, so it is best if the previous class covers issues dealing with Islamophobia in the United States to build up to this activity. This activity would be suitable for a class on religion in the United States, conflict resolution, and various courses on Islam and Muslims.