Muslim

Muslim Life

Our warm campus community, part of the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, provides opportunities to explore your identity, connect with Muslim students, faculty, and staff, and engage with your faith through prayer, holiday celebrations, social gatherings, educational programming, and spiritual support.

Elon offers programs and events that focus on spiritual growth, interfaith exploration, and community engagement.

Elon University has a strong commitment to encouraging students’ spiritual development, and to be responsive to the increasing diversity of the campus community. The Religious Observance Notification Policy permits students to request an excused absence from class due to observance of a religious holiday.

Our Multifaith calendar, available on the Truitt Center website, helps educate the campus community about holiday observances and dates of significance throughout the year.

The Truitt Center works closely with Elon Dining to accommodate diverse dietary needs. Elon’s Lakeside Dining Hall offers delicious options for students who follow halal dietary guidelines, and grab-and-go halal options are available through the Phoenix Flavors vending maching in the Numen Lumen Pavilion.

Throughout Ramadan, grab-and-go halal meals are available in the dining halls for community members who fast, and campus partners are encouaged to offer to-go boxes at all meals during the month.

The Numen Lumen Pavilion has a dedicated prayer space and ablution rooms.

Single-gender residence halls are available on campus.

Elon has a full-time Muslim Chaplain on staff, Imam Shane Atkinson, who provides support and visibility for the Muslim community, connects students with resources, organizes Friday prayers and holy day services, advises the Elon Muslim Society, and provides pastoral care and education.

We welcome you to the Elon community! For more information, please contact Imam Shane Atkinson, Associate Chaplain for Muslim Life, or call the Truitt Center at 336-278-7729.

Mission

The Mission of Muslim Life at Elon is to create community and learning opportunities for students, faculty, and staff that:

• Foster the development of meaningful Muslim identity through social, educational, and spiritual programming, including support for prayer and religious observance.
• Support Muslim students to succeed in all aspects of the their living, learning, and well-being at Elon University.
• Enrich student life for Muslims by creating opportunities for dialogue with people of all religious, spiritual, and secular traditions.
• Provide opportunities for the campus community to learn about Islamic beliefs, practices, and varied expressions of Muslim culture.

Daily Prayer Times

Looking for the daily prayer times? Visit this website for a list.

Past Events at Muslim Life

Eid al-Adha

Eid Al Adha celebrates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son and is a feast holiday. We have food from a variety of countries and cultures, and we listen to individuals from the Elon community share their stories of Eid al-Adha celebrations and join in discussion over a great meal! Join us every year as we host this wonderful celebration on campus. (Note: our campus celebration is often on a different date to allow our Muslim students, faculty, and staff to celebrate Eid with their own mosque communities, while also providing an opportunity to celebrate and learn about Eid as a campus.)

Brother Ali

Rhymesayers recording artist Brother Ali performed and participated in a discussion about his music and its relationship to his understanding of race in the United States and his Muslim faith.

Unlikely Partners: Peacemaking Across Religions

Rabbi Yehuda Sarna and Imam Khalid Latif shared about their friendship, their work together and their convictions about peacemaking across religions. Latif and Sarna are co-founders of New York University’s The ‘Of Many’ Institute for Multifaith Leadership, which seeks to inspire, educate and train the next generation of spiritual, religious and secular leaders to meet the growing complexities of their communities and the world.

An Evening with Rumi and Rabia

Elon University and the Ripple Interfaith Conference hosted an inspiring evening of Sufi poetry and Persian music, with acclaimed Rumi interpreter Peter Rogen and accompaniment on traditional instruments and singing provided by Amir Vehab, Yvette Gogass and Gail Niziak.

Hijabi Monologues

The Hijabi Monologues project is about creating a theater space for the experiences of Muslim women; a space to breathe as they are; a space that does not claim to tell every story and speak for every voice. The goal is to build relationships across difference and to educate about the diverse experiences of Muslim women.