Students, faculty, and community members filed into the Harper Ballroom Friday Sept. 27 to hear Lesley Hazleton present her book, “The First Muslim”.
The Muslim Student Association, also known as MSA, partnered with The Center for Faith Studies at the Countryside Community Church to host Hazleton, a renowned author and journalist. Hazelton presented at 7p.m. after a reception. She also lectured Saturday at 7p.m. at the Countryside Community Church.
Hazleton is a British-born American author, journalist and psychologist. She has reported extensively on the Middle East from Jerusalem and she has been published in TIME magazine, The New York Times, The New Republic, Harper’s magazine, and The New York Review of Books. Hazleton has authored numerous books, including “The First Muslim”, which she lectured about at the event.
“The First Muslim” digs into the life of the prophet Mohammad. Hazleton consulted the earliest sources when writing this book, and hopes that her work brings Mohammad alive to the readers.
“I wanted to write a book that people would actually read,” Hazleton said. “Basically I wanted to bring the life [of Mohammad] to Western homes and people.”
Sponsors for the event included Fr. Henry Casper Professorship in History, the Kripke Center, the committee on Lectures, Films, and Concerts, and the Middle East Cultural and Educational Services-Omaha.
Jamal Jamil, MSA’s president, explained that a lot of work went into planning for the event, but he saw it as an opportunity to help bridge the gap of understanding surrounding Islam.
Jamil described this event as a way for him to “celebrate who I am; share my identity, my culture, who I am, with the Creighton community.”
He thinks that this lecture was a great start in helping to break down some of the stereotypes of Islam, especially since it came from a Western perspective. As a Muslim himself, he also saw the benefit of learning about his culture from a Western perspective.
MSA Moderator, Naser Alshalif, also saw the benefits of Hazleton’s interesting viewpoint.
“She happens to be Jewish, and she wrote about the first Muslim, and that is very intriguing, very interesting,” Alshalif said. “She has a different perspective.”
Creighton, a Catholic university, hosted a Jewish speaker to discuss the topic of Islam, creating a very diverse spectrum of ideas and opinions.
“I think anytime you bring speakers that speak in terms of…the other…whoever that other is, whether from a religion perspective, political perspective, social, cultural, everyone gains from that,” Alshalif said.
Hazleton agrees.
“I find that the delight of life is in the extraordinary variety of existence and experience and faith,” Hazleton said.
Hazleton encourages others to deepen their understanding of other cultures and ideas as well.
“How do you want to live your life?” she asks. “Do you want to live your life very, very small, closed in, with only what you know, and everybody around you thinks exactly the same? I don’t.”
Jamil and Alsharif think that Hazleton’s lecture will help broaden people’s understanding and change their perspectives. Alsharif mentioned that through attending lectures such as these, students, faculty and community members open their minds and become better people.
“It takes somebody like [Hazleton] and others to challenge us to really start questioning our own stereotypes, or our own beliefs and values and so on and hopefully become better human beings by doing so,” Alsharif said.
Hazleton has presented two TED talks, which can be found online, as well as several different speeches that have been recorded as well. Creighton’s MSA encourages readers to explore the ideas that Hazleton discussed so as to promote better understanding among the people and cultures of Creighton.