At a university where the majority of students identify themselves as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one might expect the experience of students of other faiths at BYU to be challenging, isolating and maybe even characterized by religious tension.
Still, at a recent panel discussion organized by the Student Advisory Council within BYU’s Student Service Association, four students of diverse faith traditions — Muslim, Protestant Christian and Hindu — spoke from their own experiences, openly sharing with their fellow students both the challenges they have faced and the growth in faith and strength they have obtained from being a religious minority at BYU.
Attending BYU as a religious minority has enriched Muslim BYU student Tala Alnasser’s devotion and relationship to God, she said during the panel discussion.
“I think BYU has definitely enriched it because it’s put religion at the forefront of virtually every conversation that we have,” she said. She then explained this enrichment has come as she’s searched for ways that the literature she’s reading “intersects” with her own faith tradition, and as she’s taken her time at BYU as an “opportunity to educate” others on her beliefs and practices.
“I feel like I can talk to different audiences now and be quite comfortable in the way that I talk about Islam and Islamic teachings, beyond what my family has told me about it,” she said. “I discovered it for myself, not just on a personal level, but academically as well.”
Likewise, Alnasser’s fellow panelists answered this and other questions submitted by listeners and read aloud by panel moderator Tyler Griffin, who currently serves as associate dean of Religious Education at BYU.
How BYU has ‘helped me on my walk’ with Christ
Kyle Saurer, a Protestant Christian and student-athlete at BYU, shared in the panel discussion that attending BYU has helped strengthen his devotion, particularly by expanding his understanding of the principle of faith.
“Being here at BYU has made me sort of realize that there are sects of Protestant Christianity that are missing what faith really is,” he said.
The “focus” that students and faculty at BYU have had on the New Testament book of James, he continued, “has led me to reconsider, really, my standing before Christ in some ways.”
“It’s taught me that, yes, you are saved by faith,” he said. “But a faith that is saving is a faith that has works, it has evidences.”
Thus, the “exposure” to this idea, Saurer said, has taught him that as he grows closer to Christ, he’s going to “naturally want” to live according to his teachings.
“I think it’s actually helped me on my walk,” he said.
Answering the same question of how attending BYU has strengthened their devotion, Hindu panelist Neal Bhargava and Muslim panelist Bassem Bakri shared that it has helped them change habits and fortify their spiritual connection.
“Being in this unfamiliar environment,” Bakri said, “and especially one that pushes you to think about your faith consistently … (has helped) me see God in a lot more things.”
So, it’s been a “perfect environment for me to really develop my faith and really understand the world in terms of God,” he said.
Why these 4 panelists chose BYU
When asked what brought them to BYU, the panelists’ answers varied, but the bottom line was that their decision was influenced by their perception of the university’s sense of community, as well as its faith-based approach to education.
“I think what really lured me in, ironically, was probably kind of the religiousness of the college,” Bakri said in his response.
“There’s just so much love and faith around everyone. … And the more I looked into it, the more I saw basically my own community in the LDS community.”
As for Alnasser, she explained her ties to BYU date back to 2006, when her father attended the university’s law school to earn a Master of Law degree through an exchange program the school did with Jordanian judges. Her family later moved to Utah more permanently, and seeing the “impact” BYU had on her father and who he is sparked her initial interest.
“The fact that it was a Christian university didn’t really deter me,” she said. “... I was interested in this faith-based approach to education, and I think it emulates a lot of what made the Islamic Golden Age really remarkable, which is this idea of melding the secular and the sacred.”
How BYU is faring in fostering a ‘safe’ space for students of diverse faiths
Asked by Griffin how BYU has done at helping students of diverse faiths “feel loved” and “safe” in their own faith journey, Saurer expressed that, from his experience, he feels “very loved” when Latter-day Saint students come up and want to convert him.
“That means you care about me,” he said.
“I mean, if you believe you have an eternally significant truth and you care about me, you should want to convert me,” he continued, “just the same as I believe I have an eternally significant truth, and I’d like to see a lot of people here come to that same knowledge.”
Adding from her experience, Alnasser said she feels that on the front of accommodating others’ beliefs and practices, BYU has done an “excellent job.”
“I think because BYU is built off of religious principles and has a religious foundation, it’s a lot easier for the institution to see why religion can matter for someone else,” she said. “So I think BYU takes a more accommodative approach to interfaith and religious freedom as a whole.”
In practice, she said, this looks like professors being willing to accommodate time and space for her prayers or providing money for Muslim students to host a Ramadan Iftar.
Still, she said there’s areas in which the BYU campus community can improve.
“Observing how admin, how faculty, how students, have treated members of other faith traditions, I can safely say that, yes, like on an interfaith or religious front, they’re doing an excellent job, (but) that’s not to say that there aren’t other areas for improvement.”
The panelists’ advice for creating a safer, ‘more inclusive’ environment
One way students and others can help create a safer, “more inclusive” environment is by fighting the “urge to relate” with others, Alnasser said.
“I think a lot of the times, efforts are being made to connect with people, and one that we typically fall to is to try and relate whatever the person told us to an experience that we have,” she said.
Still, she explained that in her experience “some of the most enriching conversations” she’s had have been the ones where she and the other person have “fought the urge to relate to each other.”
Conversations in which “we were kind of focusing actually more on the differences than the similarities that we have,” she continued, “and really exploring them and digging deeper into them.”
So she encouraged listeners to fight the urge to relate, and instead find ways to engage in another’s religious practices. “Go with them to their faith service,” she said, “or participate with them in Ramadan.”
Similarly, Bhargava said grab a “shirt and pants that you do not care about” and “start to involve yourself.”
“Go join a holiday (and) have fun with it,” he said.
As for Saurer, he said that a “practical way” Latter-day Saint students can get to know those of other faith traditions is by avoiding using terms such as “non-LDS” or non-member.
“If you want to know me,” he said, “I think the best way to do that is to ask what I am, and let me tell you something about myself, rather than what I’m not.”
Bakri added that listeners should not let a “fear of asking questions” keep them from engaging in conversation.
“There’s never any harm in asking a question,” he said. “And even though some people may think so, I genuinely think that even a challenging question … is really, really important, especially if you’re trying to get to know them better.”
Why interfaith dialogue matters
For Emma Schmidt, a BYU sophomore who attended the event, the opportunity to listen to her peers — as opposed to visiting professors or other religious leaders — share their experiences was enlightening. And she shared that to her, having this kind of dialogue is important, as it helps her strengthen her discipleship.
Having these conversations “helps us become better disciples of Jesus Christ” and follow what President Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has taught regarding “treating everyone with respect, especially when it comes to religion and political beliefs,” she said.
Similarly, Griffin, who helps oversee BYU’s Religious Education department, shared that interfaith dialogue is important because “we’re all children of God.”
“We’re all part of the same family,” he said. “... And so at any level, including here at BYU, I love the opportunity to just break down barriers of misunderstanding.”
These barriers, he explained, are broken down as people seek to understand one another’s strengths, concerns, questions and struggles. To those seeking to build this kind of understanding, Griffin advised them to “spend less time arguing” and more time saying:
“‘Hey, I want to understand you. … Help me understand where you’re coming from.’ And often when you see what people’s background is and what their underlying beliefs are, then now you can have more compassion and empathy. … And all of a sudden you can strengthen a relationship, strengthen a friendship, rather than sever or damage or create a combative situation.
“It’s a way to be a true peacemaker, to just dig down and try to figure out and really, truly understand not just what a person believes, but why they believe it — what’s at the core.”
