Title: Celebrating 25 Years of Muslim Life at Georgetown

This fall, Georgetown celebrated 25 years of the Muslim Life chaplaincy — the first full-time Muslim chaplaincy established at a U.S. university.

Since joining Georgetown in 1999, Imam Yahya Hendi has created and led the Office of Muslim Life, which provides worship services, educational programming and religious support for the university’s Muslim community.

In 2023, Georgetown opened a mosque on campus, the first-of-its-kind mosque on a U.S. college campus, under Hendi’s leadership. The mosque, or masjid, provides a space for reflection, prayer, community and interfaith dialogue for Muslim and non-Muslim students at Georgetown.

“Muslim Life is a community rich in history at Georgetown,” Joseph Ferrara, senior vice president and chief of staff, said at an event in November celebrating the anniversary. “Over the last quarter century, it has supported our students’ personal and spiritual formation. It has symbolized our shared commitment to inclusion and the importance of faith in our community. And it has modeled what interfaith dialogue can look like across our campuses.”

On Nov. 16, Georgetown celebrated the anniversary of Muslim Life at a dinner with university leaders, faculty, alumni from all over the world, students and members of the Washington, DC, Muslim community. 

University leaders also hosted a series of career panels in which alumni discussed their careers in civic engagement, law, finance, health and medicine, including Asma Mirza (B’05), the chief performance officer for the state of Maryland, and Zia Faruqui (C’01, L’04), the first Muslim judge appointed to the District of Columbia’s federal court.

“I believe Campus Ministry positively engages our students in the role of religion and gives them the tools by which they can have more mental peace, inner peace — not only with themselves but with history as they navigate the future,” Hendi said. “I want to empower our community to live and practice a radical passion for compassion. That tells me I want to stay at Georgetown for another 25 years.”

Fostering Muslim Life at Georgetown

Hendi made history when he joined Georgetown in 1999 as the first full-time Muslim chaplain at a U.S. university, with write-ups in The New York Times and Washington Post. Bill Clinton even invited him to the White House to celebrate his new role.

Hendi was 32 years old. He knew the university’s goals for the new Office of Muslim Life: to be a resource for Muslim and non-Muslim students, encourage interfaith understanding, and provide pastoral care and religious guidance for Muslim students, who numbered a little more than 100 at the time.

But as the first Muslim university chaplain in America, Hendi had no roadmap. So he traveled. He met with Jewish, Protestant and Catholic chaplains on campuses across the country. He learned from fellow chaplains, while also being well-versed in his own faith tradition and interreligious knowledge.

Growing up in the West Bank in Palestine, Hendi had earned his bachelor’s in Islamic law and theology from the University of Jordan, and then his master’s in comparative religions from Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. Before arriving at Georgetown, he had served as a Muslim chaplain at the National Naval Medical Center in Maryland and the National Institutes of Health.

With this wealth of knowledge, Hendi began building the Muslim Life program.

In 2000, he started teaching Interreligious Dialogue with a rabbi and Jesuit at Georgetown, discussing how to engage on topics with differing viewpoints. He shared his experiences with colleges around the world, many of which also established Muslim chaplaincies. He offered retreats for Muslim students and a series on mental health, both of which continue to run. And he guided and supported generations of Muslim students through counseling and programming, and helped shepherd in new sacred spaces of worship.

“As our first Muslim chaplain, he has nurtured our students’ spiritual formation, he has led us to create new spaces for faith, and he has modeled interfaith dialogue and engagement,” said  Georgetown Interim President Robert M. Groves at the anniversary event. “Imam Hendi, we’re stronger and better because of your efforts.”  

Muslim Life on Campus

In 2023, Georgetown officially opened the Yarrow Mamout Masjid, which includes ablution stations, a spirituality and formation hall and a halal kitchen.

The masjid offers five daily prayer services, educational programming and spiritual discussions, and a built-in community. For many students, the masjid also offers a place of solace and refuge to disconnect from their routines and connect with fellow Muslims. 

“At Georgetown University, they come to a unique place,” says Hendi. “They come to a place that cares for the whole person. They walk into the space that tells them they are not far from home. They are home.” 

The masjid is the latest addition to sacred spaces to worship on campus. In 2017, Georgetown Law created a Muslim Prayer Room on campus with weekly services. 

In addition to the services, Muslim Life offers retreats at Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center in Virginia, Islamic lecture series, study circles, interfaith dialogue events and opportunities for services.

“Interreligious understanding is a core Jesuit value at Georgetown,” says Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., vice president for Mission & Ministry. “For 25 years, Imam Hendi’s passion and dedication have made him a pillar of our community. He brings a vibrancy to Muslim Life and our interreligious spaces, and continues to enrich our whole Hoya family.”

Ikram Muhammedsani (H’25), a senior in the School of Health, remembers visiting the masjid often in her first semester at Georgetown to worship, learn and attend events, like a series on mental health and faith. She said the events gave her a sense of “spiritual grounding” in being away from her home and family. 

“The masjid became a space to not only learn about our faith, but a place of gathering as we shared our joys and anxieties with one another,” she said.

She wanted other students to enjoy the welcoming, enriching environment she had, so she applied to join the Muslim Life team. Muhammedsani has been actively involved ever since. She now serves as the director of education and formation, where she plans retreats and events, just like the ones that impacted her her first year. Last year, she attended Muslim Life’s first Umrah, or pilgrimage to Mecca. Looking back on her four years at Georgetown, Muhammedsani said her most memorable experiences have been with Muslim Life.

“I pray that it continues to be a space for students to grow in their connection to their faith and build community,” she said.  

Hendi plans to continue to expand the Office of Muslim Life at Georgetown over the next 25 years.

“In the last 25 years we have accomplished a lot,” he said. “There’s a lot to do. The role of religion in domestic peace and international peace is not done yet. On the contrary, we discover every day that religion has a bigger role to play in advancing peace in the world.” 

“I want to be at Georgetown working with all the school, centers, offices and our entire campus community to advance that cause.”