The HCC Global Task Force and Highland Community College will present “Muslims in America: Interfaith Understanding in a Nation of Immigrants” at 7 p.m. Thursday, February, 2, in the Highland Community College Student/Conference Center, room H-201.
This panel discussion is designed to explore and understand how to further develop interfaith peace and harmony from those who have already been working toward these goals. The panelists, from a wide diversity of faiths and backgrounds, have long been addressing this issue from both local and global perspectives. This event is free and open to the public.
Presenter
Arshad Shaikh, M.D. heads the Hematology/Oncology division at FHN’s Leonard C. Ferguson Cancer Center with direct affiliation with the UW Health Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Shaikh has been caring for the Freeport community and surrounding area for over eight years. He has also served as the past President of the Muslim Association of Greater Rockford and has worked intimately with the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department and Rockford Police Department in fostering a better understanding of minorities and working towards racial equality.
Panelists
Debra Majeed, Ph.D., is Professor in the Religious Studies Program at Beloit College. A religious historian, Professor Majeed has studied the interconnection between religion, gender, and culture and her concern with issues of social, political, racial, and religious injustice. She is the first African-American female and first Muslim to be tenured in the 162-year history of Beloit College.
Kanwal Prasher is a Professor Emeritus from Rock Valley Community College where he taught courses in religion, philosophy, sociology, and the humanities. He is Hindu, from India, and President of the Rockford Interfaith Council and believes there are far more similarities than differences among world religions.
Chris Stukenberg serves as a pastor at Park Hills Evangelical Free Church in Freeport and is pastor of Family Ministries as well as Student Ministries and Discipleship. Through the EFCA he has a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL and is currently working on his Doctor of Ministry degree from the same.
Rabbi Binah Wing is in her 15th year as the rabbi of Temple Beth-El in Rockford. She was ordained in 2002 from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and has studied in Israel. In Rockford, Rabbi Wing has been involved in a myriad of different activities interfaith activities and considers that work among the most important in her rabbinate. Rabbi Wing is also proud to be the first woman rabbi in Rockford’s history.
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