House to Hear Muslim Chaplain

March 3, 2010

Author: Yonat Shimron

Source: The News & Observer

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/03/366886/house-to-hear-muslim-chaplain.html

Duke University's Muslim chaplain will deliver the opening prayer for the U.S. House of Representatives today, an honor few clergy, and even fewer Muslim clergy, get.

Abdullah Antepli, appointed the university's first full-time Muslim chaplain in 2008, was invited to give the 10 a.m. prayer by Rep. David Price, a Democrat from Chapel Hill.

The Turkish-born chaplain is one of a dozen Muslim chaplains at U.S. universities, of which only a handful are full-time staff members. He directs religious programs for Duke's Muslim students and teaches in the Duke Divinity School and the Duke Islamic Studies Center.

Antepli said Price called the Duke Islamic Studies Center a few months ago and asked for a meeting with faculty members. The two developed a friendship that led to the invitation.