In the midwestern town of Dubuque, Iowa, plans to build a mosque are underway. Seventy percent of the building costs have been raised, and according to Lieutenant Scott Baxter of Dubuque’s police department, no threats, complaints, or hate crimes have occurred. Cardiologist Rami Eltibi, a member of the Tri-State Islamic Center, sees the mosque’s construction "as a milestone in the organization’s efforts to break through the misinformation and fear surrounding Islam. The site will be focused on fostering increased conversation and understanding among those with differing beliefs in creating a more welcoming and inclusive Dubuque" (Telegraph Herald, January 11, 2016).

How do we do this in the academy? In a period of growing Islamophobia in the United States, how can theological institutions help "build a mosque," metaphorically speaking, and replace sites of misinformation and miscommunication?

Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto is one of a handful of North American theological schools associated with mainstream Protestant denominations that have introduced a Muslim studies program, hired Muslim faculty, and accepted Muslims into its denominationally diverse student body. This major institutional shift broadens the scope of the study of Islam to include new areas of research that have a theological and practical dimension, such as spiritual care and counseling. Before this move, the formal study of Islam was restricted to departments for the study of religion and other university departments which are normally not conducive to theological inquiry.

These reflections are a mixture of the institutional and the personal. They focus largely on some of the initiatives and so-called "best practices" of interreligious programing at the institution where I have been teaching for the past fifteen years—Catholic Theological Union in Chicago (CTU). But they also include my own personal history and experience as a Christian Islamicist engaged in Christian-Muslim dialogue on both a professional and personal level for well over thirty years.