While researching my article about Jewish Greek life here at American University, one of the most Jewish private universities in the country (depending on who you ask), I ran into someone interesting.
Ibraheem Samirah is a normal college student. He’s a junior studying political science and pre-dentistry, he likes hanging out with friends, he ran for Student Government president last semester and he’s a brother in Sammy (Sigma Alpha Mu), a historically Jewish fraternity.
Now here’s the twist: Ibraheem Samirah is a Muslim Palestinian.
He was attracted to being involved in a Jewish fraternity precisely because it offered a new perspective, especially for a chapter of a Jewish fraternity that isn’t very Jewish (as my article found). He found that Sammy in particular was open not only to his political views, but also to his choice as a Muslim to not consume alcohol.
“There’s a lot of respect for diversity,” Samirah said.
Samirah isn’t alienated in Sammy either, he said. Sammy’s Jews at AU are “progressive” and they share a lot of his viewpoints when discussing contemporary issues.
To Samirah, that contrasted with Alpah Epsilon Pi, the other Jewish frat at AU. When Samirah was looking at AEPi as a potential brotherhood he’d like to join, he wasn’t as comfortable with the pro-Israel sentiments that were monolithic in the group, he said.
“I felt kind of left out in certain situations when I was talking to people just because they learned the fact that I was Palestinian, whereas in Sammy when they learned I was Palestinian, they were like, ‘Oh, wow, this is intriguing,’” Samirah said.
Intriguing, indeed.
You can read the full article here.
