Interfaith group lets student study the scriptures of different faiths together in Houston Hall

According to the Quran, God made humans differently so we can all get to know one another.

The interfaith group “Sharing Our Scriptures” has taken this teaching to heart, as their group has become a space for students to explore their religious beliefs through the lens of other religions.

This student-led group includes both undergraduate and graduate students, and has members that practice Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. It meets biweekly in the Spiritual and Religious Life Center in Houston Hall to discuss topics ranging from the definition of love to feminism in Islam.

Each week a student chooses a passage from their religion’s scripture and shares it with the group. The group then launches into an hour-long discussion on the theme or question posed by that scripture, making connections to their own experiences or religions.

The group was started in the spring semester of 2015 with the help of Associate Chaplain Steve Kocher to bring together graduate and undergraduate students who shared an interest in religion and scripture.

The goal of the group, as co-founding member and Physics and Astronomy graduate student Saul Kohn said, is to “make plain how connected everyone is”. He said the group provides an open and supportive atmosphere where students “don’t need to be apologetic” about asking questions.

The students aren’t “necessarily an expert in their religion,” said co-founder and Graduate School of Education student Irteza Binte-Farid. To join the group you don’t “have to feel like [you’re] the most religious person in the world,” she added. 

The group sees itself as a celebration of connectedness, as students learn to not only connect with other religions, but their own as well. College and Engineering senior Gautam Nagaraj said the discussions are “an opportunity to learn” and have helped him see “different interpretation[s]” of his faith.

These biweekly meetings are a place where many graduate students feel they can connect with the larger Penn community. Binte-Farid said that, as a graduate student, she “didn’t really feel that integrated” into the larger campus. Since joining the group, she’s been able to “meet people of various backgrounds”, including those in different schools or majors.

Students see the group as a way to form relationships with people who are different from them. Nagaraj said that learning about religion is a unique way to “learn what makes other people tick” and was surprised to find that even though members practice different faiths, they “are pretty similar in what [they] believe.”

Binte-Farid noted that recently religion is a topic that’s “so crucial maybe even more crucial than it was before.” She sees religion as “a bridging mechanism” and believes that “a lot of positive change that can come out [of interfaith groups working together] even in this tumultuous post-election era.”

“Religion can be very beautiful and very unifying,” Binte-Farid said.