CURRENT AGE: 19
PROJECT NUR
Advertising itself as a “light on campus,” Project Nur works on 23 college campuses across the country to promote leadership and understanding among people of different faiths. Originally created as a student arm of the American Islamic Congress as a way to challenge negative media perceptions of Muslims following the 9/11 attacks, it is open to everyone.
Corina Kwami, 22, has been involved with Project Nur for nearly a year at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She recently helped organize “flash mobs” in support of Iranian students protesting the recent elections in that country.
“We have a number of people who are of the Muslim faith but also people within the Christian faith,” Corina says. “It is not a one-faith organization.”
How would you describe your work with Project Nur?
I started out as a media-outreach intern in the fall of ’08. From there I began brainstorming ways to bring Project Nur off campus, like helping run the Campus Hope campaign last summer here in D.C. We did a number of video conferences between our campus at Georgetown and Morocco, Jordan and Egypt.
What kinds of response have you received?
Most recently, we got a lot of coverage on our D.C. Iranian flash-mob action. D.C. is always very much covered with protests and banners, so one of our chapter members from America University wanted to do an action based on silent demonstration. We started at Union Station and moved to Federal Triangle, then to the Lincoln Memorial, DuPont Circle and then finished up at the Iranian Embassy.
It was 30 three-minute sections of silence. A lot of the sidewalks were just covered with students, people on lunch breaks.
What piece of advice would you give to other youth who want to get involved with activism, specifically related to religion?
The strongest activism is one built in solidarity. And solidarity does not have
a religious, cultural or ethnic line. Like Project Nur, even in our leadership there are Muslims, Christians, different people from different cultures. It’s better to have a broader base, without being partisan to a certain faith.
Copyright 2009 Y-Press