Nazareth President Daan Braveman Credit: FILE PHOTO

A member of a local church allegedly called Homeland Security after two male students, both Muslim and students at Nazareth College, attended a service and coffee hour at the church on Sunday, December 4, said Nazareth president Daan Braveman in a letter addressed to the “Campus Community.”  A state police officer subsequently contacted the college to confirm that the students are enrolled, Braveman said.

The church in question is Browncroft Community Church on Browncroft Boulevard. The church’s executive pastor, Sam Huey, said in a phone call this afternoon that he can’t confirm Braveman’s account. He said he wished that someone from Nazareth had contacted him before Braveman’s letter went out.

The men, one African American and the other of Middle Eastern descent, visited the church as part of a sociology and religion course.

“They were shocked,” by the incident, says Julie Long, a spokesperson for the college.

Braveman’s letter, which went out today, expresses his concern over the incident.

“I am very troubled and indeed angered that two of our students were singled out because of their religious beliefs,” he says. “This incident underscores, especially in the context of the larger environment, the importance of our work in promoting interfaith understanding and respect across lines of religious difference.”

This was the second time that the students visited the church and they said they were treated well both times.

A third, non-Muslim student also visited the church on December 4, but was not subjected to the same scrutiny.

The college’s interfaith course requires students to explore different religions and to learn more about how a diverse and pluralistic society functions, Long says.

Huey said that the incident doesn’t reflect the mindset of the church.

Braveman’s letter:

Dear Campus Community,

I am writing to report on an incident that greatly disturbs me. This past Sunday, two of our Muslim students visited a local church as part of the Sociology of Religion course, which requires students to attend religious services that are not of their own tradition. This was the second time the students visited the church. Our students were very well behaved and appeared to be well received at the church. Nevertheless, a church member subsequently called Homeland Security to express concern about Muslim students from Nazareth. A State Police representative contacted the College to confirm that the two individuals are in fact students. After their student status was confirmed, the police dropped the matter. A third student, who is not Muslim, also visited that church earlier in the day but was not the subject of any such report.

I am very troubled and indeed angered that two of our students were singled out because of their religious beliefs. We intend to discuss this matter with representatives of the church. In the meantime, I want to stress that Nazareth is committed to supporting our students, and I have met with the two students to reassure them of that support. This incident underscores, especially in the context of the larger environment, the importance of our work in promoting interfaith understanding and respect across lines of religious difference.

—
Daan Braveman, President
Nazareth College
4245 East Ave.
Rochester, New York 14618
585-389-2001

This article appears in Dec 7-13, 2016.

I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education,...

15 replies on “Homeland Security allegedly contacted about two Naz students”

  1. The students went to this church , which I believe is quite large , and were well received . One person, allegedly from the church, calls the police with concerns that may be baseless.
    What does this have to do with the church itself? Their congregation is no different from the population at large. Some bright people,some troubled etc. The pastor has no ability to control the actions of each person attending services.
    I think the President of Nazereth is grandstanding at the. expense of a church that was being welcoming to his students.

  3. The school assignment was deliberately provocative, and seems to have been designed to elicit the kind of response that was generated here. We live in a world where radical Muslim terrorists have targeted churches, partly because they are vulnerable “soft” targets where guns are absent and resistance to violence is likely to be muted. That was the recipe that earned an 86 year old French priest a spot in a cemetery after an attack earlier this year by two Muslims in France. http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/26/europe/franc…

    Shame on the professor for using the students to make a political point and shame on ultra left winger Daan Braveman for making political hay out of this. One phone call in advance of this “assignment” would have prevented this from happening. The church parishioner did the right thing; Braverman did the wrong thing to exploit this for political gain.

  4. Yes, we have long lived in a world where we have to be concerned about Christian churches and their congregations being attacked. Look at what happened to Emmanuel AME church in Charlotte! Oh, wait, you mean Dylann Roof does not count because he is a radical white Christian terrorist who attacked an African-American church?

  5. “More than 100 churches and monasteries have been razed to the ground in Mosul and the predominantly Christian villages surrounding it, like Bashiqa and Qaraqosh, since they (the jihadists) took control of the area in 2014.” I wonder if this is part of the curriculum for the “sociology and religion” course at Nazareth – Islam’s inability to co-exist with Christianity in the Middle East. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-…

  6. Joe do you have anything to support your assertion that the churches security team called homeland security?

  7. Nazareth is my Alma mater. Every student takes this foundation course, and a requirement is that every student has to visit a few houses of worship, with a particular emphasis on those that are not their own faith.

    Having been partially raised in Christianity but with a diminished interest in it, and having an academic curiosity about other faith communities in Rochester, I chose to visit the Hindu Sri Vidya Temple, the Jewish Temple Beth-El, and the Islamic Center of Rochester. This was my freshman year, a few months after 9/11/01.

    The assignment helped a great deal in getting us out of our bubble, and in dispelling the notion that you need to walk around feeling fear of the perceived ‘other.’ We made friends, and we had important conversations with serious thinkers on sobering current events.

    At the time, my peers and I were inundated with world news that we barely had any context to understand, and were offered the opportunity to understand the universal feeling of vulnerability within the context of our own city. And the opportunity to grapple with the complicated cross-section of religion and politics.

    This was valuable. We spoke with people on all ‘sides’ about the impact of tragedy and its fallout.

    There was no indoctrination involved — we were simply asked to set up the visits in our own small groups, experience something we normally do not, and come to our own conclusions.

    My take on this incident is that it’s a missed opportunity for the church congregation, and a disappointing confirmation for the Muslim students about the culture of fear that some of us are choosing to wallow in.

    I wonder if the person(s) who called the authorities on these young people approached or spoke with them before reacting?

  8. Yeah what’s the big deal ? No harm, no foul. I have had the police called on me many , many time, to many to count in the course of doing my job. People are suspicious and rightly so these days. I never held it against anyone personally when I have had the police called on me.

  9. This assignment was not to elicit such a response. It is truly to learn. Having a cop called is much different than having homeland security called which can land someone in trouble with the FBI for no reason with no way out. And be real, it wasn’t just their religion was it, it was how they looked that got them reported. What church has a security team? I’ve been to that church. When did that start?

  10. By the way Joe, were you at the church when this actually happened did you see it happen, this is all hearsay.

  11. I can tell you that that school assignment has. Even in place for over 26 years, as it was a requirement that my mother had to fulfill when she took the course. The purpose is to build a greater understanding of other religions and to begin to tear down the veil of hatred and misunderstanding that is and has always been out there.

  12. Nazareth College should be applauded for having this course. Braveman should be admonished for his response. I’ve visited churches and mosques in Rochester and around the world and I’ve always been welcomed. However, it is a reasonable courtesy to ask if you can visit first. Did Nazareth advise this?
    The opportunity here is to reach out to the church to understand their concerns. The unfortunate inquiry to Homeland Security may not have been the church’s best move but generally casting it’s membership in a bad light does no one any good.
    A life lived in fear is a life half lived… for all of us.

  13. Michael P, church is an open forum to the public. No one needs to ask permission to attend. You only ask permission if you want to make a presentation during service.

    To ‘investigate’ a church attendee is so out of order just because they look different. Further, it is reported that state troopers are not to perform security when not on duty. It sounds like this person went beyond what he was suppose to do as providing security during a worship service.

  14. Sandra unfortunately things have changed with the recent outbreak of mass killings both here and especially in Europe. Many of these have occurred in churches and in one of these a priest was actually beheaded in front of his congregation .
    I cannot fault or Judge the churches security person for wanting to verify that indeed they were students.
    In today’s world you need to achieve a balance between securing the safety of innocent people while still being welcoming to people of all faiths.
    It is not an easy thing to do and I would encourage those students to return to that church to continue the admirable goals of their Nazareth course.

Comments are closed.