Western Courier

Issue date: 3/6/06 Section: News

Media Credit: KRT Rutgers University sophomore Amina Moghul, 19, center, hugs friend Khatija Zahiruddin, 20, as another friend, Marwa Elshishiny, 18, looks on at campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Feb. 10, 2006. Moghul decided last year to try to organize a Rutgers chapter of the new Muslim sorority, Gamma Gamma Chi.

PHILADELPHIA - Islam and sorority. The words are so far apart on the spectrum that even Rutgers University student Amina Moghul, a Muslim, could not fathom the idea of pairing the staid principles of Islam with an American institution known more for its social graces than religious devotion.

But as an emerging generation of American-born Muslim women seeks to assert itself and its cultural identity, the concept is not so far-fetched.

In fact, as Gamma Gamma Chi, the nation's first Islam-based sorority, takes shape at several universities across the country, it has become a reality.

"I never knew anything like this could exist," said Moghul, sophomore journalism and biology double major from Jersey City, N.J. "I thought it was interesting. Most sororities do not appeal to Muslim women."

A Gold Presentation - a meeting that introduces students to the sorority and a precursor to the sorority's being granted a charter - could be held at Rutgers' campus in New Brunswick by the end of the semester.

There also is interest at Cheyney, Drexel, Rowan, St. Joseph's and Temple universities, said Alitha Collins, the sorority's national president and executive director.

A chapter has started at the University of Kentucky, and one was just chartered in Atlanta. By 2015, the sorority hopes to have a chapter in every region of the country and to branch out internationally.

Launched in November, the sorority was the brainchild of Collins' daughter Imani Abdul-Haqq. Abdul-Haqq, senior at Guilford College in North Carolina, had wanted to join a sorority but could not find one that fit.

"I figured I wasn't the only one looking," Abdul-Haqq said.

She enlisted her mother's help. Collins - who has a background in institutional organization and was a member of Delta Sigma Theta, a historically-black sorority founded in 1913 - helped her plot out the goals and the mission of the new endeavor.

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