Dean: UD students can relate to Islamic faith journey

Book about Islam required reading for UD freshmen

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By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer 11:19 PM Sunday, July 26, 2009

Melody Moezzi is “ecstatic” to have her book, “War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims,” selected as required reading for more than 1,700 incoming University of Dayton students.

The Iranian-American author grew up in the Dayton area and is a 1997 graduate of Centerville High School. She studied at the UD Roesch Library while in high school.

“My idea with writing the book was it is my own personal little jihad, or struggle, to get a more accurate interpretation of Islam out there,” Moezzi said from her home in Atlanta. “So, obviously, the more people who read it, the better that is.”

Moezzi’s award-winning collection of essays will be an “integral part of first year-orientation,” said Kathleen Webb, UD dean of libraries. Students will use the book as the basis for a series of dialogues about diversity and differences as part of their orientation.

The book about American Muslims might seem like an odd choice as the First-Year Read selection at UD, a Marianist Catholic university.

“I think it just speaks to Catholics as people and how they, just like Muslims, range in their beliefs,” said Moezzi, who, as a youth, attended St. Rita Catholic School in Dayton. She became a Shia Muslim about age 20, she said.

UD’s selection of her book “also speaks to the fact that the Catholic church is changing its perspective on Islam and other faiths, and just being a lot more open to other faiths in general,” Moezzi said.

The 12 American Muslims interviewed in the book talk about struggles with their own faith.

“That struggle or discernment process is the same no matter what faith you currently practice or don’t practice,” Webb said. “We wanted to portray that people of different faiths are not that different from us in the way that they approach their beliefs.”

Moezzi, an attorney and activist, is a commentator for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” She appeared twice last month on CNN to discuss the violent fallout from Iran’s presidential election and subsequently received death threats.

“I’m from Iran, so I’m far too familiar with what happens when you politicize religion, and how it can be distorted by governments and people who want to gain power all over the world, which happens with all different religions, not just Islam,” she said.

Moezzi plans to visit UD during the coming academic year for a student symposium, although a date has not been determined.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@Dayton DailyNews.com.

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