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Imam Abdullah Antepli
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Imam Abdullah completed his basic training and education in his native Turkey. From 1996-2003 he worked on a variety of faith-based humanitarian and relief projects in Myanmar (Burma) and Malaysia with the Association of Social and Economic Solidarity with Pacific Countries. He is the founder and executive board member of the Muslim Chaplains Association and a member of the National Association of College and University Chaplains. From 2003 to 2005 he served as the first Muslim chaplain at Wesleyan University. He then moved to Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, where he was the associate director of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program & Interfaith Relations, as well as an adjunct faculty member.

As the Muslim chaplain at Duke University, he is be one of only a handful of full-time Muslim chaplains at U.S. colleges and universities. His work at Duke focuses on three primary areas: religious leadership for Duke's Muslim community, pastoral care and counseling for persons of any faith, or of no ascribed faith, and intra- and interfaith work.

He engages students, faculty, and staff across campus through seminars, panels, and other avenues to provide a Muslim voice and perspective to the discussions of faith, spirituality, social justice, and more. As part of this work, Chaplain Antepli serves as a faculty member in the Divinity School and at DISC (Duke Islamic Studies Center), teaching a variety of courses on Islam.

Blog Entries by Imam Abdullah Antepli

Gratitude From Duke's Muslim Community

(2) Comments | Posted April 23, 2013 | 1:43 PM

The dust has yet to settle in response to the horrific Boston bombings and the related events that have unfolded since then. It has been an incredible, difficult and painful week for all Americans, to say the least. Without a doubt, it will take time for our nation to process...

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Thinking Is an Act of Worship

(444) Comments | Posted April 12, 2013 | 11:44 AM

Long awaited Spring has finally arrived to northern hemisphere. The mother earth is busy unveiling many of her beauties as God Almighty models many different types of resurrections to us through this seasonal event. Islam encourages us to be people of pondering and deep reflections through the many verses of...

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Rowan County Defense of Religion Act: Mixing Religion With Politics in North Carolina

(36) Comments | Posted April 9, 2013 | 12:06 PM

My beautiful state of North Carolina appeared in national and international news headlines last week in a troubling fashion. The Rowan County Defense of Religion Act, supported by 14 state legislators, all of whom are from the same party, sparked a controversy whose dust has yet to settle. It is...

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A Ceasefire and an Apology

(47) Comments | Posted March 27, 2013 | 12:26 PM

For those who follow closely, exciting and encouraging developments have been taking place recently in my native country of Turkey. Just last Thursday, the jailed Kurdish separatist leader of PKK (the Kurdistan Workers Party), Abdullah Ocalan, declared a "formal and clear cease-fire" with Turkey to end the bloody conflict that...

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'Argo' Is Bad, Embarrassing and Wrong

(272) Comments | Posted February 26, 2013 | 9:12 AM

I wonder if I am the only one deeply disturbed and troubled by the recent Hollywood movie, "Argo." My increasing sense of loneliness and alienation with "Argo" has been fed by the movie's overrated fame, its undeserved success in the movie theaters and now more painfully by the multiple Oscars...

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Happy Chinese New Year: Gong Xi Fa Cai!

(0) Comments | Posted February 12, 2013 | 1:18 PM

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

One in every five people in the world is Chinese. As you read these lines, almost a billion and a half Chinese people all around the world have been celebrating the beginning of the Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai is the proper greeting...

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Mali: A Global Wound

(20) Comments | Posted January 29, 2013 | 9:09 AM

One of the international developments that I have been following with great pain and disappointment is what has been going on in northern Mali since early 2012. For those who are not paying too much attention, here is a brief summary: Mali, a former French colony, is a West African...

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Is God Dead?

(137) Comments | Posted January 16, 2013 | 9:22 AM

Over the winter break, I was thankfully able to find some of those rare moments where I could read. One of the most interesting things I read was an amazing report on the religious landscape of our globe put together by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public...

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Prophetic Voices Needed!

(69) Comments | Posted November 20, 2012 | 2:08 PM

Today is the sixth day of the Muslim New Year, and in two days we will celebrate the long-awaited Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. This is a providential overlap created by Islam's lunar calendar crossing paths with the Western Gregorian calendar. This overlap seemingly invites me and many others...

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Reflecting on Today's Election in the 2030s and '40s

(85) Comments | Posted November 6, 2012 | 9:50 AM

Reflecting on today's presidential election decades later, I believe many Democrats and Republicans who were actively involved in 2012 elections, either as candidates or supporters, will be highly ashamed and embarrassed of what has been said of the American-Muslim community during this critical election. More importantly, they will be ashamed...

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HuffJummah: Hajj Through the Wings of Reflection

(8) Comments | Posted October 26, 2012 | 10:40 AM

I start this week's HuffJumuah by saying Eid Mubarak! We thank God Almighty for blessing us with, yet another joyful Eid al-Adha celebrations today. Millions of Muslims are joyfully celebrating their successful completion of their pilgrimage in the Holy sites of Islam as they earned the honorific title of Hajjah...

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Malcolm X's Hajj: An American Story

(81) Comments | Posted October 23, 2012 | 1:26 PM

This column was originally published in the Duke Chronicle. It has been reprinted with permission.

As you read these lines, millions of Muslims in Mecca are going through various stages of their life-changing pilgrimage experience. The billion and a half remaining Muslims who didn't go to...

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Repel Evil With What Is Better

(3) Comments | Posted September 25, 2012 | 12:09 PM

This column was originally published in the Duke Chronicle. It has been reprinted with permission.

One of the consistent messages of the holy Quran to her followers is addressed in the following verses: "The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil...

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Prayerful Reflections on September 11th

(5) Comments | Posted September 11, 2012 | 11:26 AM

This column was originally published in the Duke Chronicle. It has been reprinted with permission.

What is there to write about in today's column, other than the barbaric and heinous attacks of those heartless terrorists that took place 11 years ago today? Thousands of people in...

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Islam, Muslims and the 2012 Elections

(19) Comments | Posted August 31, 2012 | 3:28 PM

This column was originally published in the Duke Chronicle. It has been reprinted with permission.

America's 2012 presidential election is around the corner. We the people of this beautiful country, as the rest of the world watches very closely, will soon go through another round of...

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Living Ramadan More Meaningfully

(12) Comments | Posted July 27, 2012 | 10:24 AM

Today is the second Friday of the Holy month of Ramadan. We have only three more weeks left to get the best and most out of Ramadan. I will use this week's HuffJummah to remind myself and all about the long list of great Ramadan opportunities that we should go...

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Marked For Death: Geert Wilders 'Jihad' Against Islam

(113) Comments | Posted May 24, 2012 | 3:46 PM

"There is a war being waged against western civilization; against every liberal norm and value we Westerners hold dear and we must take increasingly drastic steps to defend our way of life from extinction..." or so Dutch politician Geert Wilders would have us believe.

This narrative...

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My Neighbor's Faith: A Muslim Visits the Nazi Death Camps

(1) Comments | Posted May 24, 2012 | 3:13 PM

One of my most painful and transformative interfaith encounters was a recent trip I made to four of the Nazi concentration camps in Germany and Poland with a small group of American Muslim leaders. The trip came as an unexpected answer to many years of personal prayer.

As a...

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HuffJummah: The Soul of Islamic Symbols

(71) Comments | Posted May 18, 2012 | 11:38 AM

Most, if not all religions, function in the world of symbolism and communicate their universal messages to their followers through these religious symbols. Rituals, sacraments, prayers, worship services, religious ceremonies and more are nothing but to invite believers to engage with very deep ethical, moral and spiritual teachings through set...

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HuffJummah: Getting Ready for Ramadan

(34) Comments | Posted April 20, 2012 | 10:31 AM

In today's HuffPost Jummah, I would like to briefly discuss a very timely matter with you. In a few days a very special guest, a guest of God to Muslims will start. Holiest of the holy period in Islamic calendar will start with the start of the month of Rajab,...

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