Michel, Thomas, S.J.

English

epublications@Marquette

Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 49 Jesuit Higher Education in a GlobalContext Article 6February 2016Jesuit Education in Qatar Today: Diversity Enrichesa Teaching EnvironmentThomas Michel S.J.Follow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationMichel, Thomas S.J. (2016) "Jesuit Education in Qatar Today: Diversity Enriches a Teaching Environment," Conversations on JesuitHigher Education: Vol. 49, Article 6.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol49/iss1/610 ConversationsFrom the earliest days of the Society of Jesus,Jesuits have opened, administered, and taughtin schools in a wide variety of countries andsystems of government. We have had schoolsin autocracies, monarchies, oligarchies, anddemocracies. We have operated educationalinstitutions in regions under exploitative colo-nial domination and shaped by discriminatoryapartheid ideologies. Our maintaining schools in such man-ifestly unjust social situations does not imply that weendorse and bless the evils and injustices of those places.We are called to live in sinful environments and to workthere for God’s greater glory and so to make a contributionto the building of the Kingdom. For this reason I am always surprised when peopleask me how Jesuits can have a school in Qatar, as thoughthis were an unprecedented departure from Jesuit history,or that in doing so we had made a pact with the devil orcompromised our integrity. The presumption of manypeople seems to be that Qatar has a more oppressive gov-ernment or abusive social situation than other countries.Looking at the condition of workers in our neighboringcountries in the Persian Gulf region or at the societal prob-lems in other parts of the world, I am not sure that this isthe case. Having grown up less than five miles fromFerguson, Missouri, I know the perils of throwing stoneswhile living in a glass house. Hence, I feel no need to defend or apologize forGeorgetown’s decision to accept the invitation to opena campus in Qatar. Ten years ago, the Emir SheikhHamad bin Khalifa Al Thani invited GeorgetownUniversity to offer students an undergraduate programin Doha modeled on Georgetown’s School of ForeignService. The Emir’s proposal was part of an effort tooffer Qatari and other students the opportunity toobtain quality college education in their own country.The Emirate agreed to build the university structuresand pay the salaries of faculty and staff in order forGeorgetown to replicate the SFS curriculum.At the moment, I am the only member of theGeorgetown Jesuit community serving in Doha. But I amnot the first. Fr. Ryan Maher, now of Scranton University,and the late Fr. Jim Walsh both taught in Qatar. But forthree years now, I am the only Jesuit in Doha.Before I arrived here, I was not sure how I, as apriest and Jesuit, would be received in this small coun-try on the east coast of the Arabian peninsula. I wasencouraged by the knowledge that Qatar is almost 100percent Muslim because, having studied in Lebanon andEgypt and having taught frequently in Indonesia,Turkey, and the Philippines, I have lived among Muslimsfor a long time and found them to be both welcominghosts and challenging partners in the dialogue of life. Ican honestly say that in the almost 50 years since I wentJesuit Education in Qatar TodayDiversity Enriches a Teaching EnvironmentBy Thomas Michel, S.J.Thomas Michel, S.J., entered the Jesuits in Indonesia in1969 and has been teaching in Doha, Qatar, for theGeorgetown program in foreign service for the last threeyears. See more at https://qatar.sfs.georgetown.edu/.1Michel: Jesuit Education in Qatar Today: Diversity Enriches a Teaching EnPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2016Conversations 11to Indonesia in the 1960s to teach English, I’ve neverencountered any serious prejudice or rejection whenpeople learn that I am a Catholic priest and a Jesuit. Infact, the opposite is true; I find the people I’ve known tobe easy to love and easy to live with. One thing I was not prepared for was the small-school family-like atmosphere. Faculty, staff, and stu-dents basically all know each other, eat lunch together,rub shoulders in the library, and see one another at stu-dent clubs, basketball games, lectures, movie nights, anddebate competitions. There is a strong student organiza-tion aimed at conscientizing society about the problemsfaced by disabled persons. There is a video dialoguewith students in Gaza and in Iraq and a variety of proj-ects aimed at bringing students and faculty to a betterunderstanding of the living situations and working envi-ronment of the hundreds of thousands of migrant work-ers in Qatar. The point is that there is plenty to dotogether. SFS-Qatar has little of the anonymity and lone-liness about which students sometimes complain in hugeAmerican universities, and in fact our students whospend a semester on the “main campus” in Washingtoncomplain about feeling alone andat sea in the vast student body.Our student body can be bro-ken down into three groups. Aboutone third of the students are chil-dren of Qatar families who tracetheir ancestry back to the desert-dwelling Bedouins and coastalpearl fishers who made up the bulkof the population when Qatar firstbecame a British protectorate in1916. Because of the vast numbers of expatriate workerswho have arrived in the past decade, Qataris today are esti-mated to be only 12 percent of the population, whileIndian and Nepali workers make up, respectively, 24 per-cent and 17 percent.Another a third of our student body are children offoreign residents in Qatar. These students, who mayhave lived part or all of their lives in Qatar, are not Qatarcitizens but take the nationality of origin of their parentswho are from Pakistani, Egyptian, Lebanese, and a mixof other countries. These parents play an essential rolein the economy of Qatar; they are the shopkeepers,office workers, and petroleum engineers responsible forQatar’s current prosperity. Quite global in culture, thesestudents have attended international schools often fromnursery school onwards. Their first language is English,and they seem generally disinterested in national originsor cultural barriers.The final third of our student body is truly internation-al, with students from China, Thailand, Switzerland, Poland,Somalia, U.S.A., Mexico, and Brazil, among others. TheSFS-Qatar student body has 42 nationalities represented. What about the sensitive subject of religion? Can wetalk about that? Is it divisive, a cause of tension? I havehad an interesting experience in this area. OnGeorgetown’s Washington campus, I taught a course in“Muslim-Christian Relations Since Vatican II.” There allthe students were Christian, except for two Muslims. InQatar, I teach the same course, same material, excepthere all the students but two are Muslim. We take up thesame material we studied in Washington, some of it pos-itive, some negative. In both places I sense an underly-ing current that this generation really does not want torepeat the mistakes of the past. These students live in aglobal culture where national, racial, and religious prej-udices are simply not acceptable. I teach in the theology department. SinceGeorgetown requires two courses of theology and twoin philosophy, I have virtually every student in class dur-ing the course of their four-year program. The theologyprogram offers Islamic studies forthose who choose, as well asworld religions, and basic intro-ductions to theology. The mostpopular course I teach is an intro-duction to Biblical literature,which I have to offer each semes-ter because of a long waiting list.It is a challenge to teach Biblicalstudies to Muslim students becauseof the great disparity of presuppo-sitions concerning Scriptural revelation, inspiration, andtextual interpretation. However, the students continue tosurprise me with the level of their insights into the biblicaltext. Their critiques of the Sermon on the Mount and theBook of Job are among the most thoughtful and profoundthat I have encountered in my years of teaching.As is the case elsewhere, many things could be bet-ter here. We do what we can to ensure that the rights ofour workers are respected, but there is also much thatwe cannot do. We are now experiencing the unhappyeffects of a 30 percent budget cut from our governingbody, with the ensuing reorganization and inevitablelayoffs. But I am still convinced that Jesuit educationalvision, well expressed by Fr. Pedro Ribadeneira, one ofSt. Ignatius’ early companions, is still inspiring our workhere: “the proper education of youth will mean improve-ment for the whole world.” ■“I am always surprisedwhen people ask mehow Jesuits can have aschool in Qatar.”2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 49, Iss. 1 [2016], Art. 6http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol49/iss1/6

Jesuit Education in Qatar Today: Diversity Enriches a Teaching Environment

https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1966&amp;context=conversations

Jesuit Education in Qatar Today: Diversity Enriches a Teaching Environment

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

epublications@Marquette