islamic teaching : Ingrid Mattson talks about Community in Islam

Ingrid Mattson, Ph.D. is a Canadian Muslim convert professor and activist and the current president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

She was born and raised in Ontario, and studied philosophy and fine arts at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. Raised as a Catholic, she ultimately abandoned religion "for good" during her teenage years, but embraced Islam at the end of her undergraduate studies. She then travelled to Pakistan where she worked with Afghan refugees for a year. She earned her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago in 1999. She went on to be very active in educating Canadian Muslims to become active participants in Canadian society at large. She now teaches religion at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. More specifically, Dr. Ingrid Mattson is Director of Islamic Chaplaincy and Professor at the Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, CT -- the first Islamic Chaplaincy program in the United States. In 2001 she was elected Vice-President of ISNA and in 2006 she was elected President of the organization. She has guest lectured at such institutions as the US Naval Academy. Dr. Mattson is the first convert to Islam AND the first female to lead the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).