"Redneck Muslim," a film directed by award-winning director Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, explores Atkinson’s life as a chaplain at UNC Medical Center, before he came to Elon.

The film depicts Atkinson’s struggle to harmonize his southern heritage with Islam. When the film was made, Atkinson had founded a Facebook group called “Redneck Muslims.” In the film, he travels to a national Islamic conference in New Jersey to ask other Muslims from various ethnic and racial backgrounds what they think about his organization and its name. Since filming was completed, he has renamed his group the “Southern Hospitality Islamic Center.”

In a panel discussion followed the film screening, Assistant Professors Ahmed Fadaam and Sana Haq of the School of Communications talked with Atkinson about his background and what it means to be white and Muslim in 2018. Atkinson discussed in detail things not shown in the 16-minute film, including the tensions his conversion caused in his conservative family and how becoming Muslim has helped him to stay connected with them despite their differences. “If I wasn’t Muslim, I probably wouldn’t talk to my parents. That’s part of Islam: to try and reconcile with family, to keep family ties,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson talked about the challenges his multiracial family faces. His wife, who wears a hijab, and children, one of whom has darker skin, cannot always escape the prejudice religious that minorities face.

“Redneck Muslim” will air on PBS in the coming weeks. To see video clips from the discussion, .

An information session intended for students and mentors interested in learning more about the Multifaith Scholars program and its application process will be held on Feb. 27 at 5:30 p.m. in Moseley 217. The information session will be hosted by Amy Allocco, director of the program and associate professor of religious studies, and will also feature participation by two current Scholars. 

The Multifaith Scholars program is a two-year, closely mentored, experientially rich and academically rigorous educational opportunity for juniors and seniors who show great potential as intellectually curious and socially engaged multifaith leaders. Students apply in their sophomore year and begin the program in their junior year.

Scholarships provide $5,000 annually in the junior and senior year to support the personal and academic development of students of any major committed to developing a sophisticated knowledge about religious diversity and multifaith issues, interacting with local and global religious communities, and advancing a public intellectual project.

Applications for the Multifaith Scholars program are due on March 26, 2018 at 5 p.m. More information about the program and its eligibility requirements can be found online at https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/csrcs/multifaith-scholars/. Questions from interested students and mentors can be directed to Allocco at aallocco@elon.edu.

has published a roundtable of essays in response to a book written by Geoffrey Claussen, associate professor of religious studies.

​The four articles included in the roundtable assessed the impact and contribution of Claussen’s 2015 book, “Sharing the Burden: Rabbi Simḥah Zissel Ziv and the Path of Musar,” published by SUNY Press. First presented at a March 2016 symposium organized under the auspices of the Elon Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society, the essays constitute the first scholarly publications to emerge out of the center’s work and were published in .

The journal’s roundtable, titled “Virtue Ethics and the Mussar Movement,” includes articles by faculty from other universities including Christian B. Miller, professor of philosophy and director of the Character Project at Wake Forest University, Andrea Dara Cooper, assistant professor of religious studies and Leonard and Tobee Kaplan Fellow in Modern Jewish Thought and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Elon faculty members Jeffrey C. Pugh, Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Religious Studies, and Rebecca Todd Peters, professor of religious studies, also contributed, with Claussen writing a response to the scholarly examinations.

Claussen joined the Elon faculty in August 2011 and the following year was named the Lori and Eric Sklut Scholar in Jewish Studies. He was the founding coordinator of Elon’s Jewish Studies program, which launched in Fall 2012, and he is the past president of the Society of Jewish Ethics.

Claussen is on sabbatical leave for the 2017-18 academic year to work on his new new book, “Modern Musar: Contested Virtues in Modern Jewish Thought,” under contract with the University of Nebraska Press. This book analyzes the genre of musar, or virtue-centered, Jewish literature, that was so central to the Musar movement. It considers how musar literature has been produced by modern Jews within diverse frameworks and movements, not just within the Musar movement itself.  By looking at diverse approaches to various virtues, Claussen is seeking to analyze the vast diversity within modern Jewish ethics.