Muslims on Catholic university campuses

When religions made conflicting truth claims they are in a sense inherently at odds, but that doesn't mean that those of different faiths can't get along well, with some perhaps finding it easier to interact with those espousing another faith rather than with those who are supposedly neutral on such matters. I was reminded of that again by a New York Times article this weekend titled Muslims From Abroad Are Thriving in Catholic Colleges:

The flow of students from the Muslim world into American colleges and universities has grown sharply in recent years ... No definitive figures are available, but interviews with students and administrators at several Catholic institutions indicate an even faster rate of growth there ... At those schools, Muslim students, from the United States or abroad, say they prefer a place where talk of religious beliefs and adherence to a religious code are accepted and even encouraged, socially and academically. Correctly or not, many of them say they believe that they are more accepted than they would be at secular schools.

This piece reminded me of a lawsuit filed a while back alleging that Muslim students were being discriminated against by the presence of religious symbols at Washington DC's Catholic University of America. As The American Muslim notes in its overview of news coverage regarding the lawsuit, the lawsuit was based on no complaints from Muslim students and also opposed by some of the higher-profile Muslim organizations like CAIR as well as, seemingly, Muslim students on the campus itself. To quote again the New York Times piece:

“I like the fact that there’s faith, even if it’s not my faith, and I feel my faith is respected,” said Maha Haroon, a pre-med undergraduate at Creighton University in Omaha, who was born in Pakistan and grew up in the United States. “I don’t have to leave my faith at home when I come to school.”

I can see this making Muslim students feel more receptive to such environments than secular ones. It remind's me of a book that I've got queued up somewhere on my reading list - Hunter Baker's The End of Secularism. That book's argument (from its Amazon description):

[S]ecularism fails as an instrument designed to create superior social harmony and political rationality to that which is available with theistic alternatives. Baker also demonstrates that secularism is far from the best or only way to enjoy modernity's fruits of religious liberty, free speech, and democracy. The End of Secularism declares the demise of secularism as a useful social construct and upholds the value of a public square that welcomes all comers, religious and otherwise, into the discussion. ... the marketplace of ideas depends on open and honest discussion rather than on religious content or the lack thereof.