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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

She speaks from shadows to let Muslims shine their own light.

The visionaries: students of innovation

Rosemary

Rosemary Pennington tells stories. She is the program coordinator for a podcast series called Voices and Visions: Islam and Muslims from a Global Perspective.

“If you’re not from that community, you don’t really think about how it’s represented in the media,” she says. “Not because you don’t like them, but because it’s not right there.”
Pennington’s podcasts present the experiences of Muslims in both longer narratives and brief “crash courses.”

One short piece discusses Halal, or Muslim food restrictions. It drew comments that revealed differences between Muslim traditions.
“It’s giving Muslims from other places access to other Muslims,” she says. “Even Muslims have stereotyped ideas of what other Muslims are like.”

Pennington says she appreciates feedback on the Web site. “The whole point of this project is to have these conversations,” she says. “It’s not to resolve any of these conversations, because they’re never going to be resolved. I mean, we’re all human beings. We’re messy.”

Through the experience, Pennington has bridged her own gaps in understanding.
“I remember walking in with my shoes and realizing as I was sitting down that I should have taken those off,” she says of early interviews with families. “Now I know to walk in, take your shoes off, and just sort of settle down and not worry about it.”

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