Ingrid Mattson

Ingrid Mattson
Born	Ingrid Mattson August 24, 1963 Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation(s)	professor, activist

Ingrid Mattson (born August 24, 1963) is a Canadian Muslim convert professor and activist and a former president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Bold text==Biography==

Dr. Ingrid Mattson is the London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. Formerly, she was professor of Islamic Studies, founder of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program and director of the Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, CT. She earned her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago in 1999. She is the author of The Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life, as well as numerous articles exploring the relationship between Islamic law and society, gender and leadership issues in contemporary Muslim communities. From 2006-2010 Dr. Mattson served as President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); she previously served two terms as Vice-President. Dr. Mattson was born in Canada, where she studied Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, Ontario (B.A. ‘87). From 1987-1988 she lived in Pakistan where she developed and implemented a midwife-training program for Afghan refugee women. Dr. Mattson is frequently consulted by media, government and civic organizations and has served as an expert witness.

Early life and Background

Ingrid Mattson, the sixth of seven children was born in 1963 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, to good, middle class Roman Catholic parents. She attended a Catholic girls high school and took piano lessons at the convent. She stopped attending Mass as a teenager, after inquiring about Catholicism and spirituality to which she was given unsatisfactory answers. Mattson was a self-described "atheist or agnostic, or maybe [someone who was] just simply indifferent [toward religion]."

Career

In 1987 she travelled to Pakistan where she worked with Afghan refugees for a year. There, she met and married a fellow volunteer Aamer Atek, an Egyptian engineer. She went on to be very active in educating Canadian Muslims to become active participants in Canadian society at large. She is now Chair of the Islamic Studies Program at Huron University College, London Ontario. Previously, she was Director of the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations and Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. She founded the Islamic Chaplaincy program at Hartford Seminary, the first Islamic chaplaincy program in the United States.

In 2001 she was elected vice-president of ISNA and in 2006 she was elected the first female president of the organization. She has guest lectured at such institutions as the US Naval Academy. Mattson is the first convert to lead the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Mattson was an advisor to the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002), produced by Unity Productions Foundation.

Huron University College controversy

In 2011, Huron University College of The University of Western Ontario announced that its Anglican theology department will appoint Mattson as the Chair of the Islamic Studies Program. Two million dollars in funding was provided by the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) and International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIT). Alumni of Huron college protested the decision because of alleged links between the two groups - which they allege receive funding from Saudi Arabia - and the Muslim Brotherhood. A particular cause for concern was the MAC's endorsement of Iman Hassan Al-Banna, who once stated "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it". The alumni also expressed concern at the fact that both Shaykh Taha Jabir al-Alwani, the former president of IIT and Jamal Barzinji, the vice-president, have been implicated in funding for alleged terrorist groups, specifically the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. There have also been allegations by former students that there was intolerance against non-Muslims and the critique of Islamic tenets under Mattson's watch at Hartford Seminary.

In 2011, in response to allegations made against Mattson, Stephen McClatchie, the principal of Huron College expressed his support for Mattson and stated that he does not believe that Mattson is a Wahhabi.

External links

• Home page of Ingrid Mattson
• Ingrid Mattson Lectures
• Article: Finding the Prophet
• Article about Ingrid Mattson in the "Who's Next 2007" special section of the January 1, 2007 issue of Newsweek
• Ingrid Mattson speaks at Pennsylvania State University
• "A New Voice for Islam." Speaking of Faith
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Ingrid Mattson on Charlie Rose
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