The Face of Islam in America

August 25, 2007

Author: Cathy Grossman

Source: USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-08-20-mattson-islam_N.htm

HARTFORD, Conn. — Ingrid Mattson knows the media drill well.

She has done the "We condemn ... (fill in the terrorism incident)" speeches — as if, she says, that's all anyone needs to hear from the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

She has done the profiles of her as first woman/first convert/first North American-born head of the continent's largest Muslim group.

She has done the talk shows retelling how 20 years ago, she left the Catholicism of her Canadian childhood and her college focus on philosophy and fine arts to find her spiritual home in Islam.

"It's time now to move the focus back off me and back on the issues," says Mattson, a professor at Hartford Seminary, where she directs the first U.S.-accredited Muslim chaplaincy program at the Macdonald Center.