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Interfaith Institute Executive Director Najeeba Syeed was featured in an Augsburg spotlight in the Sahan Journal.

Founded in August of 2019, the Sahan Journal is a nonprofit digital newsroom dedicated to reporting for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota. Education reporter Becky Z. Dernbach provided a window into community care on campus: “Caught in the crosshairs: How Augsburg University mobilized to protect students during the ICE surge.”

Read more in the article ➜

Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves – Tending to the Soil We Share

By: Jerilyn Miller, Sr. Benefactor Relations Specialist

There was a moment during the Interfaith Symposium—Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves—when the room grew still.

Rev. Jen Bailey, the keynote speaker, began with a story. She spoke about her grandmother, who worked the sugarcane fields of the American South in the 1930s and 40s, in the shadow of Jim Crow. Despite the violence and inequity around her, she cultivated dignity, community, and life from the land.

In that story was something deeper—the connection between soil and survival, between land and liberation.

Bailey named what many are already feeling. We are living, she said, in a time of “toxic soil.” Not only environmentally, but relationally and spiritually. The fractures we see—climate crisis, political division, loneliness, mistrust—are not isolated problems. They point to a deeper disconnection: from one another, from the earth, and from our shared humanity.

“This is not just a political crisis,” she said. “It is a relational crisis… a spiritual crisis.”

And yet, she did not leave the room in despair.

Instead, she offered another image: sunflowers.

Drawing on the concept of phytoremediation—plants that draw toxins out of the soil—Bailey described the slow, patient work of healing. Even damaged soil can be restored. Not quickly. Not easily. But through sustained care.

Healing, in this vision, is not a grand solution. It is a practice.

With native flower seed packets in hand, participants turned to one another—sharing ideas, hopes, and the ways they are already tending their communities. For Augsburg senior Zuko Buechler ‘26 an urban studies major, the conversation felt both personal and practical.

“I’m learning a lot about practices with the land and healing,” Buechler said. “It’s making me think about how I can plant these seeds at my grandmother’s [home] and share in her love of gardening —a connection that has shaped me.”

Bailey closed with a simple invitation: a daily discipline of choosing to plant something life-giving, even when there is no guarantee of what will grow.

Over lunch, the conversation continued—grounded in honesty about life experiences and resilience. Bex Klafter of Lutheran Social Services reflected on what stayed with her most:

“All land is good,” she said. “There is value—even when the soil needs to be amended.”

It is a simple idea, but one that shifts the frame. Healing does not begin with perfection. It begins with what is already here.

At Augsburg, that kind of work takes shape in real time—in conversations like these, in shared practices, and in a community willing to stay with what is difficult and choosing to tend to what is possible.

We’re delighted that Augsburg University President Paul Pribbenow utilized our Executive Director, Prof. Najeeba Syeed’s writing on a lived theology of neighborliness in his recent piece for the Martin Marty Center at University of Chicago Divinity School.

If there is a blessing to be wrestled from the wreckage of Operation Metro Surge, it’s that our students have received an indelible education in what my colleague Najeeba Syeed calls a “lived theology of neighborliness,” one that is likely to shape their lives forever.

Read his full piece here:
https://martycenter.org/sightings/who-is-my-neighbor-religion-and-the-metro-surge

March 5, 2026 — Our Executive Director, Prof. Najeeba Syeed offered testimony on interfaith cooperation in the state of Minnesota in response to current crises. She addressed members of the ELCA Lutheran community along with Augsburg Univerisity alumna Kristen Opalinski. Kristen and Najeeba offered theological and practical ways to improve the conditions of communities in this moment. These contributions were grounded in ELCA and multifaith sources and practices. We love collaborating with Lutheran and interfaith partners, especially when they are Auggie alumni!

Najeeba Syeed has been featured in an Interfaith America article by Rachel Crowe, “ICE Raids Reignite Rituals of Resistance in Minneapolis”:

While ICE’s presence in Minneapolis has propelled the city onto the national stage in recent weeks, Minnesotans have been “grappling with a changed reality on the ground for more than six weeks,” executive director of Interfaith at Augsburg University Najeeba Syeed says. “The reality is people are not okay; it’s not business as usual.”

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Interfaith Institute Executive Director Najeeba Syeed recently wrote an article on Religion News Service about how Minnesotans are caring for each other after the fatal shooting of Renee Good.

Our November 20th Interfaith Scholars class took place at the Brian Coyle Center in the Minneapolis Cedar-Riverside community where Augsburg is located. During their visit students:

• Learned about community youth programs focused on sports, job readiness, tech education, and others that help neighborhood kids thrive from Auggie alum Coach Jennifer Weber  and  Abdirahman Mukhtar of Daryeel Youth Outreach.
• Attended an interfaith dialogue between Trinity Lutheran church and Dar Ul Hijrah mosque members, led by Pastor Jane Bucklee Farley and Imam Sharif Mohamed .Table conversations focused on how faith communities can support bridgebuilding and interfaith cooperation on community based challenges and dire issues of our time including mental health support.
• Reflected on what they learned with community leaders during dinner and connected with volunteer opportunities to serve our unhoused neighbors, work with youth, support food shelf projects and further Augsburg’s engagement in building a better world for all.

After the visit, Imam Sharif noted, “The interfaith exchange we experienced together reflects the very best of what community engagement and education can be—rooted in care, dignity, and mutual respect.”

Hashcast episode featuring Najeeba Syeed 17 min

Hosts Jason and Tuhina sit down with peacemaker, healer, and scholar, Dr. Najeeba Syeed, to talk about a whole host of topics adjacent to building the interfaith table, the difference between inter-faith and intra-faith dialogue, and what it means to recognize the pluralistic reality all around us.