The Comparison Project

Islam in Iowa: A Celebration of Historical Roots and Contemporary Realities -- NOW ONLINE
2025-04-05 14:00 - 15:30 UTC | IA
Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event is now being held on Zoom from 2:00-3:30pm. To register for the event, go here: https://drake-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/r2IkhO0vRnGanQ_YgnCwhw. (Note that you will need to have an active zoom account to register, but that if you don’t, you can sign up for a free zoom account here: zoom.us/signup.)
On Saturday, April 5, from 2:00–3:30 pm, Drake University’s Comparison Project, in conjunction with the Abdelkader Education Project, hosts “”Islam in Iowa: A Celebration of Historical Roots and Contemporary Realities” online (Zoom). The event, which is free and open to the public, features interactive sessions about Islam in Iowa, the awarding of the Abdelkader Education Project’s 2025 essay-competition winners, and a keynote by Dr. William Lawrence, Senior Academic and Research Fellow-in-Residence and Director of the North African Area Studies Program at the Council on US-Arab Relations.
Local and regional Islamic experts will lead two blocks of concurrent sessions about topics including Islam in Iowa, Women in Islam, and Mystical Islam. Special attention will be given to the nineteenth-century Algerian leader Emir Abdelkader, after whom the town of Elkader was named in 1846, as well as the “Mother Mosque of America” in Cedar Rapids, the oldest standing purpose-built mosque in the U.S. (1934).
At the conclusion of the sessions, the Abdelkader Education Project will award the high-school and college recipients of this year’s essay competition, whose essays take inspiration from the ethical leadership of Emir Abdelkader. The event concludes with a short keynote by Dr. William Lawrence.
The Comparison Project engages in the practice of comparative philosophy of religion, fosters understanding of local-lived religion, and cultivates interfaith literacy and leadership. It is supported by Drake’s Center for the Humanities, Drake’s Slay Fund for Social Justice, Interfaith America, and Cultivating Compassion: The Dr. Richard Deming Foundation.

Julia Watts Belser, "Radical Rest: Jewish Sabbath Practice as Resistance to Ableism"
2025-03-27 18:00 - 19:30 | Drake University, Olmstead Center (Sussman Theater), 2875 University Ave, Des Moines, IA, 50311, United States
On Thursday, March 27, at 6:00 pm, in Drake’s Sussman Theater (lower level of Olmsted Center), Dr. Julia Watts Belser, Professor of Jewish Studies at Georgetown University, will deliver a lecture on “Radical Rest: Jewish Sabbath Practice as Resistance to Ableism.”

We live in a world pitched toward productivity, where we often face intense pressure to measure our worth on the basis of our work. In this talk, Julia Watts Belser brings the insights of disability culture into conversation with Jewish wisdom about Shabbat and Sabbath practice to explore how traditions of radical rest can counter productivity culture. How might Sabbath practice and other forms of intentional slowness offer resources for challenging ableism? How might reimagining religious practice to take seriously disabled people’s experiences of living with limits spur us to build a world that better honors the needs and the yearnings of all our bodies and minds?

Holi Service and Celebration
2025-03-16 08:00 - 17:00 | Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Iowa, 33916 155th Ln, Madrid, IA, 50156, United States
On Sunday, March 16 from 11:00am–1:00pm (roughly), we will join the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center (33916 155th Lane, Madrid) in the annual celebration of Holi. Guests will be able to tour the temple, observe the Holi fire ritual (Holika Dahan), throw colored powered at one another, and dance.

Please dress accordingly if you are going to participate in the throwing of colors.

Lunch is available for purchase from the temple.

This event is part of the “Meet My Religious Neighbor” series, which is co-programmed with CultureALL, the Des Moines Area Religious Council, and Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.

Ramadan Prayer and Iftar Meal
2025-03-08 18:00 - 19:30 | Masjid an-Noor, 1117 42nd St, Des Moines, IA, 50311, United States
On March 8th, from 6:00–7:30 pm, we will attend a Ramadan prayer and Iftar meal at Masjid an-Noor (1117 42nd St, Des Moines). The event includes the sunset (maghrib) prayer, the breaking of the fast, and an iftar meal.

Please dress appropriately: women should be covered below the elbows and knees and should cover their head/hair with a scarf. Men should wear long pants.

Amy Donahue, “The Bhagavad Gītā’s Yoga Model of Disability”
2025-03-06 18:00 - 19:30 | Drake University, Olmstead Center (Sussman Theater), 2875 University Ave, Des Moines, IA, 50311, United States
On Thursday, March 6, at 6:00 pm, in Drake’s Sussman Theater (lower level of Olmsted Center), Dr. Amy Donahue, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Kennesaw State University, will deliver a lecture on “The Bhagavad Gītā’s Yoga Model of Disability.”

Contemporary medical models of disability assume notions of “normal” human embodiment and functioning that South Asia’s Hindu philosophical and religious traditions largely do not share and in many cases implicitly challenge. Rather than assuming normalcy and ability as default human conditions, Hindu traditions generally assume that human experience begins with ignorance and dysfunction. All persons, in other words, are in some state of “disability,” and overcoming our traumas takes work that no one initially wants to start. According to the Gītā, this work involves yoking reflexive tendencies, including deep-rooted habits of (mis)identification that distort a person’s authentic nature (svabhāva). Realization of our true selves requires, first, replacing attachments that lead to torpor, confusion, and conflict with habits leading to clarity and joy, and second, uprooting even these habits for the sake of a perfect harmony of all beings. This yoga model of disability found in the Gītā therefore contests contemporary medical accounts while offering critical guidance for contemporary cultural disability theorists.

Roads to Religion
2025-02-23 15:00 - 17:00 | Drake University, Olmsted Center (Parents Hall), 2875 University Ave, Des Moines, IA, 50311, United States
On Sunday, February 23, from 3:00–5:00 pm, Drake University’s The Comparison Project, in conjunction with the “Iowa Interfaith Exchange,” hosts “Roads to Religion” in the Olmsted Center (Parents Hall) on Drake’s campus. The event, which is free and open to the public, features dozens of local religious communities, collectively representing at least a dozen religious traditions. These communities will be arranged throughout the hall as if on a map of the metro area. Visitors will receive a map to guide them in their exploration of them. Refreshments will be provided by Drake’s catering service, Sodexo.

The Comparison Project engages in the practice of comparative philosophy of religion, increases understanding of local-lived religion, and cultivates interfaith literacy and leadership. It is supported by Drake’s Center for the Humanities, Drake’s Slay Fund for Social Justice, Drake’s Stringfellow and Hay Lectureships, Humanities Iowa, and Cultivating Compassion: The Dr. Richard Deming Foundation.

The ”Iowa Interfaith Exchange” includes Drake’s The Comparison Project and three other local nonprofits: CultureALL, the Des Moines Area Religious Council, and Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.
Roads to Religion 2025 Photos – The Comparison Project
