Tufts' former Muslim Chaplain Noureddine Hawat says that he was forced to resign against his will last spring and that Tufts owes him thousands of dollars for campus renovations he helped fund. He plans to sue the university.
In an interview with the Daily, Hawat disputed the claims of University Chaplain David O'Leary, who told the Daily in October that Hawat had voluntarily left Tufts to accept a new position at a Vermont mosque.
"I did not leave on my own. This is not true. They let me go because of the issues with my money," Hawat said, explaining that he put thousands of dollars of his own money into the renovation of what was then Tufts' Islamic Center. The university cancelled the project as it approached completion and never completely repaid Hawat, he said.
The center was located in the basement of a building at 176 Curtis St. "The building had water leakage coming in from the ceiling," he said. "There were many problems with it. We asked Tufts to fix it, but they said there was no budget and we had to raise the money on our own."
Hawat said that he presented plans for the renovation to a number of administrators, including Director of Facilities Ron Esposito, President Lawrence Bacow and Provost Jamshed Bharucha. "They asked me to fundraise and fix [the center] on my own expense," he said.
Hawat said that he complied, putting $18,400 of his own money into the project, as well as savings from the university-funded chaplain account. He had been saving the $4,000 annual allocation since 2003, when he began to prepare for the renovations.
"We did some fundraising, and we put that in the account too," Hawat said, explaining that parents of students and members of the community who came to worship at the center had donated funds. "In January 2006 we had between $17,000 and $18,000 in the account."
Hawat said that the university told him to hire a contractor and assigned a facilities employee to oversee the project, which began that January.
Eight weeks later, however, as the renovations neared completion, Esposito halted the construction because the building's ceiling violated safety codes, Hawat said.
"We had finished everything - water, plumbing and electricity," he said. "We were doing the hardwood flooring and the university came in and stopped it. Facilities told us that the building's ceiling was two inches too low, and that it was illegal to use as a center. We had used it for 10 years and [the ceiling] had never been a problem."
Esposito declined to speak to the Daily due to litigation on the matter.
According to Hawat, who worked at Tufts for nine years, the university refused to completely reimburse him for the money he had spent, only repaying him $14,000.
"I put money from my own pocket to fix the center and they did not pay me the money back," he said. "We spent money for nothing, we worked on it for six weeks and they stopped two days before [it] was done."
Hawat said that he had planned to use the renovated center to hold events during which people could give donations. These would have helped him regain the money he had spent.
"People wanted to contribute," he said. "They said, 'If you fix the center, we'll donate.' But once they found out the center had been closed, they didn't want to give money anymore."
Without a new center, Hawat said that he was unable to get back any of the money he had spent on renovations.
Last fall, Tufts unveiled a new Interfaith Center, which now houses the offices and multipurpose space that the Islamic Center had. The university "kept telling me that once the Interfaith Center was finished, I could start fundraising again," he said. "But once it was finished, the university called me and told me I wasn't going to be working with them anymore."
Hawat said that the university had become "aggravated" with his requests and told him that they had found a new Muslim chaplain for the fall. "They said the school was changing direction," he said, referring to the university's explanation of his dismissal.
Hawat said that he has hired a lawyer who has contacted the university. "They ignored the letter from the lawyer saying that they owed money. I feel pretty good that [suing] is my right and they should pay me," he said. "We are close to going to court and solving
the problem."
O'Leary dismissed Hawat's accusations. "Imam Noureddine Hawat's complaint is without merit, and we are confident that the facts that we will present in court will bear this out," he said in an e-mail to the Daily.
O'Leary added that the university never intended to bring this issue to the attention of the press. "We are disappointed that Imam Hawat has chosen to do so," he said.
Shareda Hosein, who had worked as an intern under O'Leary during the 2006-2007 academic year, was chosen to replace Hawat as Muslim chaplain and currently holds the position.
Hawat explained that while Hosein is solely a chaplain, he also held the position of imam, or Islamic prayer leader. "A chaplain can be an advisor for students, and an imam has the same role, except they lead prayers," he said.
According to traditional Islamic law, women are prohibited from leading congregations in prayer. Thus, Hosein cannot read prayers and must call in imams every week to do so.
O'Leary said that Hosein's gender has not stood in the way of her service to Tufts' Muslim community.
"Tufts chaplains of all faiths are called on to serve Tufts students, and the Tufts community, in many ways," O'Leary said. "They provide counsel and spiritual guidance to those in difficult times ... The fact that Shareda Hosein is a woman in no way prevents her from serving these essential pastoral functions, and she is doing an
outstanding job."
Hawat said he believes O'Leary has downplayed the former Muslim chaplain's contributions to Tufts during interviews with the Daily. "He said that he is really happy that Shareda is going to do what chaplains do, which is bring society together. He is making it look like I didn't do this," Hawat said.
Hawat said that he had worked enthusiastically during his nine years at Tufts, although his chaplaincy was unpaid.
"I have been with Tufts since 1998," he said, explaining that he became the director of the Islamic Center that year and accepted an associate chaplaincy in 2002. "I spent 20 hours a week at Tufts. It was an unpaid position. I never got paid a dime."
He disputed O'Leary's previous assertion to the Daily that he lacked advanced degrees and a sufficient higher education. "I don't like that Dave said I don't have a higher education. This is completely false," he said.
Hawat said that he holds a Master of Science from Northeastern University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, both in electrical engineering. Additionally, he studied comparative religion and politics at Lebanon University and took classes at the American University of Beirut,
he said.
"I'm an engineering director, and I work for an outside company called Custom One Design," he said.
