????

But again, this is religious. That's why I don't see the point in a fraternity or sorority.

-Rudey

Rudey,

Did you join your fraternity for cultural reasons or religious reasons or both? I'm just curious.

I've been trying to find the "point" of gay fraternities and I think the discussion in this thread is helpful.

Neither really. Culture maybe slightly, but really I'd prefer never to have a Cross be in my fraternity's symbols or to have doubts of proud in my fraternity's history regarding exclusion; mainly I enjoy knowing every new brother will memorize my name :P

I don't see the point in religious fraternities (unless it's to prosletyze). I also don't see the point in gay ones (unless it's to act as a dating service/group therapy). And if the "Unlesses" are the reasons why, I think that's expanding the definition of a fraternity/sorority.

Now I wish all groups the best in growing and expanding, but it doesn't mean I believe they will or that they fit my idea of a traditional fraternity/sorority (instead just another student group).

-Rudey

I hear you. I feel the same way (for the most part) but then here I am in a "black" fraternity. I don't feel like a hypocrite, but I wonder if I am reinforcing my more patriarchal views on these new orgs.

I just can't help it though.... I feel like a fraternity should be affirming of all facets of a man's life. A "Christian" fraternity or a "gay" fraternity or an obese chick's sorority....I dunno, just seems like it's outside the realm of the essence of Greek life.

Especially since there are churches, gay support groups, and other entities set up with the purpose of providing assistance, philanthropy, and service for and with those groups.

I dunno. I still believe in allowing people the right to associate however they want, but I haven't heard a convincing argument for the newer groups yet.

Sigma Beta Xi. I believe one of their members posted in the "Up and Coming GLOs" forum.

Many hospitals and communities have an expectant mother group. I'd like to know what would make "Sigma Beta Xi" any different.

-Rudey

Dont ask me, ask their founders.

Hah it was somewhat rhetorical.

Did you find info on suing France yet?

-Rudey

And I understand that definition. But one could say that they feel uncomfortable with study hours or required chapter meetings or filing reports with the president etc. You could be uncomfortable with walking into that room for initiation by yourself.

For a reasonable value of uncomfortable, reading the Koran shouldn't register. Any women joining will have a good idea that this is a Muslim based sorority and if a woman is uncomfortable, she wouldn't join. It would be like a sorority openly saying, our Patron is a Greek God/dess and having a woman complain about idolatry or pagans or something post-joining.

Point being, reading the Koran shouldn't be hazing by any definition.

ETA: There was another reply saying that required reading of anything unrelated to the sorority would be considered hazing. I think that as they are openly muslim, the Koran is definately related to the sorority.

Unfortunately, this happens more often than you think.

Yes, but it shouldn't! It's ok not to want anything to do with a Greek god/goddess but don't join KKG or AXO when they tell you who their patron is.

Of course arguing shoulds and shouldn'ts gets us no where. But I think that though a woman could join Gamma Gamma Chi and be offended, she has no one to blame but herself.

I believe that reading the Qur'an is a required tenant of Islam. Memorization of the holy texts is highly regarded and some memorization and reading of the texts is required to simply perform daily prayers. So because it is a basic tenant of the religion that the org was founded on, I don't think it is far off to have reading the Qur'an required.

I just want to say I wish them all the luck in the world, and they'll need it. People are so distrusting of anything new. I don't know why some people feel the need to question another organization's existance, why can't it exist because someone thought it up? There are 9 NPHC organizations with roughly the same purpose, like what 30 plus NPC and NIC organizations who all just want to serve and help the community and this is good. So if these groups spawn off little groups that combine religion, or sexually preference, or whatever, but they still want to serve the community, than what's the problem???

More at:

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.ph...4-102946-3632r

America's first Islamic sorority formed
By Julia Duin
The Washington Times
Published January 4, 2006

WASHINGTON -- America's first Islamic sorority is more about God than being Greek.

There will be no beer at Gamma Gamma Chi functions, in obedience to Islamic law, nor will there be group fraternizing with the opposite sex.

"Partying is allowed in Islam, but it's how you party," said Althia Collins, an Alexandria businesswoman who has helped create it. "You can have fun with girls and it doesn't have to include men."

Thirteen women at the University of Kentucky will form the sorority's first college chapter this spring, and another group is waiting to start at the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus. A citywide chapter in the District, made up of women from several local universities, is also in the works.

Along with pledges, there will be prayer to Allah. Instead of hazing, there's hijab, the scarf some devout Muslim women wear. Covering one's hair is not mandated within Gamma Gamma Chi; in fact, four out of the five board members do not wear one.

Mrs. Collins' daughter, Imani Abdul-Haqq, came up with concept for Gamma Gamma Chi while rushing sororities at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C.

As Mrs. Abdul-Haqq entered the room wearing her scarf, "They looked at her like she had three heads," Mrs. Collins said.


(Included in the article is mention of a $50,000 gift to get this started)

How is a muslimah's discrimination any different from the non-muslim women's discrimination? :confused: i.e. Hip Hop video girls.

Imperial1

http://www.fivedigits.net/pix/phun/itsatrap.jpg

Don't answer this question. It will start a never ending cycle from which there is no escape. :p ;)

As a non direct way of addressing the above that hopefully doesn't lead to the arguement and if it does, oh well I was bored anyway:

Why wasn't everyone satisfied with the Adelphean Society? I mean it was for women right? What you need more? Ok fine, why didn't we stop with Kappa Alpha Theta, the first greek letter society for women? Wait, wasn't Pi Beta Phi in there too? Well shoot we have at least three now, what more do you people want. Oh a "Sorority" well fine.. lets add Gamma Phi Beta into the mix. There that should satisfy every single need you have.

What, it doesn't?

Fine.. look lets make it say... 26. Now you couldn't possibly want anything else.... What? Ok fine and lets add 4 more who'll make up part of the NPHC. FINALLY Done! What? you want... locals? and multiculturals and latino GLOS and religious based?

Ok, sounds alright by me.


Ok, long way to make my point, but what I'm trying to say is that every woman should have a chance to find her home. Questioning the legitimacy of this sorority, which seems well thought out and financed, is not much different than questioning the legitimacy of every woman's secret society that follows the first. By this logic we'd all be ADPis or Adelpheans (if they kept their name, there wouldn't be any other sororities to influence the change at all) There's a difference in the ideals of Delta Gamma and Kappa Delta and Sigma Kappa and Chi Omega and Alpha Kappa Alpha and Gamma Gamma Chi. But it's OK.


*phew*
/soapbox

This is hilarious. True, but hilarious.

You got that right! :D

Maybe because everyone wasn't accepted for various undisclosed reasons. Or wasn't interested.

Imperial1

Because there is no answer. :rolleyes:

Imperial1

This is my very first post. Soon I will have my letters and post them in my signature line for you all to see.

A few outstanding questions on this topic that I wanted to address.

(1) Undergraduates cannot be members of 2 sororities and those are rules establishe by the Colleges and probably the NPC. Many graduate students have become members of a second sorority and that is why the question was posted on the GGC website.

(2) Dr. Althia Collins is a member of DST and it is true that she was forced to resign from Bennett College because of her religion, which helped to inspire her and Imani to found GGC. You all say that something like the "Divine Nine" should not make a person uncomfortable but that's because you do not practice Islam, so you see nothing wrong with the concept. Also, don't say that Gamma Gamma Chi was formed with little research of other sororities and fraternities because that is far from the truth.

(3) The founders saw a need and the filled the void, there should be no further doubts, wish them well and keep it moving. Because apparently most of you have found your home. Did you even think that others had not found their's yet?

Lastly and most importantly the sorority is open to both muslim an non-muslim women. No one is forced to read the Qu'ran, no one is forced to where hijab and no one is forced to pray five times a day. The sorority is founded on Islamic principies, and if anyone knows anything about the religion will smile and say Wow, that's great and wish them well.

The comments that I've read through in this thread just all but proves why an islamic sorority is needed, to alleviate the misconceptions about Islam and muslim women in general. Yes, there are muslim student organizations on campus, but why must there be a limit on what muslim students can have? Everyone deserves to have options, and if its a black sorority, multicultural sorority, islamic, christian or whatever sorority at least a person can weigh their options and find a place that feels right for them.

Because Greek is for life !!!! Peace and always Love

Cheers to this. It disheartens me a bit when people, especially in the Locals forum, discourage new sororities from forming on the basis of "there's good ones allready out there". Perhaps it is because my own sorority fought that rhetoric to be founded and refounded...and even to stay. People say things like, "oh XYZ sorority is so small, why do they even bother"...well, because that sisterhood is something special to those girls.

I hope Gamma Gamma Chi brings the same happiness to her new members that Tau Delta has brought to me.

Good luck, ladies.

I'm a member of Sigma Gamma Rho and also a Muslim, and I don't have a problem with the phrase "divine 9"....

Different strokes for different folks; some people can be quite sensitive.

What are Islamic principles?

-Rudey

well. then
 

is Gamma Gamma Chi now part of the Devine Ten?

Re: well. then
 

I am fairly certain that the NPHC (The Divine Nine) has guidelines similar to NIC, NPC and perhaps other umbrella groups, regarding membership. One being that to be up for consideration for membership, the organization has to have a certain number of active chapters for a certain number of years. Since Gamma Gamma Chi's 'Alpha' colony (first campus chapter) is just now being formed at The University of Kentucky, my guess is that Gamma Gamma Chi would not be eligible for membership in the NPHC at this time.

Sis, I did not mean to imply that all muslims should have a problem with it. However, there are a lot of things in other sororities that goes against Islamic beliefs, such as committing shirk. But if you are okay with these things that's all well and good.

I'm glad you found a home with Sigma Gamma Rho, I'm still trying to find mine.

Peace and Love

For us non-Muslims, what does this mean? Thanks in advance.

Re: Re: well. then
 

The councils have locked their membership at this time, so as it stands no new GLOs are getting in any of them even if they meet the requirements.

I just looked up on the internet that "shirk" means the sin of worshipping more than one god. Is this correct? If so, how do members of the NPHC worship more than one God :confused:

Since you said that this was an "outstanding question", and did not cite anything to go along with it, I'll assume that it's a question, and not a statement, because if it's a statement, then it's a false statement. You can only be a member of 1 NPC or 1 NPHC, but unless your group's bylaws forbid it, you can also be in 1 service sororityand/or 1 professional sorority. I could have been an Alpha Sigma Alpha, Alpha Phi Omega, Mu Phi Epsilon, AND a Sigma Iota Alpha on my campus. Granted, I wouldn't have time to do anything else, much less go to class, but you get the point.

It means worshipping something or someone other than the Creator or putting partners with the Creator. I would guess that Gamma Gamma Chi will not do a pledge process and is probably why they call it an intake process instead. And they probably will not assign big sisters command over new members.

I cannot speak accurately as to these things because I've never been in a sorority to know what goes on in them nor have I gone through the process with Gamma Gamma Chi to verify the differences.

PEACE

Quick, someone find me the smiley that spits coffee on the monitor and pounds its fist on the desk!!! It's definitely called for here. This comment is hilarious.

Aren't big sisters just mentors? I guess I don't see how a "big sis" would be a god to someone. If that is the case then the President of the chapter would be considered a god and also the founders of the organization would be considered gods. Even though you aren't a member of this organization, if they had the same mindset as you, they should not of created a sorority.

Why must you be this way, didn't I state that I did not know what went on in either kinds of sororoties !

Well, you must know what goes on in some type of sorority because you said that you will get your letters soon and post them in your signature. That makes me believe that you are going through some sort of a process now. Or are you hoping to have some letters soon?

I'm not trying to be rude. I just want to understand where you are coming from.

I'm so glad you have a good understanding of my mindset. And for this simple confusion is why Gamma Gamma Chi is founded on Islamic principles and not founded on anything opposite of our religion. So perhaps people with my mindset, or religion, or whatever way we think that you seem to not comprehend, can have an organization also.

Probably the only thing that many of you will understand about the new sorority are the Greek letters, which is well stated on the Gamma Gamma Chi website.

There is no reason for debate here, you have a sorority/fraternity that fit your needs. So what else is there to say about this new sorority but "congratulations"

Peace and Love my friends.