Photo by: Christine Cotter, 2009. This photo originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

The Islamic Center of Southern California has always been a trailblazer: the community first organized in 1952, making it the first of what is now over 80 Muslim communities in southern California. It has been at its Vermont Avenue location since the 1970s, joining interfaith initiatives and challenging stereotypes about Muslims. And the Center’s latest venture is the source of heated debate in religious communities.

Claremont School of Theology, a United Methodist-affiliated school, recently announced plans to extend their curriculum beyond Christianity and into Judaism and Islam. The Islamic Center is the Muslim partner in this venture.

“We think people of faith and morality should appreciate other faiths, by learning about them. It behooves us to develop a cooperative spirit, one that de-mystifies what the other is,” says Jihad Turk, the Director of Religious Affairs at the Center. “This program will hopefully leads grads to want to work with local Christian, Muslim [and other] communities, wherever in the world they end up.”

Turk (who holds a position equivalent to imam, but says most people just call him by his given name) isn’t just preaching love and understanding. In his five years at the Center, he has led three pilgrimages to the Middle East, under the auspices of the Wilshire Center Interfaith Council. Joined by rabbis and Christian leaders, Turk has taken laypeople to the birthplace of the world’s three largest religions. Here in Los Angeles, the Center operates a food bank for Hope-Net, a program that distributes food through religious institutions of various denominations.

Despite its apparently open-minded attitude, Turk wouldn’t call the Center liberal.

“Labels are tricky,” Turk said. “Our practice is probably on the progressive side. We don’t mandate that women cover their hair, for example. But in American terms, ‘liberal’ doesn’t really define us. But we do often collaborate with very progressive organizations, such as ACLU. We’re part of the National Campaign Against Torture. Liberal churches are on board with that. We don’t fit into a pigeonhole.”

Like many religious organizations in the Unite States, the Islamic Center is trying to weave together values both old world and new.

“Our home is where is our children are raised,” said Turk. And in Los Angeles, those children have the benefit of knowing other cultures.