Dr. Bidmos animatedly talks to students.

Murtala Bidmos, Ph.D., a visiting specialist representing the Fulbright program “Direct Access to the Muslim World,” will present a public lecture titled “Islam in Modern Times” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, in the Alumni Memorial Union.

The University is hosting Bidmos through Oct. 26. He began his six-week visit Sept. 10 – marking his first time in the United States – and has interacted with faculty, staff, students and community members. Bidmos has been a guest in many classrooms on campus, coordinating lessons with religious studies faculty; he has attended on-campus events, several off-campus community service projects and presented a public lecture at Ohio Northern University.

At home in Lagos, Nigeria, Bidmos, a practicing Muslim, is a professor of Islamic education and imam at the University of Lagos. The campus boasts 48,000 students in the city of approximately 2 million people. Classes there hold as many as 8,500 students. In addition to teaching, Bidmos’ duties as imam include officiating weddings, counseling and other pastoral duties.