Association hosts Islam Awareness Week, aims to inform

The Rutgers University Muslim Student Association will host its annual Islam Awareness Week to bring attention to Islamic culture and promote social and religious dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim students.

Islam Awareness Week will run from April 9-13 in a large tent at Brower Commons on the College Avenue campus, where anyone can stop by and ask questions about Islam, said Ibaad Sadiq, MSA president.

Throughout the week there will be a series of lectures and workshops, which will shed light on Muslim social justice issues, said Sadiq, a School of Engineering sophomore.

Topics such as racism, poverty, economic downturn and revolutions in the Middle East will also be discussed.

“It’s a forum. It’s an opportunity for students to openly, without hesitation, come ask about Islam,” Sadiq said.

Yusra Syed, MSA vice president, said many students have questions about the life of Prophet Muhammad and the Islamic understanding of God.

Through Islam Awareness Week, MSA aims to educate students on the Islamic approach to these issues, said Syed, a School of Arts and Sciences junior.

“We look at the Quran, at Muhammad’s story and his life,” Syed said. “We see how these [issues] have been dealt with in the past, and we study that for dealing with them today.”

Sadiq said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks prompted the student organization to host Islam Awareness Week to combat popular misconceptions on Islam.

“We want to make this an open forum for college students who are going through a lot of academics and high-level learning, and make this a comprehensive tool for them to learn objectively about the religion and see what it has to offer,” Sadiq said.

Azka Mohyuddin, MSA public relations coordinator, said there are many individuals who do not know the difference between being a Muslim and being a terrorist.

“[People] think things like women are being oppressed and Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims. So now there’s the [New York Police Department] spying happening,” said Mohyuddin, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore.

To help further educate members of the University, MSA invited Muslim leaders and activists to lecture on issues such as family values, racism, poverty and freedom, Sadiq said.

Speakers will include Siraj Sadiq, a local community leader and activist; Br. Mujahid Fletcher, a Hispanic convert who studied gangs; Mohammed Hannini, a local speaker and teacher on Islam; and Shaykh Omar Suleiman, an activist from Louisiana, he said.

Syed said each event portrays a special part of the faith filtered through each speaker’s personal understanding.

“Thursday is usually our biggest event [because] the topic is freedom and rights in Islam, so it’s kind of tying all of the discussions that would have happened over the past week [together] … and saying what Islam has to say about social justice,” she said.

Islam Awareness Week will end on Friday with Jumu’ah, a congregational prayer that Muslims hold just after noon every Friday. The prayer is open to everyone, and Syed welcomes students to join or witness the prayers on the College Avenue campus.

“You can compare it to Sunday Mass,” Syed said. “It’s like that very important day for Muslims to come and pray together. … We have a speaker talk for about 15 to 20 minutes, then the actual prayer.”

Sadiq said the success of Islam Awareness Week comes from the amount of non-Muslims who learn about the faith from the educational activities and events.

Mohyuddin said the week presents information on the faith with a comprehensive understanding of Islam.

“At the end of the day, I hope people understand where we’re coming from,” she said. “It breaks my heart when I see people hate the religion for no reason. I want people to find out what Islam really is, not from TV, not from people who are [Islamaphobic].”