ISLAM AWARENESS MSA Hosts Islam Awareness Week By Victor Calderon Hoya Staff Writer
This past week, the Muslim Students Association of Georgetown sought to educate people on Islam through a series of programs, dialogues, lectures, and films. An annual event for MSA, Islam Awareness Week is held in conjunction with universities nationwide.
The week’s events were aimed at giving students a “greater understanding of Islam and Muslims,” MSA Vice-President John Halliwell said. MSA President Owais Balti worked with student members and faculty to organize the events of the week in order to educate the community and dispel myths about Islam and its followers.
The week began Sunday with a showing of the PBS documentary, Islam: Empire of Faith.
On Monday, local artists held an exhibition of faith-based art and architecture. Local Muslim artists in attendance included ohamed Zakiriya, who presented his calligraphy art and Huda Totonji, who brought some of her recent paintings.
Tuesday saw a panel entitled “Muslim Women Dispel yths.” Women spoke about rights granted them by Islam and how their identity is defined in their culture. Later in the day, SA held a panel for Muslim student converts who discussed why they had chosen Islam.
Jerusalem’s High Cost of Living, a documentary by Hazim Bitar, was shown Wednesday. The film details the lives of two victims of the oppressive conditions in Jerusalem. One was a man named Haitham Oweidah, the other a young boy named Osama Jadduh.
The shooting of the young subject of Bitar’s documentary caused his family great grief. “Unfortunately the family will protest and the vicious cycle will continue,” Bitar said.
Bitar said he had originally intended to make a documentary on Jerusalem today but found it was a land where “in the name of God, ungodly deeds have occurred”.
MSA held its IAW Banquet in Copley Formal Lounge Thursday. The guest speaker, Dr. Sulayman Nyang from Howard University, spoke about the long history of Muslims in America.
IAW wrapped up Friday with an open Jummah Prayer in Leavey Program Room. Jummah is the Arabic word for Friday.
The club also hosted an MSA Coffeehouse in Leavey Center at 7:30 p.m.
“All the week’s events had a pretty good turnout,” MSA Treasurer Rehenuma Asmi said. Asmi said she was more or less pleased with the attendance, which was composed of about half Muslim and half non-Muslim students.
Asmi added that there was a greater non-Muslim attendance than in past years. “Islam has always been a part of the American fabric. [MSA] just wants to get people aware of Islam,” she said. “We want to work with the community and learn about other people as they learn about Islam.”
