WASHINGTON,
February 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - With hopes of
informing Yale non-Muslim students about the real image of Islam, the
Islamic Awareness Week began in Yale University on Tuesday, February
18.
During
the week, entitled “Woman In Islam”, the main organizing body of
Muslim Students Association (MSA) will offer lectures and discussions,
as well as a film screening and a poetry jam, the Yale Daily News
reported on Wednesday, February 18.
The
event was highly regarded by the University, that described the
opinions of the MSA members about the Muslim community as being
largely positive.
This
would help inform students about Islam, said Yusuf Samara, president
of the MSA.
Non-Muslims
students have shown a responsive tendency to such initiatives.
The
MSA, the only Muslim student organization registered through the Yale
Chaplain's office, was able to establish a regular room for Muslim
worship through the Chaplain's office in 2001. The room allows Muslims
to gather for the congregational prayer.
Tammer
Riad, alumni relations chair for the MSA, said he felt that the
acquisition of a regular worship room was indeed important for the
Muslim community.
Really
Accepting
 |
|
MSA
dine at the organization’s weekly meal, "Eat dinner with
Muslims," (courtesy of Yale Daily News)
|
By
the growth in the local Muslim community, the MSA encompasses now a
diverse group of Muslim students from counties across the world who
benefit from need-based financial aid offered by Yale to international
students.
Riad
said that Yale is a tolerant community where he has found many people
curious about Islam.
“There
is a very large interest on the part of the Yale community,” he
said.
Samara
said he, too, finds Yale “really accepting” of religious freedom,
but he also recalls threats made against Muslim students last spring
around the time the U.S. went to invasion of Iraq.
The
U.S. army intelligence spied on a Texas University conference on Islam
and asked
for a list of participants this month, a measure
dismissed by organizers and civil rights groups as
"unprecedented" intimidation and a new act of racial
profiling.
But
Samara said his group is working hard to utilize educational
opportunities for the Yale community as a whole.
An
example of the events held by the association was the last November
multi-faith Ramadan Banquet, which drew hundreds of students of all
backgrounds.
Syracuse
Islamic Awareness Week
In
the meantime, another Islamic Awareness Week began Monday, February
16, at Syracuse University aims at teaching others about Islam, the News
10 Now reported Tuesday.
Muslim
Students' Association at Syracuse University, the organizers of the
week, forwarded a call to all students, including non Muslims, to
attend its events.
On
Monday night, the group showed a documentary about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"Well,
for example, in this movie called ‘Promises’, they get to
understand that the conflicts going on in Israel, the ones in Iraq and
Afghanistan are more about the people than about the religion,"
Saba Ali, one of the organizers, said.
The
next event is called "A Taste of Islam" and will be from
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm Tuesday in Hendricks Chapel.
