Islam Week at UAB
This is a guest post by Alla Mahdi, Alla is a member of the Muslim Students Association.
For the week of February 16-20, 2009 the UAB Muslim Student Association (MSA) is putting on an event everyday to help inform the UAB campus about Islam and the Muslim Community. The entire week is dedicated to panel discussions and questions about Islam, Jihad, and correlations between Islam and other religions. These discussions are also followed by the movie “On a Wing and a Prayer,” which is about an American Muslim learning to fly at an open-minded flying school, a topic that is a sore thumb for many in the Muslim community who have had painful experiences merely trying to get through the airport systems. The final event of the week is a discussion about “THE STATUS OF JESUS AND MARY IN ISLAM” by Khalid Latif, chaplain and director of the Islamic Center at New York University and the Muslim chaplain for the New York Police Department. These are great opportunities for the campus to bring up questions that have been whispered and met with silence because there is either no one to ask or people are too afraid to try to find out.
The MSA members have been dedicated and very passionate about speaking out to the campus and breaking the wall of misunderstanding that has been spread across the nation because of current world events. This week is only a glimpse into the true meaning of Islam, which when translated means “peace”, and its followers. The MSA does events year round that the campus is more than welcome to attend and contribute to. An example is every Thursday night, a halaqah, which is a meeting meant primarily for learning more about Islam, is held at the Sterne Library at 8 pm. Each week, a new topic is discussed and any resulting questions answered. This event is open to everyone! The Fast-A-Thon is another very successful event that is put on by the MSA every year. Fast-A-Thon is put on to allow non-Muslims to take part in one of the five pillars of Islam, which if fasting. Every year, 1.2 billion Muslims world wide fast from sunrise to sunset every day for the month of Ramadan. During this month, we abstain from food, water, and irreligious thoughts and actions. The entire month is dedicated to reflection and worshipping God. Muslims are encouraged to read the Quran, perform prayers on time, do their best to refrain from sinful actions, and love their fellow humans. The end of the month is met with a large celebration called Eid. The few weeks prior to the Fast-A-Thon, the MSA actively recruits students, faculty, and staff to pledge to fast for the day of Fast-A-Thon from sunrise to sunset. Every pledge made is met by a contribution from local businesses. During the day of Fast-A-Thon, those who fasted are invited to large dinner, at which all contributions are donated to the Magic City Harvest to help combat hunger in the Birmingham community.
The MSA will continue to put on these meaningful events on campus in attempt to breach the religious boundaries and misunderstanding of society and the UAB campus is welcomed in helping! So, I hope to see more of you guys at MSA events, showing your support!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Here are some more iloveuab.com posts that you may enjoy
- Recycling Week Interest Meeting – Wednesday Night!! We need YOU to make this Recycling Week Awesome!...
- Student Success Week at UAB UAB is trying out something new to help educate students...
- National Library Week! iloveuab loves Sterne Library!...
