Jan. 15-19 marked Northwestern’s thirteenth Islam Awareness Week, an event which takes place on 200 campuses across the U.S., as well as in Canada and England. The goal of this week-long event is to better educate students about a religion which is often caricatured and misrepresented in the media.
“It’s really surprising to see how many people don’t know much, or anything at all about Islam,” said Amir Siddiqui, the president of the Muslim Cultural Student Association. “You can get questions like ‘is Islam monotheistic?’”
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| Junior Hira Diwan paints henna onto sophomore Eric Bertrand’s hand. |
The many events around campus have showcased different aspects of Islam. From the trivia games at Tech to the henna body art at Norris, many fun activities have exposed the Northwestern student body to Muslim culture. Three firesides were held in the Allison Hall lounge this week: “American Muslims: An Activist’s Approach”, “Exploring Islam in Africa” and “The Quran: Understanding the Holy Word”. The talks culminated Thursday in a speech by Dr. Omid Safi, Islamic Studies professor at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), when he talked about the concept of love and justice in Islam, and the clichés that hurt the relationship between Muslims and western non-Muslims.
Students met the events with curiosity and enthusiasm around campus, said sophomores Hibah Yousuf and Saba Munir, who both braved the cold to distribute hot chocolate by the Rock and promote the week. Yousuf said more people attended the firesides than organizers had expected — and that’s a good thing.
“People have been very receptive,” Munir said.
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| A pile of Qurans to be distributed during the week. |
Sabrina Siddiqui, a Medill junior who coordinated Monday’s fireside with Rami Nashishibi, was pleased with student response.
“We were a little concerned about the fact that [IAW] was coinciding with Martin Luther King Day and Career Week,” Siddiqui said. “Despite that, we still had an average of sixty people a night at the firesides from Monday to Wednesday. People like [how] we hand out free Qurans with an English translation. I think that we’re lucky at Northwestern to have an open-minded community who wants to actually see what we have to say.”
Amir Siddiqui stressed the role of non-Muslims throughout the week.
“Northwestern is extremely supportive about our diversity, and everyone is extremely generous and kind whenever we face a challenge,” he said. “This year we had a few non-Muslims who worked some of the shifts at the booths. It was really cool to see that cross-religion, cross-cultural support for each other.”
Freshman Tasha Richardson said she enjoyed Tuesday’s fireside with Prof. Rudolph Ware, who discussed Islam in Senegal.
“I’d never heard of these practices before,” Richardson said.
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| A group of students praying by the Rock. |
However, Islam Awareness Week is not solely intended to inform non-Muslims.
“Muslims also get a lot from Islam Awareness Week in terms about educating themselves about our religion and way of life,” said Amir Siddiqui.
Sabrina Siddiqui agreed, saying the week was an excellent way to bring NU’s Muslim community together.
“This is a great bonding experience for our community because this is two weeks together working to make this a really successful week,” Siddiqui said. “We paint the Rock together, we flyer together in the morning… Doing this really does develop a bond. It’s the first time after the month of Ramadan that we get to really spend some quality time together.”
Photos by Chloe Benoist.