On April 11, the Muslim Student Association hosted an Arts and Culture night at the Center for Intercultural Relations as part of Islam Awareness Week.
Islam Awareness Week is celebrated by MSA clubs at many different universities around the world.
Club president and sustainability senior Tessa Wiley said the week is important to the club because it helps them get their name out and show what Islam is — not the common misconceptions people have of it.
Th event had free food, henna, trivia games, cookie decorating and coloring pages. Some of the food included samosas, dolmas, kanafeh, rice and dried dates. The trivia game included true or false questions about Islam, “get to know a prophet” and historical facts.
The event was held in the Center for Intercultural Relations in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union. The center is very important to the MSA because they have a spiritual room that allows for a space for Muslims to pray during the day.
“CIR has been like my home for the two years that I have been at SDSU,” San Diego State alumna Halima Eid said. “Obviously you can see that people from other organizations come here but we didn’t ever feel unwelcome in here.”
MSA has been an organization on campus since the 1990s, according to Wiley. The club prides itself on encouraging their members to join leadership positions on campus as well as within their club.
Some of the positions within MSA include a Brothers leader and a Sisters leader. Mechanical engineering senior Freddie Gonzales is the Brothers coordinator.
“We as Muslims need to establish a Muslim community on every college campus because the Muslim community is growing,” Gonzales said. “We’re here to establish this community and let every Muslim know that there is a community for them that will help them, provide resources for them and provide a family for them.”
In continuation with Islam Awareness week, there will be events held from April 16-18.
On April 16 from 6 – 8 p.m. Imam Jihad Saafir will be speaking on “The Black Muslim Experience” in Music 265.
On April 17, there will be a “Mind, Body and Spirit: Food Ethics and Sustainability in Islam” with speaker Imam Dawood Yasin in Music 245.
On April 18 there will be the “Art of Struggle” with Amen Ra, Natasha Hooper and Mohammad Moussa from 6 to 8 p.m in the Aztec Student Union Courtyard. “Art of struggle highlight the struggles that minority people and people of color experience on a daily basis” Wiley said.
“We have a presence here, come and learn,” Eid said. “If you’re not going to come and learn now when you’re in school, then when are you going to put in the time to learn.”
