The Muslim Student Association plans to hold events and nightly discussions aimed at promoting knowledge about Islam and unity among different religions this week.
And members of MSA say one of the main goals of the week is to eliminate some myths about Islam.
“People have a lot of misconceptions about Muslims,” said Suwila Habib, vice president of MSA. “I’m looking forward to (having the) opportunity to dispel a lot of these misconceptions about Islam.”
Some misunderstandings surrounding Muslims include the way Muslims are sometimes depicted as violent by the media, and how Muslim women are at times said to be oppressed, she said.
Today’s event will feature speaker Yusuf Estes in a lecture titled “Qur’an: The True Message of Jesus.” As a convert from Christianity to Islam, Estes will speak about the Muslim holy book and how Jesus is addressed in the Koran, Habib said.
“I hope this will create an opportunity for dialogue,” Habib said. “People don’t realize that there are a lot of similarities between Islam, Judaism and Christianity.”
Adnan Nasir, a fifth-year computer engineering student and programming director of MSA, said the point of the week is to bring together people of different religions.
“We want to promote unity,” he said.
Other discussion topics to be held at this week’s events include “Jihad: The Truth Behind the Terror,” which will take place Tuesday with guest Yasir Fazaga, head of the Mission Viejo mosque.
Habib said the term “jihad,” which translates to “spiritual struggle,” is often misconstrued to mean a holy war that Muslims can declare on anyone.
Fazaga plans to discuss in detail what he believes the term really means and why at times Muslims may be depicted as violent, Habib said.
On Wednesday, Cassandra William and “˜Abd al-Hayy Michael Weinman, a former Israeli soldier, will be leading a discussion called “Faith of Fear or Fear of Faith?”
William, who converted from Catholicism to Islam and is an attorney, plans to talk about her experiences as a Muslim woman. Weinman grew up in Israel and will speak about what he saw in Islam that intrigued him to convert.
Thursday’s discussion, with Omar Mahmood, a UCLA alumnus, is called “Muhammad: The Inheritor of the Judeo-Christian Tradition.” Mahmood will focus on the life of Muhammad and the controversial cartoons published in a Danish newspaper early last year. The editorial cartoons depicted the Prophet Muhammad and sparked protests in Muslim communities.
Muslim religious art will be displayed in the Kerckhoff Art Gallery all week, said Sabiha Ameen, president of MSA.
Members have continued to be involved in this annual event in hopes of encouraging non-Muslims to participate and informing the community of the truth behind Islam, Ameen said.
“In order for you to see what the true picture is, you have to go back to the source,” she said. “We’re letting people know what the true Islam is from the perspective of Muslims.”
Fifth-year physiological science student Mehdi Eddebbarh said he will be attending events and passing out fliers.
“I participated last year and I think this will be good for the campus as a whole,” Eddebbarh said. “Everyone can learn about their classmates and their beliefs.”
Habib said that Muslims are continually increasing in number, as they currently constitute almost a fifth of the world’s population.
“This shows the importance of people being aware of Islam and who Muslims really are,” she said. “If you don’t understand who Muslims are, it will hurt the ability to have tolerance toward others.”