The objective of any large organization at UCLA should not just be its peaceful stance in society, but rather, it needs to integrate and become a flowing part of the body of hearts, minds and souls working toward the benefit of all.
A peaceful organization willingly assimilates into the society it has been placed in and does not hesitate to support the disenfranchised, despite religious differences.
A peaceful organization offers its hand to the downtrodden and, with its strength, tries to raise humanity from turmoil. A peaceful organization hosts weeks dedicated to abridging gaps of ignorance and providing the lace and binding for pages of lasting relationships.
Every year, the Muslim Student Association is committed to being this ideal organization. Yet some willingly refuse to read our history. Instead, they water the seed of ignorant movements which sprout like weeds in a flower bed of coexistence.
Unlike other organizations, the MSA humbly serves the community, multifaceted in its approach to a complex society. Tolerance of diversity within the MSA, whose members include Japanese, blacks, Latinos and South Asians, serves as a microcosm to the American way of life.
Anyone who puts forth righteous deeds “shall have their reward.” This line from the Holy Koran emphasizes that one’s actions, rather than one’s background, is the basis for a person’s stature in society.
There is no reference to one having to be strictly Muslim and it is for this reason the MSA indiscriminately joins and collaborates with other organizations that stand for the betterment of society.
If critics find the Islamic ideal of “spending substance upon near kin and orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars” is terrorism, then let them turn to those suffering on the streets of Skid Row and tell them that the MSA’s homeless feeding project is terrorism. The MSA feeds the homeless weekly, becoming a presence where avaricious individuals fail to dwell.
The MSA outreaches to hundreds of high school students in Watts. The MSA’s tutoring and peer advising service to these inner-city youth must, according to those who personify the MSA as an uncivilized beast, be considered bellicose.
Terrorism must mean providing free health care in South Central Los Angeles by MSA’s UMMA Health Clinic, a violent bullet to the barrier of poverty that was somehow recognized by Congress.
Terrorism is standing against a corrupted police officer who threatened the safety of students on campus. Terrorism is publishing Al-Talib and exercising the rights of free speech and freedom of the press.
Terrorism is mentoring incarcerated youth and providing them an alternate route to life. Terrorism is the Academic Mentorship Program the MSA launched last year. To be blunt, terrorism is being a Muslim student.
The beneficiaries of the MSA’s services will be quick to stand and say that the MSA is one of the few organizations that practices and performs American ideals of benevolence and charity.
It is the freedom of Islam, the tolerance the Koran emphasizes, and the democratic notions stipulated in Islam that allow the MSA to easily integrate and outreach to this society.
The real terrorists are those who hijack and misconstrue a religion using a bomb, faulty journalism or fake academics to threaten a society of individuals who are collectively working toward peace.
Do not look to the falsified images. Do not ask the violent. Do not ask the terrorist. Discover what a Muslim really is; ask me.
Sarsour is a member of the Muslim Student Association. She is a second-year comparative and world literature student.