SACPA to take insider's look at upheaval in the Middle East | Local News | Lethbridge Herald

SACPA to take insider's look at upheaval in the Middle East | Local News | Lethbridge Herald

Bridging people, cultures and religions

Islam Awareness Week at the University of Lethbridge (Mar 2011 )

Mohammad Hassan ( Muslims Students' Association) wrote:

Islam Awareness Week is intended to introduce Islam to the public body of the U of L.  We book the atrium and we put up posters about different Islamic features: prayer, pilgrimage, what Islam says about Jesus (peace be upon him), etc.  We also have a table with pamphlets, brochures, and copies of the Quran which people can pick up and take home.  We answer people’s questions and discuss any issue with them that they want to discuss.  Along with that, we also give talks about several topics that we think may appeal to the non Muslim audience.  Such topics include but are not limited to: women and Islam, living in the West as a Muslim, and how I became Muslim.  We would also give Middle Eastern sweets to give people a taste of Islamic/Middle Eastern culture.

We started Islam Awareness Week in March of 2009, and have done it every March since.  Naturally, as students in the Muslim Students’ Association, graduate and new blood got introduced into the group, the direction Islam Awareness Week was taking changed.  As you could imagine, the 2009 event was the most challenging as we had no experience in the event and were almost blind going into the event.  I guess you could say that the 2009 event was our experiment, and after we were done, we weren’t sure whether or not we would do it again.  In 2010 we decided to do it again, and this was the year that I personally didn’t participate in too much as I was very busy. 

As for the outcome of the event, I believe that the event generally has had a positive tangible outcome.  By TANGIBLE, I don’t mean that someone converted, this is not an event with the purpose of converting people, this is an event with the purpose of educating people about Islam, and removing misconceptions about the religion.  Based on what I have seen and heard, the following were our results from the last few Islam Awareness Weeks: for 2009, I think we were a little too aggressive and that even though we did have a lot of people like the event and ask questions, we could have made more progress if we were less pushy in the event and didn’t pressure people to take brochures as much.  Like I said I didn’t have much to do with the 2010 event, but my understanding is that it was a success.  And so far for our 2011 event, we are still in the middle of it, but so far we are being approached by people who have a genuine interest in the religion and this definitely is encouraging.

On Orientalism-Edward Said.

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