Northwestern’s Muslim-cultural Students Association commenced its annual Discover Islam Week with an Islamic calligraphy workshop Monday evening.
Discover Islam Week consists of guest lectures, discussions and workshops that aim to promote understanding of the religion among the greater NU community. Weinberg senior and McSA Vice President Yahya Arastu said the organization has hosted the week-long event for at least a decade.
“It’s open to everyone, and our goal is to make it as low-barrier to entry as possible,” Arastu said.
This year’s sessions invite guests of different backgrounds, from artists to scholars to activists. Events take place around campus Monday to Thursday at 6:30 p.m., starting with a hands-on Islamic calligraphy workshop with instructor Haidar Muhsin.
After the Monday workshop ended, the majority of attendees lined up in front of Muhsin, who wrote students’ names in the Islamic calligraphy they had just tried out themselves.
“It’s like a little souvenir from my time here from McSA or from the event,” McCormick senior Ruba Ahmed-Abdelmutalab said.
Other attendees, like Weinberg first-year Maree Ahmat, are newer to McSA. Still, Ahmat said she’s already met friends through the organization.
Like Ahmed-Abdelmutalab, she waited in line for Muhsin to write her name.
“I’m gonna hang this on my wall,” Ahmat said.
The series continued Tuesday with a lecture by Shaykh Trent Carl, executive director of the Chicago Muslim community Sacred Roots, who spoke about fostering communities around Islam.
On Wednesday, McSA will host a discussion on Muslim advocacy with representatives from the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based advocacy group.
“The goal there is to talk about how we’re navigating our rights as Muslims in America because it’s under attack in this day and age, and there’s a lot of rhetoric and stuff that’s anti-Islamic,” Arastu said.
Discover Islam Week concludes Thursday with a discussion featuring Islamic scholars Ahmed Arafat and Sayyid Sulayman Hassan. Arastu said the two will discuss bridging the gap between Sunni and Shia traditions, the two main branches of Islam.
Although the sessions span just one week, Arastu said the event has been several months in the making. He sought out his own network to invite guests from different backgrounds in hopes of appealing to a wider NU audience.
“Even if just one person or two people who otherwise didn’t know something learned something new, I think that would be a great outcome for the event,” Arastu said.
Discover Islam Week ends just before Ramadan the following Tuesday, a holy month of fasting without food or drinks from dawn to sunset. This year, it lasts from around Feb.17 to March 19.
For Ahmed-Abdelmutalab, McSA events provide space to connect with other people through faith — an opportunity she said she especially values around Ramadan.
“McSA is a very tight community here,” she said. “Everybody knows pretty much everybody, so I feel like I’m a part of something, regardless of what age you are, what major you are.”
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