Islam Awareness Week begins

Faizan Shabbir often feels misunderstood by other students when he prays five times throughout the day or cannot shake a female peer’s hand because of the doctrine of his Islamic faith.

To address any misunderstanding regarding their faith, members of the Muslim Student Association have planned a series of events for Islam Awareness Week, which takes place this week.

“People think that Islam is very backward and restrictive, and they don’t look at the beauty of God in Islam,” said Shabbir, a first-year electrical engineering student.

Both Shabbir and Alaa Koleilat, a first-year neuroscience student and another organizer of Islam Awareness Week, said the misconceptions addressed by Islam Awareness Week originate in part from treatment of Islam in the media.

“Lately we have been getting a lot of negative attention in the media,” Koleilat said. “But you can’t generalize based on the actions of one or two.”

Islam Awareness Week is meant to challenge stereotypes presented in the media and to show that the Islamic faith is by nature peaceful, Koleilat said.

Today’s events focus around the role of women in Islam, Koleilat said, adding that the first event is called Step Into the Life of a Muslim Woman.

Beginning Monday, the group handed out a number of hijabs, the head scarves traditionally worn by Muslim women, to non-Muslim female students who chose to participate in the event, Koleilat said.

These participants will wear the hijabs, as well as make sure that their clothing covers everything but their hands and feet throughout the course of the day, she added.

The idea of the event is to give non-Muslim students an understanding of the experiences of Muslim women at UCLA, Koleilat said.

She added that for her, wearing the hijab is not a form of restriction, but rather a source of empowerment.

“People judge you for who you are rather than how you look,” she said.

Participants in the daylong event will share their experiences of wearing the veil at a panel event taking place tonight called Women in Islam, Koleilat said.

The panel will also feature a number of Muslim students from UCLA who will each speak about a key aspect of what it means to be a Muslim woman.

The topics discussed will include women’s roles in leadership, education and family within the Islamic culture, Koleilat said.

“I think (the panel) will open a lot of doors for non-Muslim women to understand what Muslim women go through on a daily basis,” she added.

On Thursday, the events of Islam Awareness week will continue with a multi-faith discussion panel featuring local religious leaders in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Shabbir, one of the organizers of the panel, said speakers would address the concepts of God and sin within each religion.

“We want to work with people of other faiths. … We want this to be a discussion, not a debate,” he added.

The group is also holding its annual Fast-a-thon event on Feb. 2, with proceeds benefiting victims of the earthquake in Haiti, fourth-year engineering student and Muslim Student Association member Abdallah Jadallah said.

Participants in the event are asked to fast for one full day before joining together at dusk to eat dinner and listen to a number of speakers on Islam, Jadallah said.

He added that sponsors of the event will make a donation for each student who participates.

The event aims to help participants understand the spiritual reasons as to why Muslims fast and dispel the misconception that fasting has no purpose, Jadallah said.

In addition to the panel events and Fast-a-thon, students from the Muslim Student Association will also be on Bruin Walk throughout the week to answer questions about the Islamic faith and display information about Islamic culture, Koleilat said.

“This could be a good opportunity for people to reach out to Muslims on campus,” Koleilat said.