Haseeb Mohideen, a senior adviser at the Muslim Student Association, always looks forward to Fridays. He said MSA’s regular Friday afternoon Jummah, or prayer congregation, is a place he can always rely on as a time to catch up with friends after a long week.
“You’re always going to see someone you care about, someone who you like,” Mohideen said.
Rounding out a week of discussion, community interaction and cultural awareness, the Muslim Student Association will open its weekly prayer to curious IU students of all religions.
MSA Co-president Sabeeh Mohammad said he hopes the prayer, which will be at 2:30 p.m. this week in Dunn Meadow, if weather permits, draws attention from those passing by.
“We’re really excited because a lot of people don’t know what Muslim prayer looks like,” Mohammad said.
The prayer, called Jummah, is a part of MSA’s Islam Awareness Week being put on to share facets of the Islam with the IU community.
With events like “Meet a Muslim” and “Fast-a-thon” put on throughout the week, the MSA has made a point to plan interactive events.
Mohammad said at Friday’s prayer, MSA members will have fliers with instructions to teach non-Muslim students how to pray if they would like to join.
Other college campuses have similar events to Islam Awareness Week, Mohammad said, but this is the first time the organization has put on its own event at IU.
Islam Awareness Week began Monday with the “Meet a Muslim” event, where MSA members manned an informational table at the Woodburn clock tower, shared information about Islam and allowed attendees to try on a hijab.
MSA then flipped the script Tuesday at its table at the Woodburn clock tower, asking students to share their knowledge of Islam in exchange for a root beer float.
Mohideen said it was cool to see people’s reaction when they heard Muslims make up between 23 and 24 percent of the world’s population. By Mohideen’s estimate, more than 1,000 students at IU are Muslim.
“It was kind of nice to hang out with people who may or may not know about Islam and maybe learned something new,” Mohideen said.
On Wednesday, MSA invited other student groups on campus, like the Indian Student Association, Christian Student Fellowship the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center, to join their “Fast-a-thon” event, where all were welcomed to share their religious experiences and take part in an optional fast.
A member from each religious organization spoke at the “Fast-a-thon” about their own culture and how fasting may play into their religion.
Some attending the event learned about new religions they had never heard of before, Mohideen said.
“It brings an awareness of all of the other religions, not just Islam,” Mohideen said.
Mohammad said the week so far has had a mostly positive response with students. Many students have stopped to ask specific questions about Islam and what it is like to be a Muslim student at IU.
“It was really nice to know that people cared,” Mohammad said. “They didn’t have to ask questions. It was their own choice.”
On Thursday night, MSA partnered with Anatolia Restaurant for a dine and donate event with proceeds benefiting the Community Kitchen of Monroe County.
Mohideen said this event was planned in the spirit of philanthropy, which is a big part of Islam.
He said the week as a whole was aimed toward teaching others how Muslims are more alike than could be perceived.
“With all of the rhetoric going around in the media, we want people to see we are the Muslims on this campus and we are as much a part of this country as anyone else,” Mohammad said.
