Members of the Muslim Student Association gathered for a bake sale Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Memorial Student Center plaza with the intention of allowing the Marshall University community to experience a new culture.

The event featured pastries from various countries, such as Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco and Nigeria, all of which were sold for $1, with the exception of the baklava, which was $2.

“There are bake sales on campus all the time, but you never really see a cultural bake sale,” said Malak Khader, vice president of MSA. “We like to expose culture to the area. We’re trying to bring the culture to the students, rather than them going out and trying to experience it themselves.”

The bake sale was just one event that took place as part of MSA’s bi-annual Islam Awareness Week and coordinated with an interfaith dialogue event that took place Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m., at which speakers discussed problems surrounding addiction.

Half of all the proceeds from the bake sale will be donated to Recovery Point, a 100-bed center that focuses on assisting people who are coping with alcoholism or drug addiction.

The idea for the donation came after MSA spoke to a first year seminar class and asked what topics the students would be interested in MSA covering during Islam Awareness Week.

“Someone suggested focusing on addiction, and how from a faith perspective we view addicts and our role in helping them,” said Suzann Al-Qawasmi, president of MSA. “Normally, for our bake sale, the proceeds just go to us, but then we decided ‘what better way to help the cause than donating ourselves?’ It’s a local problem that we’re seeing a lot of, especially here in Huntington, so we just wanted to do our small part. It’s (Recovery Point) a nonprofit organization, so they need donations to help those addicts. It’s not just a place for them to stay, they have treatment there, so that was why we thought that it was really important.”

Future MSA events will include a day of solidarity Wednesday, which will allow women to wear hijabs for the entire day.

Olivia Zarilla can be contacted at [email protected].