Three speakers gathered for the interfaith dialogue “Addiction and Solutions in Faith” as part of the Muslim Student Association’s Islam Awareness Week Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m.

The event followed an MSA bake sale earlier in the day, from which half of the proceeds were donated to Recovery Point, a local alcoholism and drug addiction recovery center.

“I don’t personally believe that you can just pray your problems away,” said Suzann Al-Qawasmi, president of MSA. “The focus of our event is how we’re supposed to treat those who are struggling with addiction, and from a religious perspective, what is our duty with helping them get better.”

Speakers for the event included Tom Pressman, Dustin Epperly and Basem Dahshan, each of whom represented one of the three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

“A lot of people like to assume that if you have a fault like addiction, it is lack of faith, that the only reason you have this problem is because your faith isn’t strong enough,” said Malak Khader, vice president of MSA. “What we’re trying to say is that is not the case. You can be incredibly faithful and still have problems.”

Khader said the topic is one that “pushes the envelope,” but is something she thinks needs to be discussed more.

“It’s obviously impacting our community greatly,” Khader said. “Trying to eliminate the problem is never a solution.”

Al-Qawasmi said she believes there is a stigma that comes with addiction, but the discussion was meant to show a more compassionate side to people suffering.

“I think the core of all three of the faiths represented is love and compassion, and so it’s about how you can turn that love into a tool to help people,” Al-Qawasmi said. “You can’t write them off as a non-religious person because they have these struggles. Everyone struggles differently.”

Olivia Zarilla can be contacted at [email protected].