Students in the Muslim Students Association are celebrating Islam Awareness this week to raise awareness about the Islamic religion and inform others about the misconceptions within the Muslim community and religion.

Public administration graduate student and president of the organization Suzann Al-Qawasmi said this is the first year the current members of the association have done this event. Although students celebrated this week in the past, Al-Qawasmi said current members are revamping the celebration and said she hopes it will promote understanding and peace.

“We’re really big on interfaith,” Al-Qawasmi said. “We just really believe that if we can reach people just from this one event, it’s really made me realize how similar we are even though we have our differences we still have something that connects us.”

“We are going to try to do this at least once a semester,” Al-Qawasmi said. “We’re going to have a whole week dedicated to events like this [table at the Memorial Student Center.] We will have some during the day and then some in the evening as well.”

At the table, students can play a form of Jeopardy to answer questions to teach knowledge of the Islamic religion, find out about events going on during the week and also grab some candy.

Freshman biology major and association member Deena Dahshan said the group is going to try and do a different theme at the table everyday.

“Monday, the first day, is Meet a Muslim, Tuesday is about the prophets, Muhammad and Jesus,” Dahshan said. “Wednesday is Hijab Day, followed by a bake sale on Thursday and then Friday, we are inviting people to the Mosque to observe our prayer and asks questions so they can be more informed about the Islamic religion.”

“When we do it next semester, we will probably have some of the same events, but we will make some of them different too,” Al-Oawasmi said.

A board game night, two guests speakers and a movie night are on the schedule for evening events.

Muslim Association of West Virginia members Sheikh Sameh and Sheikh Mostafa Rawash, will present Tuesday and Dr. Sylvia Nemmers will present Wednesday, talking about why she converted to the religion, despite all the negative media attention surrounding women who are in the religion.

Desmond Groves can be contacted at [email protected]