The Bucks County Community College sign at the Newtown campus.
Bucks County Community College’s Muslim Students Association (MSA) is gearing up for it’s biggest event of the year – Islam Awareness Week.
The week long series of events will take place beginning Monday, April 18 and ending Friday, April 22 at the community college’s Newtown campus.
According to Bucks MSA President Razin M. Karu, the group’s mission since it’s inception in September, is to help Muslim life feel present on the campus. Karu mentioned he’s received “enormous support” from MSA leaders at both Drexel and Temple.
“We have Friday congregation prayers in the afternoons and very alternate week we have a “Halaqa” which means a “Circle of Knowledge”; what we do is have a discussion on a particular topic,” he said. “For community service, we give free supplies and snacks to the students during finals week, and everyone loves us for that! We also did a cleanup at a local mosque in Bensalem and now we plan to join the Eco Club and clean our very own Tyler State Park Trail.”
Karu, who is also the secretary of the Bucks County Community College student government said that students can look forward to numerous events throughout the week that help celebrate Muslim culture.
On Monday, April 18, members of the MSA will set up booths from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to greet students and faculties passing by in an effort to talk to people about Islam and answer questions. Tuesday will feature a screening at 1 p.m. of the film ‘Out of Cordoba’ which Karu noted is a film about the peaceful coexistence of Christians, Jews and Muslims in Islamic Spain. An exhibition full of posters, charts and pictures about Muslim people will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, where students will have the opportunity to get a free henna tattoo and taste ethnic food. A scholarly talk on Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham and Jesus by Shaikh Mateen Khan will take place Thursday at 12 p.m. Khan, who is a medical doctor, also has a PhD in Islamic Studies. Friday will finish the course of events with a call for prayer and a group lunch organized by Mufti Nias Hannan, the Muslim Chaplain at Drexel, at 1 p.m.
The group recently held a moment of silence for all of those effected in the attack on Lahore, Pakistan. “Recent events around the globe ask for the U.S. to unite and resolve that we have a world, safe and peaceful for all of us,” said Karu in a recent release.
