Al-Nur, Dartmouth's Muslim Student Association, is hosting an Islamic Awareness week this Monday through Friday in an effort to help the Muslim community at Dartmouth band together, as well as to debunk misconceptions about Muslims.
This afternoon, speaker Sheikh Taha Hassane will give a lecture entitled, "Islam: Clarifying Misconceptions," in Dartmouth Hall and on Tuesday, the film "Muhammed: Legacy of a Prophet," will play in the Rockefeller Center. A student panel discussion will take place on Wednesday in the Collis Center, while regular congregational prayers will be held on Friday in Rollins Chapel.
While the week is meant to benefit both members of the Muslim community and those outside the group, it is particularly timely for Al-Nur to appeal to the broader community on an awareness level, according to Sara Ludin '08, president of Al-Nur.
"The purpose of it is really just to clarify. There are crazy people in the world who call themselves Muslims and there is a lot of media misrepresentation," Ludin said.
In addition to this problem, Ludin also highlighted the difficulty of discrediting many of these misunderstandings.
"People just don't know where to look ,so hopefully this is a way for people who are already interested to come and see," she said.
The awareness week is meant to break down stereotypes that people have about Islam and Muslims, Ludin said.
In addition to educating the community, the planning, organizing and implementation of the events serves to unify members of the Muslim community at Dartmouth, she said.
The national Muslim Student Association encourages colleges around the country to host an annual awareness week at any convenient time during the year. It has been difficult to do so in past years, Ludin said, due to the small size of the Muslim community at Dartmouth. Al-Nur has not hosted an awareness week since 2003.
