Muslim and non-Muslim population of STLCC-Meramec gathered to celebrate the Muslim culture with the Muslim Student Association’s sixth annual welcome dinner
Joe Douglas
– Jr. Copy Editor –
At 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 1 in the STLCC-Meramec Student Center, the Muslim and non-Muslim population of STLCC-Meramec gathered to celebrate the Muslim culture with the Muslim Student Association’s sixth annual welcome dinner. Ahmed Syed, student and president of MSA, called it “a revival of the MSA.”
“Our goal was to get everyone together and get on one page,” said Syed.
MSA and the International Club worked together since the beginning of the fall semester to bring the campus a multicultural welcome dinner. Green, yellow and blue balloons, streamers and flyers decorated the room.
The two clubs set up at noon in SC Room 200/201. At 5:30 p.m. students were welcomed into the banquet, free of charge.
“Some people have a bias to Muslims…” said Jieun Jeong, student and member of the International Club. “Everything that was biased disappeared.”
At 5:45 p.m., MSA introduced its officers for the fall semester.
“It was the first time getting the officers together,” Syed said.
Syed opened the evening with a prelude to the MSA and its purposes.
“Our goal was to get everyone together and get on one page,” Syed said.
This was MSA’s chance to show Americans the mainstream Muslims; the ones behind the wall of paranoia.
“One guy described he could feel the warmth in the room,” Syed said.
The previous five MSA dinners were scheduled at the end of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, but was moved back due to scheduling conflicts. For past events, Muslims and non-Muslims around campus were invited to celebrate in a similar way to this year’s MSA dinner: in order to break down the wall between misunderstood cultures and to discern the blurred line.
In addition, like previous years, families brought in home-made Muslim cuisine to give it “more of that home feeling,” Syed said. “I was afraid we would run out of food, but we didn’t,” said Abbas Ali, webmaster of MSA.
“I never thought Muslim food was so good like that,” Jeong said.
