By Daniel Wood

It was a week of education, a week of prayer and more importantly, a week of understanding.

The Islamic Society of Northeastern University launched their “Islam Awareness Week” on March 15 with a variety of panel discussions, prayer services and documentaries to help broaden the Northeastern community’s existing knowledge about Muslim students.

Imam Salih Yucel shared a story with the audience of a panel discussion last Tuesday night. During his time as Muslim Chaplain at the Department of Corrections in Sydney, Australia, Imam Yucel watched a Catholic Chaplain drop a copy of the Christian Bible onto the floor in front of a Muslim inmate. The inmate picked it up, dusted it off, pressed it to his lips and kissed it, then turned to the Chaplain and said, “There are many words of God on these pages; why do you not show Him the respect He deserves?”

Respect was the central issue of the panel discussion, in which Rabbi Paul Levinson and Reverend Colin Gracey of the Northeastern Spiritual Life Office accompanied Imam Yucel to consider the unified importance of the prophet Abraham, who is jointly hailed as the father of each of the three “Abrahamic” religions.

The three leaders worked together to emphasize the similarities shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in order to resolve the division between these traditions that currently exists in the wider community. They specified the worship of the same God in all three religions as evidence of these similarities, as well as the importance of Jesus Christ as one of the two major prophets of Islam, alongside Muhammad.

Rabbi Levinson commended the audience for attending Tuesday night’s event, stressing the importance of being educated about the common interests of the three traditions.

“You have intellectual curiosity,” he said. “You want to know, you want to learn. You’re the good guys.”

The differences between “good guys” and “bad guys” overshadowed many of the events throughout the week, even if only implicitly.

Rabbi Levinson went on to criticize the Muslim terrorists who perpetrated the September 11 attacks, in addition to criticizing Jewish and Christian terrorists who “bring shame upon more responsible rabbis like myself and ministers like Reverend Gracey.”

Imam Yucel shared these sympathies, highlighting the common goal of all three religions: the need for world peace. He said that “by using the name of religion to wage war, terrorists undermine religion [in general]. There can be no such thing as a ‘holy war’ because war is never holy.”

When this distinction was made early in the week, it set the tone for the events that followed.

“Islamic Awareness Week was intended to respond to the negative stereotypes of Muslims portrayed in the media,” said Sardeie Nur, a freshman international business major and member of the Northeastern Islamic Society. “Our greatest goal was to help non-Muslims understand what Islam is about, why Muslims do what they do, and what constitutes ‘faith’ for them.”

The Islamic Society has been part of the Northeastern community for 10 years, although this is the first time in five years that they have arranged for Northeastern to host events as part of the nationwide Islamic Awareness Week.

“It helps to do something Northeastern has been trying to achieve recently, and that is to strengthen our ties with the wider community,” Nur said.

A variety of documentaries and lectures continued throughout the week to offer insight on topics ranging from the intricacies of Islamic architecture to the role played by African-Americans in Islam. In Wednesday night’s discussion of African-American Muslims, Imam Abdullah Faaruuq of Roxbury Mosque illustrated the occasionally difficult experiences of people who are marginalized by their ties to two distinct minority groups, one racial and one religious.

Other cultural events, such as observation of weekly Muslim prayer sessions and samplings of traditional Muslim foods, were also offered throughout Islam Awareness Week.

Imam Yucel and Imam Faaruuq returned to Northeastern on Friday night to conclude the events with a discussion of contemporary issues and their relationship to Islam. Capitalism and democracy, homosexual marriages, terrorism and the war in Iraq were all touched upon.

“A lot of Muslims make a lot of sad mistakes in the world today,” Imam Faaruuq conceded, although he was quick to note that it is important not to place blame for the conflict solely on the Muslim community.

“I think the United States had a right to pursue war for the purposes of prosecuting the [September 11 terrorists],” he said. “But they went far beyond that into [Iraq and Afghanistan] whose innocent citizens had no definite connection to those people. What we are suffering under now comes from Muslim foolishness and Christian foolishness and Jewish foolishness and humanity’s foolishness. All humanity has a responsibility for the conditions we are living under.”

Students outside of the Muslim heritage or practice said they found Islam Awareness Week as a beneficial series of events for the Northeastern community.

“I didn’t even know much about the details of Islam — only what I’ve read and heard recently in the news,” said Maria Moth, a middler psychology major. “It was great to be able to hear more about it first-hand, from people closely involved with it. It’s clear they have a real passion for helping other people understand what their beliefs and culture are all about.”

Participants in the events of the past week were from no single background, age group, or religious tradition, and the events succeeded in capturing the interest of Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

“A lot of people from diverse backgrounds took the initiative to participate in Islamic Awareness Week,” Nur said on behalf of the Islamic Society. “That shows us they are committed to learning, and I don’t believe there will be a time when people will say, ‘We don’t need to understand anymore.’ As long as there are people to learn, there must be people to teach.”

For more information on Islam and Muslim practices in the Boston community, students are encouraged to consult the wide array of resources that can be accessed on the Northeastern Islamic Society’s Web site at www.islamicsociety.neu.edu