You may not have seen us before. We are the Muslim Student Union at Stanford. Our faith is often mentioned in mainstream media. Our beliefs are often misunderstood and generalized. Peers, today it is our pleasure to invite you to a series of events that will break down those stereotypes. April is Islam Awareness Month (IAM), a chance to learn, explore, and celebrate the culture and religion of Islam. In light of mainstream rhetoric about Islam, IAM hopes to show students and community members a fuller picture of the Muslim faith. By the end of the month, we hope that you will have had a chance to appreciate the richness and complexity of the Muslim faith, and that you will be able to provide your peers, friends, and family with new insights. For the most current list of events, please visit the link here.

The month kicked off on April 2 with Sounds of Islam in Memorial Church with performances ranging from Sufi spiritual music to Quran recitation. 

Later, on Wednesday, April 6, we have the honor of hosting Doctor Rania Awaad for a conversation about Women in Islam. Dr. Awaad is a psychiatrist at the Stanford School of Medicine and teaches Islamic Law at Zaytuna College. The discussion will use personal narratives to dispel common misconceptions about the roles of women in Islam.

The Arab Shorts Film Festival, on Thursday, April 7, will feature some of the best Arab short films of this generation, addressing the Muslim experience in the Middle East and America. The event will be moderated by Dr. Ramzi Salti, professor of Arabic and host of the podcast and radio show “Arabology.” The festival will take place at Cubberley Auditorium.

Activism has played, and continues to play, a key role on the Stanford campus. If you are interested in learning about activism through an Islamic lens, we invite you to a talk about Activism & Allyship in Islam on Monday, April 11, location TBD, led by Doctor Suhaib Webb, of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, and Zahra Billoo, Executive Director of the Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. We hope you will join us in learning about Muslim advocacy and about how you can make a difference in your own community.

Interested in exploring how Muslim artists and performers communicate their narratives through the arts? We encourage you to attend Islam & Performing Arts, which will feature a short play by Rohina Malik, stand-up comedy by Zahra Noorbakhsh and hip-hop by Alia Sharrief. Listen and watch how a new generation of Muslim performers is explaining Islam in fun, exciting, and creative ways.

For exact locations, dates, and times, please see the calendar below and our website, linked here. We hope to see you there!

– Muslim Student Union at Stanford

Contact the Muslim Student Union at Stanford at msustanford ‘at’ gmail.com.