OU students left the Taste of Islam culture and food Tuesday night at the Henderson-Tolson Cultural Center with a full stomach and a broader understanding of diversity in Islam.
Approximately 150 students attended the annual Taste of Islam, which is hosted by the Muslim Student Association, as part of Islam Awareness Month.
There were dishes from around the world, including Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt and Bilad al-Sham, which includes Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. Attendees got a “passport” stamped when they visited each area’s table.
“The main purpose is for students to learn about diversity of Islam,” said Khadeeja Elyazgi, professional writing junior. “Islam is a very universal religion and we wanted to represent that with different cultures of Muslims around the world, and of course the best way to draw people in is food.”
Elyazgi, public relations chairwoman for the association, said the event is one of its most popular events and attracts more people than lectures and panels.
Elyazgi said the organization hopes to make Taste of Islam a well-known annual event like the Think Fast event during Ramadan. She said the event is more about learning the different cultures of Islam than in the previous year’s Taste of Islam events.
Iman Abdallat, international and area studies and pre-med freshman, said she helped decorate the Jordan table because she is originally from Jordan. She said she hoped everyone enjoyed the event and learned something new to spark an interest.
“[The purpose is] to show the cultural aspects of it, the food, decorations, clothing and to expose to OU students to that and hope they’re interested to learn more,” Abdallat said.
Genevieve Schmitt, Arabic and linguistics sophomore, said “I enjoyed seeing the different clothing people are wearing, the surplus of colors and richness of culture displayed through clothing.”
Schmitt said events like Taste of Islam are good experiences for Americans who have not been out of the country.
Arabic professor Abdul Kelani said he was very encouraged by the number of non-Muslims at the event.
“The variety of food shows me the diversity of cultures in the east,” Kelani said. “I think students should get the opportunity to attend these kind of events so that they can learn more about the eastern culture.”
Elyazgi said members of the association cooked the food for the event.
Elyazgi said people usually think of Middle Easterners when they think of Muslims, but there are many different Muslim cultures. She said Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world and people are surprised by that.
“We’re at a time where people are very weary of Muslims and Islam as a religion, so we’re trying to spread awareness that Muslims are just like you,” Elyazgi said.
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radiant_enigma 2 years, 1 month ago
"Arabic professor Abdul Kelani said he was very encouraged by the number of non-Muslims at the event."
Just so we're clear, the professor's name is Abdulrahman Kelani(Abdul is not even a real name). This would only have taken 30 seconds to double-check...not that anyone should be surprised that that's about 29 seconds too long for anyone on The Daily's staff.