By Matthew Chandler
De Montfort University is known for valuing equality and diversity, shown no clearer recently than by the DMU Islamic Society.
This week, the society is holding a variety of events to help address some damning generalisations aimed the religion’s way.
Tuesday’s events saw the society set up a stall outside the Students’ Union building to enable fellow students to immerse themselves further in Muslim culture.
As well as a cake and samosa sale, the society invited people to read from the Qur’an and to try on a thobe, a piece of traditional Arab clothing.
Mohamed Izagaren, leader of the society, hopes this week’s events show their faith in a far more positive light to other students.
“We want to show what we are about. There is a nasty stereotype about Muslims and we are trying to show that is just stapled on to us,” said Mohamed.
“We eat cakes, we eat samosas, we’re just normal guys.
“On Monday we had a talk on Islam and Europe to show how Islam was spread in Europe from the eighth century – the connotation is that it spread through violence; actually, it was through trade.”
On Wednesday, there was a talk on how Muslims contributed positively to world war, and on Friday, the focus is on women in Islam to correct the belief that they are oppressed in Muslim culture and portrayed badly.
To learn more about the Islamic Society, or if you are interested in joining, visit their page at https://www.demontfortsu.com/soc/dmuislamicsociety/ or their Facebook page at https://en-gb.facebook.com/DMUIslamicSociety/.
