By KATE PIERCE
News Editor
A dozen Saint Rose students traveled to a nearby mosque on Saturday in a show of support for the Muslim community locally, and nationwide.
The first event for the Faith Crawl, the kickoff for a month-long celebration of the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary’s 20th anniversary, was a trip to the Al-Hidaya Islamic community center early Saturday morning. Visitors were invited to go on a tour of the mosque, have henna designs painted on their hands, eat provided breakfast foods and interact with the community members.
“If you can’t walk in our shoes, at least walk in our footsteps,” said Ahmad Abu-Hakmeh, one of the tour guides and a youth leader for boys in the community.
During the tour of the facilities, Abu-Hakmeh explained some of the architectural features of the mosque and how they represent certain aspects of the Muslim faith. Some examples were pillars in the lobby, where two sets of five were representative of the five pillars of Islam.
Abu-Hakmeh encouraged visitors to ask him questions, even if they might feel awkward asking him.
“I would rather you ask questions here than go home and Google it,” he said.
The question portion of the tour is what really piqued the interest of the students, as their curiosity was what had led them to the trip.
“I know so much about the Catholic religion, since I was brought up that way,” said Kayla Franzken, a freshman. She and her sister Sarah had similar thoughts on their experience at the mosque.
“It was cool to experience someone else’s faith,” said Sarah. Both sisters chose to have henna designs painted on their hands and chatted with the high school girls who were applying it. Their conversation included asking what the girls did to secure their hijabs when they rode on roller coasters to the high schoolers telling them about using henna as nail polish.
This was exactly the outcome that Joan Horgan, director of campus ministry, had hoped for when planning for the trip first began.
“I think these journeys are eye-opening,” said Horgan. “You get an understanding of their faith on a personal level, and not just the media understanding of it.”
Abu-Hakmeh spoke about media portrayals of his faith during the tour of the facilities.
“Knowledge can be a weapon, and it can break just as much as it can build,” he said.
The trip to the mosque was an opportunity for students like Lana Torrens to challenge preconceived stereotypes.
“They were so open,” she said. “You expected one thing going in, but there was so much more.”
“I was trying to picture raising my voice in the mosque and I just couldn’t,” said Sarah.
Abu-Hakmeh addressed certain misconceptions and misnomers, including phrases like “jihad” and “Allahu akbar.” He told the group that “jihad,” literally translated, means “to struggle,” which can refer to anything from struggling to follow your parent’s wishes to struggling to concentrate on your connection with God.
“Allahu akbar” is recited twice at the beginning of each of the five daily prayers, and means “God is great” or “God is greater” he explained to the group. It refers to the belief that God is greater than anything you must overcome or persevere through, which could be anxiousness about the political climate, doing well on a test, or even sleep.
Maria Hartz, leader of the Better Together interfaith group here on campus, asked Abu-Hakmeh how people could be the best allies to those of the Muslim faith during the current political climate.
“Be sincere,” he said. “Take the time to connect on a human level and open your heart.”
One of the student attendees, Mariah Pasinski, said that both Abu-Hakmeh and the trip itself helped her to understand how to connect with others.
“If we just take the time we can realize that we have so much more in common than we have in differences,” she said. “If we just took the time to realize those before our differences, we could get together and celebrate our differences instead.”
Any students who are interested in learning more about the rest of the Faith Crawl events are encouraged to reach out to Joan Horgan or Maria Hartz.
