Muslim Students Association shows students what Islam really looks like

This week was Islamic Awareness Week at George Brown College, where students from The Muslim Students Association (MSA) organized a number of events to educate students about the religion of Islam.

Their last event for the week was the Friday Jummah prayer which was held publicly at Casa Loma campus main entrance on Friday.

Muslim students congregated at approximately 1:30 p.m. to hear Adel Esayed, the dean of the centre for construction, engineering and technology, led the ceremony.

The Jummah prayer is held every Friday, and must be led by one person who will offer a sermon as well as a prayer to follow. Esayed often leads the Friday Jummah for students to assist them in strengthening their religious values.

His sermons are often based on the actions that young people can take to contribute to society.

“I advise them to be good people, to do good deeds, and to help other people.” he said.

The prayers are not usually held in such a public space, normally students can pray in rooms C413 (for men) and C415 (for women) at Casa Loma campus.

“Our theme was to kind of get the name out about Islam and tell people about Islam, which is otherwise put down and talked badly against in the media,” said MSA executive Shahaab Khan.

Khan said the week helped to clarify many questions students had about Islam.

“They were really surprised because they expected Islam to be a religion of terrorism, and really it isn’t, it’s a religion of peace, and justice for everyone,” said Khan.

CORRECTION: a previous version of this article listed the wrong room numbers for the regular prayer space.  The Dialog regrets the error.