By Aamena Ahmed

When it comes to Islam’s image in the global media, words that most often come to mind are “war” “terrorists,” and “intolerance.” And part of that is because of the weak state of Muslims today, Hamza Tzortzis told more than 150 students in the “Religion and Rationality” discussion last Wednesday, at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.

“We point fingers a lot and blame the West and the colonizers but we forget that when we point a finger at someone, we point three at ourselves,” said Tzortzis, a British public speaker and convert to Islam. “We have a lot of house cleaning to do.”

In Education City many students are looking for answers to questions related to religion, but they don’t know who to ask or who to talk to. Dawah week, which literally means to “invite people toward Islam,” wanted to address these issues for students and provide a space and opportunity for them to talk about these things in a candid manner, said Asma Hosna, an executive member of Muslim Youth in Education City.

The “Religion and Rationality” event at noon on Wednesday last week was part of a series of events during Dawah week or inviting people towards religion, a student initiative that included international speakers. The speakers and interfaith discussions aimed to dispel preconceived stereotypes about Islam and other religions while encouraging students to seek and spread religious knowledge. All the events were planned in collaboration between Muslim Youth in Education City (MYEC), the Cultural Exchange Club at CMUQ and the Insight Club at TAMUQ, said Afnan Al Bahri, the president of MYEC.

International speakers from the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA) in Britain were here on a week’s trip to foster dialogue on religion among students and the larger Qatar Foundation community, along with speakers from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar, and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar also participating in the events.

“It’s not a secret or a mystery that people have questions (about religion), and might be hesitant to ask them,” Al Bahri said.

Da’wah , or invitation toward religion in English, week was designed to address those questions and create an opportunity to discuss them openly, she added.

“We put Da’wah week together for students, faculty, and the public to hear about certain topics (about religion) and promote a safe environment for them to voice their questions and concerns about it,” Al Bahri said.

“When man pursues God with all his heart, all his soul and all his mind, we see love,” said Rob Hinton, a staff member at TAMU-Q during the interfaith talk on Thursday evening. “This is what the Bible says and this is what I teach my children.”   

Yusuf Chambers, an activist from IERA, described the interfaith discussion between people of different faiths as “groundbreaking” in the Middle East, he also said that very few students showed up for the event.

“I thought the place would be humming (with people),” he said. “Where are they?”

It’s no mistake, he added.

In a secular university environment like that of Education City, where there is currently no mosque, some students are losing interest in their religious values.

“We’re being told that God does not matter,” Chambers said during the dialogue.

While few students attended majority of the events, some of the events had a huge turnout with crowds standing because audience seats were all filled. The “Religion and Rationality” event, for example, had a great turnout Qataris, especially Qatari girls who are often noted for not being involved enough in the school community, said Najwa Al Thani, a Qatari student at Northwestern University in Qatar.

“There are barely any (events) tailored to our interests in terms of cultural applicability,” said Al Thani. She said that most events in Education City aren’t planned with regards to local cultural boundaries. “(But) this event I believe hit the mark in terms of merging our university education with our religious and cultural identity.”