This month the Muslim Student Association is celebrating the Holy month of Ramadan, which is the month of fasting for Muslims around the world.

Students can take part in their celebration by attending a questions and answers event on Tuesday from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Student Center.

Ali Haider, president of the MSA, and fellow MSA members are planning an event to enlighten seekers of knowledge concerning Islam. This event is designed to both celebrate Ramadan and offer guidance and instruction for those participating in the fast, as well as those who are seeking to gain knowledge about Islam.

“There will be a small lecture from one of our club members and then a woman from UCLA will be the guest speaker and she will talk about Islam in general.

The main attraction will be an open question session for anyone who wishes to know more about Islam.

Any Muslim or non-Muslim is welcome to ask any question about Islam, especially with all the things you see on TV,” Haider said.

There will be refreshments served and healthy conversation for any who chooses to join.

In the spring of 2002 Cerritos College became the home of the first Muslim Students’ Association of the millennium. Its members are approximately 20 to 30 in number.

The doors of the MSA are open to all who seek information about Islam.

“I was the founder of the MSA and I think the MSA is a very good club to be in because it clarifies the misconceptions about Islam. I came to the campus September of 2002 and I saw there was no MSA on campus. I had been to San Francisco and every single school has an MSA on campus. I saw that we had a lot of Muslims on campus.

So I decided to start it. I only needed to have a certain GPA, go to the ASCC and fill out some forms and say that a lot of students want to start an MSA and explain why we wanted to start it and that’s basically how we got started,” explained Farah Chaugule founder of the MSA “We started out with about six or seven members, now we have between twenty to thirty members. I have seen excellent progress since we got started.

We have tables out now with members standing post with brochures explaining what the MSA is about, we have a display at the library, we have class discussions where we go out and speak to classes that speak about religions and Islam and we did not do that in the beginning. In the beginning it was very hard.

Our website tells non-Muslims what the MSA is about and what Islam is about, we have pictures and articles about Muslims in America. Our meetings are held on Thursdays in the International Students Center in the conference room at 11:30 a.m.”

The doors of the MSA are open to all who seek information about Islam. This month the MSA is celebrating the Holy month of Ramadan, which is the month of fasting for Muslims around the world.

“The reason we are here on campus is because a couple of instructors approached us concerning questions their students were asking about Islam. The instructors could not give them a concise answer so we are here to help provide information.

For instance: this is the month of Ramadan. Ramadan consists of 30 days. This is the holiest month on the Islamic calendar and it is the ninth month. In this month, Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.At this time we do not eat, drink, engage in sexual activity or any type of negative conversation.

Ramadan is a time when you learn to control yourself, your conscience, your, emotions, etc., like a real person should act everyday.

The Qur’an (the holy book of Islam) states that if one prays during this time your prayers will be answered if they are proper prayers.

These are things a person should be working on everyday. They should not wait for Ramadan. Ramadan is just an opportunity for you to view yourself and make an effort to improve yourself,” Explains Haider.

The MSA has grown in members substantially since its inception, from a little over five members to nearly 30 since the end of the spring semester. There is a new MSA website for students and faculty to check out. The address is: http://www.geocities.com/msacerritos and [email protected]

Ali Khalil designed the website. Khalil is the MSA representative in the ASCC.

“The MSA has made a big change for the Muslims. I started coming to Cerritos last fall. At that time I would see other Muslims but we would never talk to each other.

What the MSA did was give us an opportunity to come together and now we are more familiar to each other. So first the MSA helped us to unite with each other, second we began to get non-Muslims to attend our meetings last spring. They were really interested in Islam, and Al Hamdu Allah – meaning all praise is due to God – one of the non-Muslims accepted Islam,” Khalil said.

According to Khalil, when he originally designed the site it did not provide the address.

So he redesigned it and added a few things in order to provide more information and better service to those who log on.

The MSA is one of many groups devoted to sharing information about Islam, its principles and its history. There are many books, websites and magazines devoted to the spread of information concerning Islam. One helpful source according to many Muslims is a book known as Toward Understanding Islam. It can be found over the web or at any Islamic bookstore. For more information email the MSA at: [email protected].

“We want to promote Islam at our college. Many people don’t know that there is a MSA We go outside the college and do community work as well. This is what the MSA is about. We promote peace and unity through Islam.” Says Irfain Khan, Treasurer and board member of the MSA