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By Meredith Holt
For The Maine Campus
About 60 people from different backgrounds lowered their heads to observe a moment of silence for the people who lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, for their families and for all those affected. They were gathered in the Bangor Lounge of Memorial Union on Thursday, Oct. 18 to gain a better understanding of the largest-growing religion in the United States, Islam.
There are about 6 million Muslims living in the United States today, and only one-third are late-comers, meaning they came to the country from a different country.
The facilitator, Kamal Shannak, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, pointed out that the community is interested in learning.
“People really care about knowing what Islam is,” he said.
The panel was sponsored by the Muslim Students Association and featured five Muslim students.
Essam Al-Shalabi, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and vice president of the Muslim Students Association said Osama bin Laden is not an accurate representative of what Islam is all about.
“Bin Laden is a very sick man. He does not represent Islam,” Al-Shalabi said. “What he says, it does not contain any weight. Just because he said that doesn’t mean Muslims will follow him.he’s nobody.most Muslims don’t even care what he says.”
“[Bin Laden] takes advantage of people who don’t have anything to look forward to in life, gives them something to fight against, because of their human condition. Common sense erodes during a crisis,” Shamarukh (Malina) Mohiuddin, a fourth year international affairs in economics major, said.
Marsha Kanon, a chemistry major, told the audience bin Laden continuously asserts any Muslim who doesn’t help his cause cannot be considered a Muslim, but Kanon said quite the opposite is true.
