The Muslim Student Association (MSA) will be putting on several events for the Pacific community starting with an interfaith panel set to begin within the next few months. The MSA’s main goals are to create a familiarization and comfort with Islam and to create an open environment to discuss interfaith issues and allow others to ask questions.
“We want to show people that Islam isn’t what you see in media. There are lots of stereotypes out there but most followers of Islam aren’t like that,” explains President of MSA, Gargi Gupta.
The interfaith panel hopes to highlight similarities between Islam and other faiths.
In addition to the panel, Gupta would like to put on events for those who are interested.
When the MSA was first created in early spring of 2016, there was a bit of nervousness as to how the campus and community would react to a Muslim organization.
“We were really worried that we would experience negativity, but it’s been amazing the kind of response we have gotten,” Gupta said.
Everyone the MSA has encountered, both in Forest Grove and at Pacific, has been enthusiastic and encouraging.
“Everyone wants to support us and it’s been nice to know that people are positive which makes us hopeful that we can make something really amazing of the group.”
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