Durham University Islamic Society

Quran and modern science

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs RC Primary School in Esh Winning, Durham, invited members of the Islamic Society of Durham University to meet with its teachers and staff. The aim of this meeting, which was held on the 9^th of June, 2009 was to give information on Islam, especially on the importance and meaning of prayer in Islam. Mrs. Erica Smith, who is the Head Teacher of this Primary School, was seeking for help to educate the teachers on World Religions who will be serving as multiplicators to pass that information on to their pupils.

Our members met ten teachers of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs RC Primary School. A brief introduction to Islam was given, then exploring the meaning of prayer and the different kind of prayers in Islam, and finally, Lucy Abbott contributed by explaining her experience with Muslim encounter as a Catholic Christian.

The Islamic Society hopes, that these kind of events and educational outreach will help to further dialogue and to get rid of prejudices and misconceptions of the other faith.

Durham University Islamic Society (DUIS) and Durham Malaysian Scholars (DMS) have organised a cycling event to raise fund for Gaza Children.  The money collected from this event is donated to the Children in Gaza, Palestine via INTERPAL.

The event was held on Saturday the 6th of June 2009. Started at 8.00 am from Castle Eden, Durham to Hamsterely Forest and finished around 4.00 p.m at Durham Market Place (40 miles). The facebook page for the event can be found here.

There is a local news coverage for the event in 'The Northern Echo'. For more details, please follow this link.

Durham University Islamic Society (DUISOC) has organised a talk:

Title: 'Islam in British Media, What You See is What NOT you get'.

Speaker: Dr Anas Al-Tikriti,

- CEO Cordova Institute, British Muslim Initiative Spokesperson, Islam Channel

- Presenter and Respect Party candidate for EU parliamentary election 2005.

- For more details and personal biography, http://www.anas-altikriti.com/

Date: Tuesday, 5th of May 2009.

Time: 5:30 pm.

Venue: Room 102, Al-Qasimi Building, School of Government and International Affairs

We received many positive feedback about the talk and it was indeed a memorisable event for this year.

* Photos from this event can be found in our photo gallery or click here.

On Tuesday 10th March 2009, DUIS played host to a visit from students of Tamworth School in Stanley. Around one hundred pupils, aged between 12 and 15, had come to Durham to see both the Cathedral and the University Mosque, with half the party visiting the mosque in the morning followed by the cathedral in the afternoon and the other half doing the opposite. The school's visit was coordinated by Mr Michael Hildreth, a teacher at Tamworth School and our brother Bilal Demir, DUIS' religious activities coordinator.

Before giving a brief tour of the mosque and facilities such as the wudu (ablution) basins, the speakers, led by brother Abdulmuttalib form Newcastle, talked about the basics of Islam and the mosque, explaining some of things one would find in a mosque and the role of the Imam among other things. The pupils then learned about the rites of passage in Islam, in particular birth, marriage and death. The pupils were then able to ask questions and to fill in the worksheets they had with them. The afternoon group also were witness to the call of the adhan and salat al-Dhuhr being prayed in congregation, led by our president Maszlee. At the end we took the children upstairs for some drinks and muffins, which proved very popular indeed!

County Durham is an area where Islam and Muslims are very underrepresented,  so it was crucial that we gave these pupils an informative and educational visit that they would remember and reflect upon. Inshallah, we managed to achieve this in someway, and I think many of the children did learn a lot and had many of their questions and misconceptions answered.

* Photos from this event can be found in our photo gallery or click here.

Five representatives of Durham University Islamic Society; namely Ghassan Al-Sammari, Bilal Demir, Amran Hussain, Maria Anjum and Kausar Balagamwala were chosen to attend a brief meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the 27th of February 2009. Brother Ghassan initiated this by requesting St. John's College to arrange a small time slot so that the representatives of the Islamic and Jewish societies in Durham could have the opportunity to informally meet with the Archbishop during his visit.

After a brief introduction, there was a casual question and answer session, and Dr. Rowan Williams gracefully and adequately responded to all our queries, whether on multiculturalism in the UK, the role of religious societies to counter increasing secularism, or more generally on politics and religion.

The whole thing lasted for about twenty-five minutes, but it really was a pleasure to meet this important and interesting personality, so often scarred by the media, but yet such a humble gentleman in person.