IDSA

Birthday of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.)

In the honorary of Prophet Mohammed's (p.b.u.h) birthday, IDSA organized an event on discovering Prophet's life and teachings. Three speakers presented on different aspects of the Prophet Muhammad on the timeline of his life, Jihad, women, and his resemblance.

Jihad, women in Islam and the life of the Prophet Muhammad were some of the topics talked about Thursday night during a panel by the Islamic Dialogue Student Association. IDSA coordinated the event to offer people an opportunity to learn more about Islam. About 20 people attended the event.

Yetkin Yildirim is a member of The Institute of Interfaith Dialog, which is a nonprofit organization aimed at creating understanding between cultures and religions in the hopes of seeing world peace. He spoke about Islam, its core beliefs and the meaning of jihad. Islam is based on the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad.

"If someone says 'What I am doing is Islamic,' the first thing you need to do is check if he is matching with teachings the Quran, check if it is matching with the teachings of Muhammad," Yildirim said. "If it is not matching, then you need to be careful and say, 'Hey that is not Islamic.'"

Yildirim said jihad means struggling to get closer to God. It is overcoming difficulties to obtain inner peace and perfection, and jihad is both an internal, personal struggle and an external struggle, he said. The external struggle is to help others overcome obstacles to God, Yildirim added.

Gokcen Ceran, an Austin high school teacher, spoke about the role of women in Islam. She began by telling the audience that she is not an expert but is a volunteer willing to share her experience as a Muslim woman.

"Differentiation in sex is not the basis of value and respect in the eyes of Allah," Ceran said.

Ceran said Muslim women have the right to have an education, right to marry who they want and right to end an unsuccessful marriage. They also have political rights, she said.

idsa_idsa

Other speakers included Mert Sahin, a history graduate student, and Arban Uka, a physics graduate student. Sahin spoke about the image of the Prophet Muhammad in recent cartoons in Danish newspapers. He also spoke about the history of the practice. Uka gave a general timeline of Muhammad's life. Uka also gave everyone in the audience a red rose, which he said is a symbol representing the prophet Muhammed.

BACK