Decked out in bright yellow shirts that read the common Islamic greeting ‘assalamu alaikum’, meaning ‘peace be upon you’, members of the Muslim Student Association were anything but shy in making Islamic Awareness Week known to the UIC campus. Though the snowpocalypse did put a halt to the abundance of enlightening lectures and concluding dinner, members of the MSA are more than confident that the week-long event, aimed to inform non-Muslims about Islam, will continue later on in the semester.
Prior to the Blizzard of the Decade, six lectures ran on Monday, February 7 and Tuesday, February 8. The lecture, “Sharia: A threat to the west,” was given by African-American Islamic leader, Abdullah Madyon, who revealed the hidden fears of Islam that, according to him, are rooted more in matters of money than in matters of security. At times light-hearted and humorous, and at others very serious, Madyon discussed three themes: who Islam is a threat to, why it is a threat to them, and why Islam refuses to compromise itself in order to dispel unrelenting fears.
According to Madyon, a prime example of who Islam is a threat to would be the corporate executives of, believe it or not, baseball teams. At every Cubs game, about 40,000 fans show up without fail. Madyon went on to elaborate that alcohol consumption is involved at sports watching events. Supposing that half of the audience are under-age or simply choose not to drink, roughly 20,000 or more of that audience pool will buy beer—roughly two beers per person. One beer costs five dollars, so two per person totals ten dollars for alcohol expenses. Ten dollars times the 20,000 people at every Cubs game buying this beer makes $200,000. That’s a fifth of a million dollars made at one hypothetical Cubs game. With 162 baseball games in one season, the makers of Anheuser-Busch are making $32,400,000 just on baseball. Madyon goes on to state that sixty percent of beer sold annually is bought between Christmas and New Year’s. Add the money made from various other sporting events and it becomes clear that the executives of Anheuser-Busch are rolling in beer bread.
Upon hearing the lecture, Malak Awad, a junior, interpreted Madyon’s theories to mean that “principles in Islam affecting the commercial industry in the west are the reason why Islam is seen as a threat to countries that thrive on the commercial industry.”
One of these Islamic principles is the belief that drinking any alcohol is forbidden, but to say that all Muslims don’t drink would be false. As in any religion, the followers are human, and don’t necessarily adhere to every rule they believe they’re supposed to. According to the Quran, which is upheld as holy in Islamd, drinking is forbidden. How could this possibly be a threat to Anheauser-Busch and how could Anheauser-Busch have anything to do with the vilification of Muslims? According to Madyon, the answer to both these questions is: the executives of Anheauser-Busch like money - a lot. The executives of this corporation and others like it make their money by selling beer. Madyon argues that if a “foreign” religion comes into town telling the people to stop drinking the very product by which these execs make their money, it’s a problem.
Madyon has a theory that very rich men who see Islam as a threat have every reason in the world to throw just a little bit of cash towards news corporations, discrediting the very people who might just have the capacity to lower profits—one convert at a time.
Sara Soliman, a junior who attended the lecture, commented that: “Islam in the mainstream media has always had a negative connotation attached to it, whether referring to a terrorist or an Islamist or a jihadist. The core Islamic principles are a threat to the west and as defined by Madyon, the west would be lost without these huge, fiscally powered industries.”
Referring to Madyon’s theory that the vilification of Muslims in the media is funded by large corporations such as Anhauser-Busch, Soliman goes on to state: “The programs of these news channels are paid for by the costly ads aired. There is an obvious agenda to put Islam on the flank because of the threat it poses.”
If that is the case, public events like Islamic Awareness Week take on a different role, in part working to heal the bludgeoned face of Islam in the west. Islamic Awareness week was cancelled due to the sever snow fall, and has been postponed to later in the semester. Keep an eye out for more information.