University of Otago Muslim University Students Association
president Mahmoud Amer (23, left) and friend Hikmat
Noorebad (26) in the main room at Dunedin's Al-Huda Mosque
in Clyde St. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Among the more than 2000 students and staff
attracted to the University of Otago from virtually every
corner of the world are a growing number of Muslims. This week
is Islam Awareness Week. Reporter Allison Rudd talks to four
students and finds out what it is like to be a young Muslim in
Dunedin.
Muslim students are used to comments and questions.
Their adherence to a faith which requires they pray five
times a day, fast between sunrise and sunset for one month a
year and, in the case of many women, wear head scarves when
outside their homes, means they stand out from the crowd.
University of Otago Muslim Students Association president
Mahmoud Amer, a final-year medical student, says the
questions asked most frequently of him are why he prays so
often, and why he fasts during the holy month of Ramadan.
The answer is simple, he said.
"Fasting, like prayer, is a way of showing your true
relationship with God - a way of showing praise."
Muslims also field questions regularly about why they do not
drink alcohol, avoid social occasions where alcohol is
served, do not eat pork and eat only halal (lawful) meat
which has been slaughtered in accordance with religious
edicts, the students say.
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