In the decade since 9/11, Islamophobia has gripped the nation.

For example, controversy surrounded an Islamic center called Park51 recently built near ground zero, and more than a dozen states moved to ban the Sharia law, part of the Islamic faith. Earlier this year, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., held a series of Congressional hearings regarding the “extent of radicalization in the American Muslim community.”

In response to the Park51 issue, the Muslim Students Organization pushed forward with Islam Awareness Week at MU.

“People really want to know what it’s about,” said junior Rafa Nizam, who practices Islam.

Sophomore Storai Momeni, who also practices Islam, said Columbia helps improve the climate on campus for Muslim students.

“Columbia is more open minded than you would think,” Momeni said.

She said she was the only Muslim at Lindbergh High School in south St. Louis County.

Momeni and Nizam both said they credit the size of the MU campus and the wealth of programs that exist to help facilitate a more diverse campus to creating a more accepting environment than other places in the United States.

Additionally, Nazam said MU intrinsically offers a more educated and diverse population that creates a more tolerant environment for Muslims on campus.

Niether Momeni nor Nizam see harassment very often on campus. Instead, most people react to their faith with curiosity, they said.

They emphasized the mainstream nature of Islam in the MU community.

“Muslims have settled into into every sector of society,” Nizam said.

Momeni said contrary to some media depictions, Muslim immigrants really just want the same things most Americans want. Being Afghan-American, she described Muslim-Americans as hard working people. She said she has hard-working parents who want to work their way up.

There are challenges that occur when their Muslim faith intersects with the stereotypical Christian, American college lifestyle. For example, Nizam described the difficulty in balancing Islam, which forbids alcohol consumption, with some of the less formal events that occur in a college town, which often involve drinking.

Additionally, many Muslims choose to pray five times a day toward Mecca, a religious gesture Nizam has to work in between his classes and other obligations. He calls mediating the two identities, being Muslim and being a college student, a full-time job.