Date: March 5, 2004. The muezzin is heard calling out the adhan at the University of Miami: ISUM reveals Islam’s ‘multifaceted nature’.

At 12:50 p.m. last Friday, the Richter Library bell tower sounded, but passers-by heard something different than the normal hourly chime. Students and faculty squinted up at the tower, their interest piqued by the sound of a man chanting Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer.

The Islamic Society of UM [ISUM] came up with the idea to play Adhan on Friday afternoons this March as part of Islam Awareness Month.

According to Sahar Ullah, president of ISUM, the goal of Islam Awareness Month is primarily to promote awareness about Islam on campus.

“I find that Islam is usually presented as a religion devoid of an intellectual, cultural and artistic legacy,” Ullah said. “I think it would be a shame if on this campus students don’t know more about the religion of one-fifth of the world’s population - I feel an obligation to show people Islam’s multifaceted nature.”

The opening event for Islam Awareness Month was a presentation called “REEL Bad Muslims: Islam in the Media.” REL 400 students presented the research gathered last year on how Islam is presented in television shows, movies and documentaries. The presentation also included an interview of UM students to find out how much they knew about Islam.

“The reason why this was our opening event is that before we can educate about Islam, we have to clear up misinformation about it - a lot of people get their information from the media,” Ullah said.

Yes, that will never do. Much better to get information (dawa) from an unbiased source like Sahar Ullah.