Students push to have Ramadan recognized by Marquette

MSA advocates for Muslim holidays on university calendar

By Julia Abuzzahab julianna.abuzzahab@marquette.edu

Since last year, the Muslim Student Association has been trying to get Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr recognized on Marquette’s calendar.

Dana Sharqawi, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences and former president of MSA, said it’s important for both holidays to be recognized to increase awareness.

“For example, as a professor, you might see that your Muslim students are a little more tired or they might not show up to class one time,” Mortada said. “So it’s important for them to understand it’s because of Ramadan and that they are fasting for 30 days.”

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar — Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. This year, Ramadan takes place from March 22 to April 20. Eid al-Fitr celebrates the end of Ramadan and translates to “the festival of breaking the fast.”

By adding the two holidays to the calendar, Leen Mortada, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences and current president of MSA, said it takes the responsibility off of Muslim students and onto the university to raise awareness on Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.

“I feel like because Marquette tries to promote this community of inclusion, when it’s not there [recognizing Muslim holidays on their calendar] it kind of tells

Muslims that they’re not a part of that community,” Lojain Gamar, a senior in the College of Health Sciences, said.

This year, Eid al-Fitr falls on a Friday — April 21, when Marquette has classes.

MSA started trying to get Marquette to recognize the two holidays on their calendar, but found themselves redirected to different people.

“I talked to [either] the president or vice-president of student affairs and then you get emailed to someone else and then someone else,” Mortada said. “There’s not a clear way to do it and we don’t really know who to reach out to.”

Sharqawi said during these redirections, MSA found themselves sitting with the respective administrator for an hour explaining their situation and providing them with all the necessary information only to find out they need to start the process again with someone different.

“It is a holiday that I feel should be recognized more than it is,” Sharqawi said. “Because right now if you were to send out a poll, I doubt half of the campus population would know when it [Ramadan] is.”

Muslim students make up about 1% of Marquette’s student body and 1.1% of the total population in the United States. However, in a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, it is estimated that Islam will be the second-largest religion in the U.S. by 2040.

Across the United States, more schools are beginning to recognize the holy month and give students the day off for Eid.

Currently, Marquette has a multifaith calendar that shows various religious observations, but their events and academic calendar don’t depict any Muslim holidays. Similarly, Marquette’s campus ministry calendar also does not recognize Ramadan or Eid al-Fitr either.

However, the university’s campus ministry’s Instagram did post about Ramadan March 22.

Monica MacKay, university spokesperson, said the listed campus events within

Marquette Today are not a comprehensive calendar.

“In the daily Marquette Today email correlate with either published stories or events that have been submitted to promote to the campus community,” MacKay said in an email. “If an individual or a group wants to share event details on campus relative to their religious holiday, they are welcome to do so by clicking the blue ‘submit news’ button.”

In the past, MacKay said Marquette Today has promoted events such as Jewish High Holidays and Divali.

“Some Muslim students have had an exam on Eid so they have to try to get that moved,” Sharqawi said. “It just goes back to having to reach out and do that extra step which I feel like as a Muslim on a predominantly white campus, we’re always trying to do the extra step.”

Sharqawi said to imagine if students had an exam scheduled for Easter or Christmas because having exams during Eid al-Fitr is similar for Muslim students.

Last year, Mortada said she experienced just that — having to take an exam during Eid that she could not reschedule. Because of this, she said she wasn’t able to go to the Eid prayer.

“I don’t think people understand that … it’s [Eid] a celebration, there’s still a prayer and so we’re not just staying at home with our families — we’re going to the mosque to pray,” Mortada said. “I feel like when I missed it, I was like ‘well that felt a lot different.’”

Having Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr recognized, Mortada said would speak to the overall Marquette community because there are different religions, traditions and practices within that community. She said to be a “welcoming” institution that acts on inclusion, supporting awareness is the first step.

“It’s [Ramadan/Eid] something that should be recognized and known throughout the whole campus, especially to faculty and professors just so they can accommodate to their Muslim students a lot better,” Gamar said.

THEFTS: 34% decrease in citywide car robberies in 2023

Continued from page 1 they’ve filed a lawsuit against Hyundai and Kia, following similar lawsuits filed by other cities such as Cleveland and San Diego. Knapp said she doesn’t see how this will help decrease the number of car thefts.

“I think what it boils down to is making the penalties tougher. I think the police are overwhelmed and they do the best they can, but they can only do so much. It comes down to the people who are not making these charges stick. They get arrested for stealing a car and then they get out the next day and they’re doing the same thing again,” Knapp said.

Governor Tony Evers signed a bill this Monday with the goal to reduce reckless driving for people with multiple reckless driving offenses by impounding their vehicles.

Stealing a vehicle in the state of Wisconsin is considered a

Class I felony which can include up to 3.5 years in prison and possible fines up to $10,000.

Kranz said that MUPD is seeing similar trends on campus to what is happening in the larger Milwaukee area. He said they saw a spike in thefts last year, but this year thefts are decreasing.

“For a lot of people that car represents their livelihood, it gets them to work, it helps them pick up their kids from school. It’s essential for survival to have that vehicle, and to have that taken away from you, it’s crippling for some people,” Kranz said.

Kelly Ball, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, said her Hyundai Elantra got broken into inside the Marquette parking structure on 16th Street Feb. 13.

“I got a call from MUPD about an hour or two after it was broken into because some- one reported seeing the window shattered and the glass that was everywhere. He [an MUPD officer] took some pictures for evidence and told me they would check the surveillance footage, but I never heard back from them if they identified the people that tried to steal my car so I could possibly file a charge against them,” Ball said.

Marquette has a daily crime and fire log that is posted on the MUPD website and they have cameras on each floor of the Marquette owned parking garages.

Ball said the MUPD officer told her that they tried to steal the car, but they must have been scared off. She said that there was $2,200 in damage.

Ball said Marquette sent out an email at the beginning of the semester to let students know that they were handing out wheel locks for free if students have a Hyundai or Kia, but Ball said she thought since her car was in a Marquette-owned parking garage it would be safe.

Kranz said he urges students to make sure their cars are locked and valuables are kept out of sight. He also recommends students use a steering wheel lock. He said MUPD is introducing more technology to hopefully remedy this problem on campus.

“When we are seeing a cluster of incidents like this occur, after the safety task force, we got two mobile cameras. We’re able to quickly react to an area on campus where maybe we’ve noticed a couple things happen and we can get a camera there. This hopefully will let criminals know that MUPD is watching,” Kranz said.