{"id":26590,"date":"2025-03-05T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T17:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=26590"},"modified":"2025-02-28T10:47:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T18:47:01","slug":"camosun-muslim-student-alliance-to-host-iftar-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2025\/03\/05\/camosun-muslim-student-alliance-to-host-iftar-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun Muslim Student Alliance to host iftar event"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the second consecutive year, the Muslim Student Alliance (MSA) will host an iftar for Ramadan at Camosun. An iftar is a meal eaten by Muslims at sundown to break their fast during Ramadan; the event will take place at 7 pm on March 14, in the Sherri Bell Hall in the Wilna Thomas building at Lansdowne.<\/p>\n

Leia Grace Elaine Unarce, a Muslim student and Camosun College Student Society sustainability director, restarted the MSA in 2024 after it had been inactive for a few years. She was also responsible for hosting last year\u2019s iftar at Camosun, a somewhat improvised event that hosted less than 10 people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not that organized, because last year I was struggling to start with something. And when we had it last year, MSA was still not very established,\u201d she says. \u201cThere were only nine of us. I remember when we had that… it was just like a potluck event. We break our fasting at the same time. I promised them that next year, this would change. We would make it into something big. We would ensure that a lot of students would be able to join us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Students at last year\u2019s iftar at Camosun, put on by the Muslim Student Alliance (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, with the MSA fully established with many more members, Unarce plans a big event that will host as many as 60 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe upcoming iftar is sponsored by the British Columbia Muslim Association. So the food, they will be providing all of it,\u201d she says. \u201cThe MSA has coordinated with the Camosun College Student Society to book the event… and we\u2019re preparing for 60 participants. Right now, around 30 are registered, so we still have a few weeks to fill it up.\u201d (You can register by using the QR code available on Instagram at the MSA\u2019s account or by emailing msaclub@camosunstudent.org.)<\/p>\n

Unarce believes that it\u2019s important for Muslims to break their fast in groups, so events like this in school are essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cRamadan is 30 days, and every day, we\u2019re having an iftar,\u201d she says. \u201cIt could be in our own houses, but we believe that if it\u2019s being shared with a lot of people, it is better for us. It is what Allah wants us to do, to be able to break our fasting with a lot of people. So it\u2019s more beneficial for us than spending it alone in our houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the MSA came back last year, the number of members has grown from 11 to over 40. However, Unarce is not yet content, and she says she wants to gain more members to foster a bigger Muslim community at Camosun.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the next few weeks, we\u2019re going to have an information desk about Ramadan, and we hope to see more [people interested],\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Last year, Unarce expressed her opinions to the college on the lack of praying space at the Interurban campus (at Lansdowne, the Prayer Room is on the third floor of Richmond House), and her concerns did not go unheard. Camosun created a Prayer Room at Interurban, and Unarce says the MSA feels grateful for the changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are drastic changes in the Interurban campus,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were not expecting it because it was expensive. They made sure that [the praying room] was designed to accommodate the needs of Muslim students in terms of praying. There is a prayer mat, and then there\u2019s the divider for men and women\u2026 we can really feel that support and accommodation from Camosun. Actually, we\u2019re super grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the second consecutive year, the Muslim Student Alliance (MSA) will host an iftar for Ramadan at Camosun. An iftar is a meal eaten by Muslims at sundown to break their fast during Ramadan; the event will take place at 7 pm on March 14, in the Sherri Bell Hall in the Wilna Thomas building […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,328],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-march-5-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26592,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26590\/revisions\/26592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}