Courtesy of MSA

Members of the Muslim Student Association board celebrate their club together.

Metea’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) held a meeting last Friday to open a discussion after a video of a Waubonsie Valley student burning a copy of the Quran resurfaced on social media. 

The Waubonsie student set fire to a copy of the Quran, the sacred text of Islam, in the summer of 2023. The student recorded the incident before posting it to his Snapchat story. In the past two weeks, the video resurfaced on different social media platforms and upset many students. 

Some Metea students expressed anger and sadness, while other students called for the student to be punished. The Muslim Student Association’s co-president, Sameer Pirzada, released a statement about the incident at an MSA meeting on Friday, Oct. 6. 

“We all condemn the actions of the student who did the act,” Pirzada said in the statement. “What he did was an act of hate and the student was very misguided to do what he did.”

Other students who attended the meeting were angered by the video as well. Junior Imaan Kazmi feels concerned about what this means for the Waubonsie students in particular. 

“It makes me feel a little bit unsafe to think there are people going to school with my friends at Waubonsie who have those views and are willing to act on it,” Kazmi said. “It feels terrible.”

According to senior Hafsah Khan, retaliating to hateful actions of others with threats or violence is not what Islam stands for. 

“That’s not the right way to deal with a situation like that. [This] is not something our religion says and it’s not something that anyone should be condoning in the first place,” Khan said. 

In America, the issue of Islamophobia is especially potent. According to Gallup News, while over 65% of people surveyed in European societies on average tend to respect Muslim societies and people, the United States features more than 50% of surveyed people believing that Muslim societies do not deserve respect. According to the United Nations, educating the population helps society learn more about the core tenets, customs, and traditions of different religions. This dismisses misconceptions and stereotypes, which in turn disarms hate. It shows the importance of coexistence and peaceful interactions between people of different religious beliefs, races, and other differences in our society.  

“Education is the best way to avoid incidents like this,” MSA Vice President Ibrahim Anwar said. “We are upset about what happened, and our community is hurt, but we need to move forward by showing people how their ignorance is wrong. That, in our opinion, is the best way to stop this kind of hate.”

Because the incident took place at Waubonsie Valley, Metea’s administration is unable to comment on the action of the student. However, Principal Daniel DeBruycker attended the meeting to clarify that Metea has a strict policy against hate and discrimination. He was also sure to quote the student handbook on that very policy.

“We have no tolerance for that,” DeBruycker said. “I can say that in our handbook, under Acts of Misconduct, (BP 7:190) example #5 states, ‘Possession of literature or images and/or use of slurs derogatory or inappropriate comments that refer to race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability.’”

The MSA, moving forward, seeks to raise awareness of the Muslim community within students, here at Metea, and in our neighborhoods. 

“If we all just took some time to take other’s perspectives and feelings into account, we can avoid these kinds of situations,” co-president Alina Kamal said. “It just takes some empathy.”