Rita Hamad ’03 never thought she would have to cancel an event of the Society of Arab Students (SAS) for fear of vandalism.

But after Sept. 11, she canceled a whole week of events originally set to start on Sept. 28.

“We had a lot of events planned but we cancelled those because we didn’t want to have our displays graffitied,” SAS President Hamad says.

The cancelled events included a commemoration of the Palestinian intifadah on Sept. 28, 2000.

“We felt it might be disrespectful to the victims and their families and we felt if we made ourselves visible in that way people would lash out at us because we’re Arab and the people who committed the attack are Arab,” Hamad says. Of all the ripple effects the U.S.’s day of terror has had at Harvard, one of the most visible has probably been the more public profile SAS and the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS) have been forced to assume.

As the main Arab and Muslim students’ groups on campus, SAS and HIS have found themselves explaining Arab culture and defending tenets of Islam to a campus rocked by terrorist attacks that were undertaken in the name of Allah.

In the past month, HIS and SAS have led and cosponsored a flurry of events to help educate people about Islam, including panels at the Law School, the Graduate School of Education, the Kennedy School of Government and the Institute of Politics.

“Almost immediately they were thrown into a period of activism,” says Taha B.H. Abdul-Basser, a graduate student adviser to HIS. “They tried to rectify the information gap and educate society about Muslims.”

Among their efforts, HIS started a weekly dinner discussion group in the Houses and has helped raise money for the relief efforts in New York, Washingon and Afghanistan.

SAS has also cosponsored a panel about Arabs organized by the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations and given interviews to local radio stations.

HIS has also made a point of inviting the entire Harvard community to its religious services.

“As horrible as the tragedy has been, we hope we can bring about understanding,” says Tawfiq Ali ’03, secretary of HIS. “It has somewhat defined our agenda at least for the first couple weeks because it’s important we get out the message of what Islam is about.”

A More Public Face

Leaders of both SAS and HIS say that although the terrorist attacks have forced them to rethink their events this semester, the fundamental goals of each group remain unaltered.

HIS President Saif I. Shah Mohammed ’02 says that the mission of HIS is both to provide a forum for Muslims to practice their religion on campus and to promote awareness of Islam at Harvard.