MSA cleans up community
By: Mary-Ellen Davis, Staff Writer
Led by the Muslim Student Association, a group of about 20 students came together Friday afternoon after Jumu’ah Prayer to walk around Towson picking up trash.
“I think the main purpose of it is to help the entire community and to help the ecosystem,” MSA President Osama Hassan said. “A lot of the members of the MSA are in the sciences or have taken a lot of science classes, so we know the environmental aspects and the effect that trash can have on the environment.”
Hassan was then able to connect the event to his faith.
“We can connect it to our religion because our prophet said that it is against our religion to destroy the earth,” Hassan said. “Therefore, the best way to protect it is to stop the biggest threat that we have now, which is pollution, so essentially we are doing it as part of our religious duties and also as a way to help the community to stop pollution.”
Participants said that they don’t always think about the presence of trash and garbage in the streets until they are specifically searching for it, which the cleanup required them to do.
“When I’m walking, I wouldn’t spot [trash] unless I’m looking for it,” student Saleaha Pirzada said.
The students broke up into small groups to cover more ground and clean up as much as possible. The MSA hopes to make this a monthly campus event.
“I just think it’s a good way to get involved on campus…because when you’re walking around you don’t notice the little things, but everything is just being spotted out,” MSA member Alysha Ameen said. “I think if we do it monthly it will really help the campus out, and it’s just a good way to get involved.”
Ameen also said that it is a good way to bond with students from other groups on campus, because anyone can get involved.
“MSA is open to everyone,” Ameen said. “Even though it’s called Muslim Student Association, it’s open to everyone.”
MSA held a Feeding Our Neighbors event last semester, where students packed bags of food and handed them out to people in need throughout Baltimore City. They hope to continue with the same event soon.
