By When Fatima Abdelhafeez was a young girl, she looked forward to the annual “Eid at the Beach” celebration that Cal State Long Beach hosts for Muslim people at school and in the Long Beach area. Now, as an alumna of CSULB, Abdelhafeez continued to give back to the Long Beach Muslim community by volunteering at this year’s celebration on Saturday.
“We host this event on campus because Muslim events are not national holidays, so we try to encourage people to take the day off and enjoy this time to celebrate with their families,” said 22-year-old Abdelhafeez, who graduated with a degree in nutrition after serving as the Muslim Student Association club president last year.
“Eid at the Beach” takes place on the commencement lawn, and is an event the MSA has organized for the last 11 years. The celebration symbolizes the Prophet Abraham’s religious sacrifice, and it marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca. Eid officially took place on Friday Sept. 1, but the celebration was planned for Saturday in order to ensure more families and community members could enjoy it.
“We want the Muslim community — especially in a time when people are trying to hide their identity — to be proud of who they are, and be proud that they are a Muslim,” Abdelhafeez said.
The current vice president of MSA, sophomore Leen Almahdi, a nutrition and dietetics major, was in charge of organizing this year’s event, which involved preparing for hundreds of students and families to attend. The event originally started as a way to bring Muslims together in the greater Los Angeles area, and according to Almahdi, it is now the largest MSA-hosted event in southern California.
“I love seeing how crazy it gets [with] so many people show[ing] up. I volunteered last year and helped out with the reptile show, so my job was to hold the snakes for the kids,” said Anisah Ullah, a junior graphic design major. “You get extremely tired afterward, but it is great being around my people.”
Several activities were planned for the celebration including bounce houses, obstacle courses, arts and crafts, carnival games, a “mad science” show and a reptile show. In order for the event to run smoothly, the MSA organized committees to take care of every aspect of the event. Students from other campus organizations such as La Raza Student Association and Future Underrepresented Educated Leaders also volunteered to help out during the event.
“Everybody has put in a lot of time and late nights, but doing this is what keeps us going because it is for a good cause and it brings the community together,” said MSA President Juwairiah Syed, a senior studying American Sign Language linguistics and deaf cultures major.
“Eid at the Beach” is not only beneficial to the Muslim community, but also to the CSULB community because it gives exposure to the campus, while also teaching people how Muslims celebrate holidays and how they pray, according to Abdelhafeez.
This celebration also benefited small business owners because the MSA coordinated with restaurants so they could sell their food. A small marketplace was also set up by bazaar vendors so that they could showcase their businesses.
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