DEARBORN – Muslim students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn invited their colleagues earlier in December to attend “Dinner With Your Muslim Neighbor”, an event designed to open dialogue between students of different faith groups.

“We wanted to host the Dinner With Your Muslim Neighbor to unite our Muslim and non-Muslim communities and encourage open dialogue that might usually make us feel uncomfortable,” Huda Ismail, president of Students for Islamic Awareness, was quoted by The Arab American News on Thursday, December 15.

“It is so important for us to take the time to educate and get to know one another, especially in today’s social and political climate.”

The event, hosted on December 8, included recitations from the Qur’an by Mohammad Abbas, a poetry reading by Fatima Najdi and a meal that included vegetarian lasagna, lemon-herb salmon, salad, dessert and more.

Keynote speaker Amanda Saab, a contestant on season six of MasterChef, started “Dinner With Your Muslim Neighbor” with her husband, Hussein, last January in Seattle, where they were living at the time.

The couple, who grew up and met in Dearborn, have since moved back, shouldering the message of correcting misconceptions about their faith.

“‘We have to do something,’ she said.

“We can’t be just completely immobilized by fear that they’re instilling in us now and the fear that has been completely perpetuated across this country. So I said, What do you think about inviting some strangers over for dinner?'”

The idea was to invite strangers, colleagues, people of other faiths or anyone interested to join together for a warm meal, get to know one another and have questions asked and answered about Islam.

“It’s a reason to sit together and share a meal and have a meaningful discussion,” Saab said.

“We decided collectively to do something that shifts us from a digital age where we’re always connected to our phones, but not connected to each other, to neighbors, to people,” Hussein Saab added. “What better way to do it than with food?”

The couple hosted seven dinners in Seattle.

“The outcome of every dinner we’ve had so far has been nothing but positivity and warm results from the people who attended,” Hussein said.

Welcome

Attendees were thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the unique event.

“I think it’s really beautiful,” said Teia McGahey, a senior at U of M-Dearborn.

“Getting together and talking is something that people don’t really do, and communities don’t really do, but we should. I wish there were things like this every night.”

McGahey said she hopes to host her own “Dinner With Your Muslim Neighbor” event one day.

“It was a really great idea,” said Fatima Alchucheimi, a student at Henry Ford College. “And it’s nice just to get people together and build some form of unity.”

Hussein Saab admitted the turnout surprised him.

“I personally didn’t expect that many people,” he said.

“Not just Muslims came, which I expected, because this is a highly populated Muslim community, but quite a few non-Muslims and curious people came, which is what the goal is to some extent – to educate people who want to learn more or just don’t know enough.”

Saab and Ismail both encouraged people to host their own “Dinner With Your Muslim Neighbor” events.

She hopes to write her own cookbook and see “Dinner With Your Muslim Neighbor” spread across the globe.

“My dream has always been to write my own cookbook, so I hope to share my recipes with the world,” she said.

“And also for these dinners to be worldwide so people everywhere can enjoy them.”