Members from the Muslim Students' Association are in the International Center this week educating passing students and visitors about the Islamic faith for Islam Awareness Week.

Interest in the week, which began on Monday and runs until Friday, has grown in past years. There was a drastic increase of people inquiring about the faith after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"The events of Sept. 11 definitely brought out a large amount of interest, and we had a big job to do that year," Muslim Students' Association President Fareeha Shuttari said. "But it's our motivation to keep doing it every year. We're doing better every year, and though we're getting further away from Sept. 11, our motivation to present information about Islam hasn't changed."

This year's awareness week included an informational panel in the Wells Hall Courtyard, an information table in the International Center and evening discussions.

The last discussion will be "Politics in the Muslim Community," which begins at 7:30 p.m. in B106 Wells Hall.

Members from the Muslim Students' Association will be in the International Center today and Friday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"Some people take the candy and go, but some people ask questions," pre-med major Nabil Khandker said as he sat at the table Wednesday afternoon.

Engineering sophomore Neil Henne stopped at the table while walking through the International Center Wednesday.

He participated in Jeopardy, and got several questions correct until he was stumped by one that asked, "The name of the obligatory prayers which Muslims perform five times every day."

The answer was Salat.

Henne said he stopped by the table because he likes to discover different religions' views of a divine being.

"Every culture reaches an unspeakable energy force," he said. "It's beautiful to see how it's represented in every culture."

He said he originally learned about Islam from an Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities class taught by an Islam professor.

And Henne said he learned more about the religion from Islam Awareness Week.

That's exactly what the Muslim Students' Association is hoping for, Shuttari said.

"Even if people don't come to the evening lectures or stop by the information booth, they still begin to get a little bit of an idea about Muslim students on this campus," Shuttari said. "This is an opportunity to present our community to the rest of the world."