Human biology sophomore Hanin Masboob dances with biosystems engineering junior Sebba Alqetrani on Saturday morning at Sparty’s Middle Eastern Tailgate.
About 40 MSU students munched on hummus and pita bread before Saturday’s football game at Sparty’s Middle Eastern Tailgate, an event sponsored by the Jewish Student Union and Arab Cultural Society in an effort to highlight Middle Eastern culture at MSU.
“We wanted to collaborate and incorporate all of the Middle Eastern culture that we know and love,” Jewish Student Union President Sam Appel said.
“We wanted to show our Spartan pride, our Middle Eastern pride and show off our culture and love for MSU.”
The tailgate was catered by Woody’s Oasis and featured Mediterranean cuisine including hummus, grape leaves, shish taouk — an Arabic version of a shish kabob — and falafel — a dish made from ground chickpeas or fava beans, said Lexis Zeidan, Arab Cultural Society member and a journalism freshman.
Zeidan said the two groups wanted to throw an event
to highlight MSU’s diverse campus and get more people involved in Middle Eastern culture.
“Football’s our life here so we decided to throw an event to mix and mingle and get to know each other,” she said.
Although there are religious and cultural tensions in the Middle East, Zeidan said the event hoped to send a message of unity.
“I think it’s more of our generation — we see beyond religion, we see as one,” she said. “We’re humans, all the same. I don’t see why we should have any tension.”
Tabitha Pinckney, a support staff member for the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, said the office helps to coordinate many events with ethnic and cultural groups on campus.
“That’s our hope — to bring more collaborations with all the different groups on campus,” Pinckney said.
“This is one of our big first events and we hope to do more in the future.” Arab Cultural Society
President Shereen Hamed said the two groups hope to make the tailgate an annual event.
Hamed said the groups played music in Hebrew and Arabic earlier in the day.
She was happy with the tailgate’s turnout, she said.
“We’re all embracing our common Spartanhood, getting together, putting our differences aside and coming up with a great event like this,” Hamed said.
Appel said he hoped the tailgate was the first of many collaborations the Jewish Student Union will have with other groups on campus, including the Arab Cultural Society.
He also hoped the event taught something about Middle Eastern cultures, he said.
“We’re working together and being friends and family because we’re all at MSU and working together, learning about each other’s cultures and living together,” Appel said.
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