Source: dailybarometer.com

Last Friday, Muslim students greeted their peers and faculty with flowers.

From 11 a.m. to noon, roughly 40 Muslim students, spread throughout various campus locations, handed out red and white roses to passers-by. Attached to each rose was a short quote from the Prophet Muhammad (saw).

“The project began in New Zealand and our national organizers hoped to get as many cities as possible to participate in the gesture on February 8th,” said Fatima Alramadhan, a second-year graduate student at Oregon State University and one of the project’s organizers.

With frequent negative ideas in the media concerning Muslims, the students who organized this event hoped it would counteract potential misconceptions.

“For me personally, I just felt it was a good idea,” Alramadhan said. “[It is] breaking stereotypes against Muslims and gives people a different perspective.”

The OSU community made what these students hoped to achieve easy with an overwhelmingly positive response. Prospective students touring the campus smiled as they were greeted with roses in the library quad. For current students hurriedly making their way to class, the action caught them by surprise.

“I thought it was a really nice gesture,” said William Mays, a sophomore at OSU. “It definitely made my day.”

The choice of red and white roses did not go without purpose, according to the event’s organizers.

“We chose red and white roses because they symbolize love and peace,” said volunteer Hawra

…continue reading at  dailybarometer.com