The Arabic Culture Club held its first event of the year last Thursday, filling the Discovery amphitheater with people gathering to eat and socialize.

The food festival, with the smell of koshary, falafel, and Turkish coffee filling the air, gave Rowan students a chance to eat on their way to or from class and socialize with club members, professors, faculty, and other students.

For the first of the club’s events, the turnout was large. People lined up to get plates of food, played lawn games, and chatted while music from around the Arabic-speaking world played, enticing many passersby. 

People from around the world and different heritages filled their plates with Arabic cuisine from Philadelphia’s Saqqara Café, which was a huge draw, even if some hadn’t tasted it before.

“I walked out [of class]…I saw the food and said, ‘shoot, I’m hungry,'” said Sadi Gomez, a student who had never previously tried any Middle Eastern food, “For five bucks have a whole plate, so freaking worth it.”

Not only was there good food, but a good cause. The Arabic Culture Club collected a five-dollar donation to the Red Cross for the food in order to support its efforts to help people in dire situations across the Middle East.

“It’s a good atmosphere for everyone to come and talk,” Tarek Mousa, a lecturer for Arabic language classes originally from Egypt, said about the club and the festival, and that it’s “to let…other students from different cultures know good stuff from Arabic culture.”

Elijah Faltas, the treasurer for the Arabic Culture Club, also shared his feelings about the event.

“I’m definitely excited about the exposure,” Faltas said, “I definitely think we’ll get a lot more than in previous years.”

The Arabic Culture Club was founded in 2018 by Mousa and is now chartered by the Student Government Association (SGA). The food festival and other events are one way the club attracts new members.

“We are a very open club,” said Arabic Culture president Maryam Mady. “We’re always trying to get more people in our club.”

Of course, the club is not just for people from Arab nations or Arab heritage. Prospective members “just have to be interested in the culture, at least,” Mady said.

With ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the most notable being the Israel-Hamas war, and a long history of cultural conflict in the United States, events like this are key for exposing people to Arab culture and possibly finding common ground.

With the Arab world spanning 22 countries from northeast Africa to western Asia, an estimated 3.7 million Arab-Americans, and Arabic being one of the six official languages of the United Nations, it’s clear that cultural understanding is one necessity for a peaceful world.

Mousa’s feelings about cultural unity at Rowan are strong, only wanting “all the students to care about and accept each other.”

“We need everyone to melt into one culture: Rowan Culture,” Mousa said.

The food festival was in the works for a month as the kick-off for more events to come, including pumpkin painting nearing Halloween, and a trip to Paterson, NJ (a North Jersey town with a large Arab population).

Those interested in the club can find information on their Instagram @rowanacc.

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