Introducing a new club at Grandview High School: Ummah United, a club dedicated to strengthening, well-representing, and contributing to the Muslim community in Colorado and Grandview.

The word Ummah stems from the Arabic language and means “community”. The word is used to refer to Muslim groups that are knitted together in some way, whether that is their school, Masjid, country, or the entire Muslim population.

“We came up with the alliteration “Ummah United” because the point of our club is to unite Muslim populations through various forms of student-led volunteering projects,” junior Mariem Bouaziz, co-president of Ummah United said. “We recently worked with *Masjid Abu Bakr to volunteer and clean up and we have more events coming soon.”

Ummah United is the second Muslim-run club here at Grandview, along with Muslim Student Association (MSA). Though they share a “target population” and embody similar values, their missions differ. 

“MSA aims to increase diversity and encourage a supportive Muslim community in the building. It is a platform that allows Muslim students to connect and interact with each other,” junior Sofia Tahseen, social media officer of MSA said. “It educates and promotes awareness about the Islamic religion and culture.”

On the contrary, Mariem Bouaziz and Zareen Rana, co-founders of Ummah United, aim to reach out to the Muslim community here in Colorado, while also advocating for awareness.

“We see our club (inshallah) contributing to the greater Muslim community by working with our masjids and refugee populations,” junior Rana said.”We hope that Ummah United creates more awareness for the Muslim community at Grandview and represents us in a better light.”

So far, they have had 5 meetings, each serving a vital purpose to the club. 

While establishing themselves and their mission, their plan for this semester is to fundraise for Muslim populations in need and work further with Masajid through volunteer work and donations. They also intend to help the refugee populations with clothing, food, tutoring, etc.   

“I volunteered to help at the Masjid, and it was really fun. I liked being able to help my community and make a difference,” junior Mareea Elmagbari, a member of Ummah United said. “It was an amazing volunteering opportunity and I’m excited to see what they have planned for the future!”

Bouaziz and Rana were inspired to start the club around October. The challenges the Muslim community faces, around the world and in Colorado, sparked their motivation to start a club that addresses Islamophobia, limited support for disadvantaged populations, and an overall harsh narrative in the public eye. 

“We feel that people can be more cognizant of the Muslim community,” Rana said. “People often see Muslims through a tainted viewpoint or they don’t understand the religion. It leaves Muslim students feeling isolated, unfairly judged, frustrated and less than their peers because of their beliefs.”

“Muslims in our school are often pressured into giving in to other clubs’/entities’ desires to create a falsified sense of peace and quiet,” Bouaziz said. “In the real world, prejudice against Muslims has been growing as people blame current events on ‘the terroristic and savage nature of Muslims’. This blatant targeting and forcing blame onto a whole religion solves nothing and perpetuates the flourishing of this harmful stereotype.”

Ummah United plans to mitigate these problems through awareness, such as their instagram page, collaborating with other clubs, awareness projects, and guest speakers.

“With the privilege and voice we have here at Grandview, we feel like it’s our job to help alleviate the suffering of Muslim populations around us and advocate to be heard,” Bouaziz said. “We know our platform isn’t national or even statewide, but we hope that by taking little steps through the projects we organize we can lead by example and put more love than hate into our world.”

Ummah United not only strives to provide the Muslim student body at Grandview a voice, but it also allows for Non-Muslims and Muslims alike to have a place to learn and reach out to those in their community. 

“We meet after school every B day Tuesday in room U220,” Rana said. “Anyone and everyone is welcome!”