The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder
The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder
The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder
“I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to memorize the Quran — the holy book of Islam. It has 604 pages and 114 chapters. Memorizing the holy book has a strong significance in my religion and it is very rewarding. I recite it to this day to make sure I don’t forget it. I’m the co-founder and vice president of the Muslim Student Association [at our school]. It is a club formed to create a community for Muslim students here at West. I [moved] to West from an Islamic private school and homeschooling program, so I naturally yearned for that consolidated Muslim community at West when I joined in-person [school]. I got to know many Muslims at the school, but they were scattered. In Islam, forming an ummah (a muslim community) is very significant. However, when I first came to West, I saw that there was a population of Muslim [students], but they didn’t form one solid group. So, along with one of the new senior Muslim friends that I made, we took it upon ourselves to create a club forming a solid Muslim community, and it has been great. We’ve done volunteer opportunities, projects and even Islamic board games. It really has been such a fun experience that I want to keep up next year.” – Zahraa Sajid, 12

Zahraa Sajid

Sakenah Lajkem, Staff Writer • August 25, 2023

Cultural appropriation is being called out in mass media and online, but the line between appropriation and appreciation can often be hard to identify. Recently, Asianfishing and Westernization have become more acknowledged by the media, but it’s important to understand exactly why they are harmful. “Cultural appropriation can give [people] the wrong concept of [certain] cultures. They’re seeing what the American media perceives these [cultures] to be, and a lot of times that’s not [what] it [is],” sophomore Anu Pidikiti said.

The Fine Line

Nidhi Pejathaya, Staff Writer • December 8, 2022

Blackface. "Spirit animals." Kimonos. In today’s day and age, cultural appropriation — the adoption of one aspect of a culture from another, often disrespecting the original culture — is something...

After the French National Assembly proposed a ban on religious symbols for minors in public schools, young Muslim women in france started the hashtag “HANDS OFF MY HIJAB.” This hashtag has emassed over 70,000,000 retweets, and can be seen all over protest posters in France. It was started by Muslim model Rawdah Mohamed, which she has encouraged others to post in solidarity with Muslim women in France.

France targets the hijab: how does this affect us?

Sara Albarcha, Staff Writer • April 26, 2021

When three middle school girls refused to remove their headdresses in France in 1989 while at school, the government intervened, banning hijabs in public school. After three decades, France has continued...

Sophomore Waleed Abdulla reads passages of the Qur’an before prayer.

Muslim students share unique aspects of religion

Ridwan Oyebamiji, Features Section Editor • November 12, 2019

When the word ‘prayer’ is mentioned, many people think of raising your hands together while you pray for what you want. However, Muslims’ five daily prayers are quite different from other religions'...

Lined up outside of the theatre on the first Friday of Ramadan, junior Mohammed Kuziez and freshmen Waleed Abdulla and Areeb Hasan get together to pray “Jummah” (Friday prayers). Muslims are also obligated to pray five times a day, as “salah” (prayer) is one of the five pillars of Islam. “I like to think that I hold my religion very close to me; it's something that I was brought up on for the past 17 years,” Kuziez said. “It's one of the things that our religion holds the closest, and [prayer is] a basic [element] of it.”

The journey of fasting through finals

Ridwan Oyebamiji and Fatema Rehmani • May 16, 2019

As the time of sunset, “Maghrib,” grows closer, senior Farhan Hassan’s stomach growls at the thought of food; he looks forward to eating the dates and drinking the water in front of him. During...

Seniors Maryam Oyebamiji, Kinza Awais and junior Mariam Mirza introduce themselves to members at the first Muslim Student Association meeting. Meetings are held on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. “I felt like their needed to be a safe haven for a lot muslims because their facing a lot of backlash especially in this day and age,” Awais said. “A lot of schools have it, and I felt like West needed to have one because we have a big Muslim student population.”

Muslim students unite to form Muslim Student Association

Ridwan Oyebamiji, Features Section Editor • October 1, 2018

Due to the demand for a Muslim Student Association (MSA) from Muslim members of the student body, seniors Areeba Naseer, Sara Imdad and Farhan Hassan appealed to their needs by creating the club. Naseer...