Just a week after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Zohra Sarwari, an international speaker, gave an informational presentation about Islam to a crowd of students and members of the Wichita State community to commemorate International Education Week.

Sarwari used humor and personal experiences to highlight the issues people ask her about most, such as if all terrorists are Muslim, what Islam says about terrorism, and why Muslim women wear the hijab.

Sarwari questioned the news media’s coverage of terrorist events not committed by Muslims, such as the 2012 attacks in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 and injured 319.

“Even these stories are so minimal in the news, they’re not even in the news long enough for the majority of the people to find out,” Sarwari said. “But if a Muslim does something, we will know it inside out, our kids will know it, they will hear about it some way or another.”

She denounced the news media’s coverage of terrorist events and used passages in Islam’s holy book, the Quran, to respond to claims that Islam is a terrorist religion. Sarwari said those passages need context to be understood.

She specifically cited the phrase “instill fear into the heart of the Unbelievers,” about the Battle of Badr. It was a command from God to the Muslims to defend their life and faith.

“What we need to look [at] is the context,” Sarwari said. “They [the news media] are very distorted in their information and unfortunately we have to pay for that. Muslims aren’t terrorists. Do we have bad people in our religion? Absolutely. Do we have people that do wrong things? Absolutely, but that’s across the board. It’s not just Muslims.”

During a question and answer forum, Sarwari encouraged Muslim women to continue wearing their hijab even if they fear attacks from supporters of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

“Talk to as many people as you can and bring that peace,” Sarwari said. “Let your voice be heard, don’t be afraid. When Donald Trump said, ‘Let’s make America great again,’ I said, ‘America is great when we’re united and we’re standing together and we’re all doing what needs to be done.’ Not just a few people standing here, that’s not what’s going to make us great.”

The WSU Office of International Education will be hosting a Global Learning Perspectives panel from 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday in Rhatigan Student Center Room 262 and will show the Indian movie Om Shanti Om at 7 p.m. Friday at the Campus Activity Center Theatre to close International Education week.