Members of the Muslim Student Association have received anonymous hate e-mails and threatening phone calls in response to the 11th-annual Islam Awareness Week. Posters for the event have also been defaced.

MSA Vice President External Eyad Alnaslah said MSA members occasionally receives e-mails and calls throughout the year, but there was a large influx once the flyers were posted around campus.

Members reported the defaced posters and e-mails to the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination — which opened on Feb. 1 — in a bias incident report form.

According to Alnaslah, MSA was told not to worry by OPHD Associate Director Carol Leah Rogers, and that OPHD would keep an eye on their events. At this week’s event from Feb. 14 to 18, a security guard was present.

On the first day of Islam Awareness Week, Alnaslah said there were many more evangelical Christians than usual with picket signs defaming Islam on Library Walk.

Alnaslah said the posters were defaced with phrases such as “We love Jesus (Peace be Upon Him),” “We love the killing of Jews” and “Women wear bombs on their head.”

“In regard to the defaced fliers and the hate e-mails, they only show a small microcosm of what’s happening around the United States on a larger scale,” Alnaslah said.

The e-mails and phone calls have targeted the MSA in general, not the group’s awareness week. According to Alnaslah, common sentiments expressed were “Fuck Muslims” and “You are terrorists and blood killers.”

“It’s fabricated rhetoric,” Alnaslah said. “Islam is not new to this country. It is nothing new to see this event [at UCSD].”

Members of the MSA have mostly reacted to these incidents positively.

“The members said ‘Keep going, don’t let anything deter us from our events,’” Alnaslah said.

One member, however, resigned from her position due to the hate e-mails, phone calls and text messages. She changed her phone number and Alnaslah said the member does not want to be contacted about the incidences.

Alnaslah said Islamic events generate emotional responses because of misconceptions about the religion, though he also noted that the adversity encouraged members to create a better awareness week.

“Education is the best way to abolish and cleanse awareness,” Alnaslah said. “This is our religion; take it from the source.”

Alnaslah said the most important result of the hate messages was getting the MSA community together and reassuring each member that the event will continue despite the opposition of a few.

“Your source is not Fox News,” Alnaslah said. “Judge the religion by its principles and its nature.”

Alnaslah said that at least two A.S. council members showed up to their events in response to the negativity MSA members received.

Two of council’s offices, the Office of Local Affairs and the Office of the President, endorsed this week’s events. Alnaslah said these actions have given MSA the initiative to continue their goal of education through Islam Awareness Week.

“This hit towards the MSA and me as a Muslim-American is a process that will make me a stronger Muslim and a stronger American,” Alnaslah said. “[It] will uphold the values of Islam and the values of this beautiful country that will allow me the freedom of speech and religion.”