For today’s blog, we’re going to take a look at one of the biggest clubs at the University of Rochester, the Muslim Students Association (MSA).
What is the MSA?
The MSA’s main goal is to create a space for Muslims on campus through the interaction of the students/alumni, faculty, staff, and the community by organizing religious, academic, informational, and cultural activities. With over 240 active members, MSA hosts multiple events and welcomes undergraduate and graduate students from all walks of life and all faiths to experience the harmony of Islamic practices.
Events
The MSA hosts multiple events throughout the year. They had over 100 events this academic year alone. The thing I love about MSA is how diverse the community is. There are people from so many different countries, and I can learn so much from them, ranging from culture to unique personal experiences. The community is big because of how welcoming, inclusive, and supportive they are. It’s super nice to have a space where you can meet new people and learn something new every day.
Every weekend during the month of Ramadan, the MSA hosts community Iftar (dinners at sunset when fasting muslims break their fast) for free. The interesting thing about this is that it is open to community members of Rochester, so it is not just limited to students. They cater food for over 140 people each iftar, sometimes they make the food themselves from scratch! Last weekend, the Indonesian Student Association made some wonderful Indonesian food, and the Turkish Peace Island Institution of Rochester sponsored them with some tasty Turkish iftar as well.
One of the biggest events they had this year was the Fastathon, where they provided dinner and invited special guest speakers all the way from Syracuse to speak about their learning center for immigrants. Students from different schools showed up, and it was a huge success, as the MSA had collected over $2000 for the center through auctioning various items such as paintings, prayer beads, crocheted works, a custom cake, and even a home-cooked meal! I personally made a painting for MSA to auction and raised $210 for that piece alone! 🙂
Now for a deeper look at the organization, I will be interviewing the President of the MSA and see what he has to say about its operation!
Would you like to introduce yourself?
“Hello! Assalamu alaikum. My name is Adel Fadhul, I am an international student from Saudi Arabia. I am a senior majoring in Chemical Engineering, and I am the president of the MSA.”
How did you come to be the President of the MSA? What was your journey like with MSA?
“Well I started out as a first-year representative for the MSA during my freshman year and I worked closely with a small, hardworking e-board. It was a wonderful experience but I definitely felt like the e-board needed more support from the community or perhaps a bigger e-board to keep up with the growth of the community. I left the e-board in my sophomore year to discover other leadership opportunities on campus and dabble in various hobbies such as arts and skating, only to realize that the MSA was where I wanted to focus my attention and energy. So I joined back in my Junior year as the vice president and worked with a larger e-board. It was going great, but a major shift happened when the then-president stepped down from their position. That’s when my e-board encouraged me to take on the position and supported me in taking on this new, frightening role. I’ve been the president since then and I can safely say that it has been truly an honor leading the organization, but without the support of my e-board, the MSA would not be as big and successful as it is today.”
What is your favorite part about the club?
“I think my favorite part about the MSA is how vibrant and diverse our community is. We’ve grown exponentially in size over the past 2 years and it has been an honor spearheading the organization alongside my lovely e-board. I believe that the MSA is only able to flourish and grow with the help of our community members, as many of our events are catered to lots and lots of people and so volunteers make up a large portion of how and why we’re able to hold our big events.”
What kind of events do you host and what is the goal of hosting those events?
“We mainly host discussions around topics that we find interesting in Islam or extracurricular events where we do some fun activities to build up the community’s bonds. For example, we host ice cream socials and board game nights for students to destress during exam times and get together and have some fun and snacks. We also have two subgroups for our brothers and sisters- yaqeen brothers and firdaws circles, respectively. In those subgroups, we host enriching events that cater to the interests of our brothers and sisters, ranging from sportsy events to henna nights and a lot more. We also offer religious services such as special prayers, Eid celebrations, and community Iftars.”
What are some challenges you face while operating such a big club?
“I think the biggest obstacle we face at the MSA is communicating with our members effectively, given that we are a big group. We have multiple forms of communication and lots of updates on a weekly basis, and so as a result a lot of it can get lost in the multitude of updates, so people aren’t aware of the things that we’re doing. This is most prominent when we are trying to collect numbers in order to cater to our students at events. That being said, that hasn’t stopped us from maintaining operation and hosting events that can’t accommodate all of our attendants through precise quantum computed probability statistics only available to e-board members!”
That’s it for my spotlight on MSA! Thank you for reading!