MSA celebrates cultural diversity

by Charlotte Krum staff reporter

The Muslim Student Association (MSA) is a club at Mounds View which offers a community and a safe space for Muslim students. The club is run by junior co-presidents Sana Ahmed and Suhaib Aden as well as vice presidents freshman Maryam Shahkhan and junior Amro Abu-Atieh.

They hold weekly meetings in Lisa Zito’s classroom, as well as prayers weekly in the ILC. “At Mounds View, through various events and meetings, we hope to achieve a welcoming, nurturing, supportive environment in which all Muslims feel that they belong, are included and respected,” said Ahmed.

Aden helped start MSA last year with a few previous Mounds View alumni. “It was just because we wanted some more organization. We were already doing Friday prayers together but having structure and having meetings and things like that we wanted [to do as well],” he said.

Their meetings consist of different activities and sharing experiences. “We do ice breakers, games and stuff like that but mainly reminders and teaching people about Islam,” said Aden. They start off their meetings by talking about how their week went, how they feel and challenges or experiences they have had.

Since last year, the board has established new goals for MSA and have been working on many differ- ent projects. So far, MSA has held its first two meetings of the year in the past two months. In this time they have scheduled specific times to pray together and organized a few events.

On April 5, the association invited speakers to talk to students about Palestine. “We recently had the American Muslims for Palestine Organization visit our MSA last Wednesday where they shared the struggles Palestine is facing and educated us about the struggle of Palestineans,” said Shahkhan. Through this, students grew their understanding of the hardships faced in other parts of the world.

MSA also provides students an outlet to learn as students are able to continue their learning outside of classes. “At Mounds View MSA, we want to learn and grow as human beings so we can be better students, siblings, daughters and citizens,” said Ahmed. It is important for students to be educated on history as well as current events relating to aspects of their own lives such as religion.

Prayer is a large focus in MSA. As members of the club are united by Islam, having a community like MSA allows for them to strengthen their relationships with God. “Prayer is one of the five pillars of our faith, and for our noon prayer, praying it together is what makes our religion so special,” said Shahkhan. Praying allows students to come together through their faith and practice.

In the future, MSA hopes to create more projects, host more events and invite more organizations. They are currently setting up an event for the end of Ramadan. They are planning an interfaith event in collaboration with Irondale, for students Muslim and Non-Muslim, to learn more about Islam as well.

MSA has demonstrated the importance of having a club like this at Mounds View. “Mounds View has a minority of Muslim students and as important as education is, we believe that there are other aspects to school like networking, learning new skills and also knowing about the second largest and growing faith in the world should not be as foreign to our students,” said Zeynah Abdulrazak, the club’s advisor and Mounds View’s Somali liaison.

For many, MSA is a beneficial and impactful club that provides students with a supportive environment to progress their learning while feeling connected to the Muslim community. As the club moves forward, they look forward to expanding upon the ideals they have set as they grow closer to their religion.