Change for All?

Kudos to Senator Obama for personally apologizing for the discrimination against two Muslim women at a rally Monday in Detroit. However, the incident has caused many minority groups to take pause, sit back and wait to see what unfolds next.

The Senator personally called and apologized to Hibba Aref and Shimaa Abdelfadeel, the two Muslim women who were prevented from sitting behind the Senator because they wear hijab (head scarf).

Hebba Aref was an officer of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) when she attended the University of Michigan in Dearborn. MSAs across the country serve Muslim students on campus and the campus community as a whole through various activities, including interfaith dialog and community service events to foster a better understanding of Islam. This year over 100 MSAs held "Peace...Not Prejudice" events to bring diverse student groups together to dispel stereotypes. Berkeley MSA, for example, had 27 student groups co-sponsor the week, including Jewish and Black student groups.

The Washinton Post published an editorial highlighting this effort by Muslim Students: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/09/AR2007110901961.html

So a woman who spent her college years trying to dispel stereotypes falls victim to those same stereotypes at a rally for the first African American US Presidential Nominee by a major political party? Hmmm.

We now wait to see if Obama's message of Change We Can Believe In will manifest itself in action that includes all Americans and dispenses with the discrimination African Americans and American Muslims have become all to familiar with. In fact, I Hope and dare to believe it will.

Apologies

Assalams All!

I wanted to apologies to all of my readers. When MSA Zonal Conferences happened, my life became a blur of classes, conference calls, airports and meetings. Alhamduillah, while life has slowed down a little bit, I will do my best to publish regularly.

I missed posting and insha'Allah I'm back better than ever!!

Interfaith Rally to Call for an End to the War in Iraq and Torture

In the rain, we gathered, we lobbied and we raised our voices.

MSA Advice at Zonal Conferences!

Does your MSA need management advice? Meet with one of the COMPASS trainers at your zonal conference.

Trainers are professors, certified trainers, teachers, and consultants.

Visit www.msacompass.org for more information.

NY Times: Muslim Students & Inclusion

Here's the editorial I submitted to the NY Times that was rejected:

Understanding Muslims on Campus

Standing at the Gates of Georgetown, Father Godfry and I discussed the upcoming Muslim Student Association (MSA) Fast-A-Thon. In my capacity as President of the Georgetown MSA, Father Godfry and I regularly met to discuss MSA events and activities. Often we discussed the reoccurring question of religious groups on campus: what, if any, are the membership criteria?

For MSA National, inclusion is not a question of ‘if,’ rather the focus is on ‘how’ and ‘how best,’ to be inclusive. Two of our guiding principles summarize our outlook: Moderation is the compass of our journey. Tolerance is the banner of our outreach. Simply put, Muslim students are encouraged to reach out to, embrace, appreciate and include everyone who wishes to work with and serve students on campus. And lest our critics claim that this is a post-9/11 outlook, in early 2000, The MSA Link, published an article entitled “Embracing the Silent Majority,” which outlined strategies on being inclusive and the best ways to reach out to students on campus.

Even as far back as our founding, the first president of MSA National, in 1963, was a Shiite; over the years the organization has taken great strides, including having two female presidents and several female executive board members, to create a more inclusive and representative body of students across North America. In addition, MSA National’s cadres of volunteers across the US and Canada, is reflective of racial, ethnic, national, and ideological diversity.

MSA National is an inherently North American organization, founded and led initially by the best and the brightest of the Muslim world, who sought refuge here from repression and injustice in their homelands. Today it is led and supported by second and third generation American and Canadian Muslims, whose sole desire is to serve humanity and in doing so, to serve God. Programs like the Fast-A-Thon and Project Downtown, which promote interfaith understanding, while raising funds and consciousness to end hunger and homelessness in America and Canada, are more reflective of who Muslim students really are. And ultimately, Muslim Students, just like any other college students – seek to be understood for who they really are.

Asma Mirza serves as President of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) National. She is the second female President in the organization’s 45 year history. Mirza is currently an MBA Student at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and a recent graduate of Georgetown University.

History Lesson

Sitting in Econ class, I felt my heart beat faster. Discussing the economic history of India, my Indian classmates spoke about the Independence movement. As they spoke about Nehru, it was easy to see the emotions on their face. Discussing the 1950's and the caste system, the classroom quickly became embroiled in a debate.

Although I've been to Pakistan only a few times in my life, I felt myself feeling sensitive. It wasn't my personal history, but the Indian-Pakistani separation is an integral part of my family's history. Hearing the students debate colonization, I began to imagine my grandparents migrating, joining the millions who walked miles to get to Pakistan.

My parents would have been young children. A baby, my mother would have strapped to my grandmother's back in make-shift cloth sling. My toddler father probably walked hand in hand with his older brother. These were people I loved, whose blood flows through my veins.

If I felt goosebumps during a simple economic discussion, I can't imagine what other grandchildren feel when people discuss segregation, slavery, apartheid, genocide, holocaust, or other troubling periods of human history.

Get Mistified!

As most people know, I love all things MSA. But what I really love is MSAers helping MSAers.

This weekend my MSA at UMD is hosting the Muslim Interscholastic Tournament (MIST). As MIST is part of the MSA National family, I've heard alot about the tournament and worked closely with Shazia, the founder. But this is the first time I've had the opportunity to help first-hand with this amazing MSA project.

Like most MSA events, MSAers bond over their mutual excited and tired-ness. Sitting on the floor, laughing about the skits and how our feet hurt, I've already learned more about my MSA sisters in one day than I did all year long. Talking about why she started wearing hijab, or our vision for the Fast-A-Thon, our bond as organizers somehow causes us to drop our guard and talk about real issues.

One thing for sure, high school kids are very high-energy MSAers who are up for anything. While role-playing might cause college MSAers to roll their eyes, high school MSAers jump for joy and give it their all. Lets hope I make it through the weekend!

Winter Break

One of my closest friends, Dania (former VP USA of MSA National) asked me if I fixed my thumb drive. After telling her the entire, dramatic story of how it broke and by some miracle my sister-in-law's cousin was able to get the data off of it, she looked at me and said, "Do you know how it broke? I read it on your blog; that's how I'm keeping up with your life."

We immediately made plans.

Remembering to Smile

Today was one of those days; those days where you wonder if its time to go to bed because you know that after tossing and turning for a few hours it'll be a new day, a new chance to make a difference and most importantly, you'll have a clean slate.

Boom. Boom. Boom. One, two, three. And then at the end of the day punch number four.

Sometimes its like I'm skating in 60 degree weather; all around me the icicles are beginning to drip and my rink is slowly reverting to a pond while the piranhas are waking up.

But whenever I find myself standing on active tectonic plates, all I can do is pray.

Its quite a hard lesson to learn, especially for an activist. You believe you can change the world; you can help society and make the world a better place. You can stay up late nights, answer every question, make plans, begin implementation - but at the end of the day you don't have control. At the end of the day I am limited; only one being is unlimited. So all we can do is our best - and pray.

For me I find comfort in the amazing MSA volunteers. Volunteers like a local MSA sister who balances her pre-med classes with her numerous MSA leadership roles or the MSA National Information Technology Task Force that gets its dream of redoing the website and is working on numerous other projects. Or the MSA National Media and Communications Task Force members who work hard to bring us all news of the amazing things happening in MSA land.

Or the MSA Alumni, who calls her friend to say, "Don't forget what you used to have on your voicemail - Remember to smile!"

:-D

Flash Drive Users Beware

Today I spent the day on my phone, in stores and online trying to fix my MSA / MBA thumb drive. Like many people, I keep my life on a small piece of metal smaller than my index finger. From MSA documents, to my notes from class and my personal reflections; everything from the past three years. Alhamduillah, I had backed it up two months ago, but a lot as happened since November.

According to Best Buy: $400-$500 to recover the memory.

Lets hope the next person I ask has a better idea :)

RIS

Standing at the MSA National booth at RIS, an old friend and former MSA National officer Sr. Fadwa softly touched my elbow and introduced me to a brother from CAIR-Can.

As I spoke to the brother about organizational messages and his perspective on how to best articulate our message to the larger community, I noticed another volunteer intently listening to our conversation.

As I introduced myself to Br. Ghaleb from the Concordia MSA, he began to tell me his MSA story. We all have them; stories about how we came to be at the school we're at, how we love or don't love our MSA, and stories about our experiences that make us who we are today. Like Congressman Ellison says, we as Muslims need to tell our story. This is one of my favorite parts of my job - understanding other people's stories and learning what I can do to make their campus experience even better.

Br. Ghaleb left his family overseas and first came to Minnesota. When he landed at the airport, MSA members picked him up, helped him get settled, and became his home away from home as for the first time he celebrated Ramadan and Eid away from his family. My eyes nearly teared up as he described this story and told me how his mother received a translation of the Qur’an in 1975 from MSA National, when the organization established one of if not the first Muslim printing presses in America. It is that passion and love for MSA that he carries with him today at Concordia.

As I left RIS, I said a small prayer for Br. Ghaleb and his family; his story was a bigger gift than he may ever know.

Coming home from Can eh dia

I'm home!

I never thought I'd be so happy to see my family room couch. My 1.5 hour flight home turned into a 24 hour "adventure" complete with a canceled flight, three hours of waiting in line, stressing with trying to get to the airport and wishing I wasn't alone.

Alhamdulillah my MSA National sisters and the sisters I met at the RIS convention welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like one of their own.

Ordering pizza at 11pm and sitting around laughing with these amazing sisters, I began to miss home even more. That night my own crew of girls were meeting for dinner. For the first time in a long time everyone was in town and hanging out together - everyone except for me. Laughing with the Ottawa girls I felt so at home and so distant at the same time.

Arriving at Dulles and rushing home, I threw down my luggage and within an hour was surrounded by my girls. After a few very much deserved stern words we sat around laughing, remembering the time we were stranded in Tulsa, also due to "mechanical error" and planning our next trip. But we're definitely not going to Canada (at least not for a while).

Mali Trip Days 1-2-From Guest Blogger Randa Kuziez

Asalamu Alaikum! I am back from Mali Alhamdullilah, and I am so happy to be sharing my trip experiences with whoever reads this. I am sorry I have not updated at all yet, I’ve been asked about it and finally here is some of what I have been doing in Mali. Because this will be read by my friends and such, I made it a day to day account of my personal journal. But in reality, there is so much more to it, and many others have written much better blogs about this campaign.
Here is where you can find better information:


http://www.malarianomore.org/
http://www.iwillafrica.org/
http://masieafrica.blogspot.com/
(and I will post some press releases towards the end of the blog)



Also, I want to thank Asma for allowing me to be her guest blogger, what an honor. J (Asma is wonderful Mashallah I hope you all regularly read her blog).

Saturday December 8th-Sunday December 9th, 2007


I left St. Louis with butterflies in my stomach. This was my first international trip alone, and my first trip to West Africa. MSA National was invited by Malaria No More to attend this first ever interfaith delegation during such a large campaign. The campaign was done by the Government of Mali and Malaria No More and over 22 NGO’s around the world to reach 95% of the people around Mali in an effort to halt Malaria and provide other necessary health intervention items including measles vaccine, Vitamin A, Polio vaccine, and a de-worming pill. I will include more of the facts on Monday’s journal.


I was driven to JFK from Laguardia, and the driver actually knew about Mali so he gave me some tips and exciting facts. I hurried over to Air France, got my boarding pass, did not check in any luggage, gave Sara Beg a “fun call,” and got on my plane. It’s hard for me to generally say this because I usually do not notice it, but I felt like everyone on the plane was looking at me. Maybe it is because I had two annoying handbags and I clumsily made it to my seat, or because I was wearing two hoodies over a long coat which looked a bit weird. To top it off, someone was sitting in my seat and she did not speak English. I kindly showed her my boarding pass and wondered if the airline made a mistake. The stewardess then looked at the woman, and turns out the woman’s seat was in 26 but she accidently sat in 28. No problem, I offered to sit in seat 26, and she said “Merci Merci,” and I did not mind if people were staring at me anymore.
At the Paris airport, I tried to find my way around, only to realize that my flight is in 10 hours. I took a shuttle to another section of the airport, and I tried to seek help from an African man, (secretly hoping he was also going to Bamako), only to realize he needed help finding his gate. I pointed him in the right direction and as he got off the shuttle, called out “Asalamu Alaikum.” I’ve heard the French do not like to speak English, so I tried to teach myself basic terms, but they have all been so friendly and have spoken with me in English, silly me walks off saying “Gracias” then quickly correcting myself to “Merci.”


I tried to sleep for a long time, but kept waking up from the cold. I walked around, bought myself Prince Cookies for lots of Euros (btw those are a lot stronger than the dollar now!), and saw all these Muslims lined up for some reason! HAJJ!!!!!!!!!! Oh I miss Hajj, and totally forgot it was Hajj season. It reminded me of my dad, Rhoda and I in Germany last year lined up for Hajj as well. Eventually I met a woman from Canada but I fell asleep, woke up and she was gone with no trace except for the snack she left in my lap.


I spotted sister Aisha Al Adawiya, and was united with the Malaria no More crew. I was talking to one of them saying, ‘I can’t wait to meet Malcom X’s daughter.’ She gave me a weird look, and I later realized I was talking to her. Rhoda told me to not do anything dumb, there was the first thing!


On the way to Bamako, I was fascinated by something I had never noticed before. I’d never noticed how many stars I could see from any window seat I had had before. Rather than looking up at the stars, I was looking right through them, almost sitting next to them in the sky. Subhanallah, it really is an amazing sight. I wish I could even capture it in a picture. There were hundreds of them, and the longer I stared, the more they became.



We got to Bamako, and sat through a special room waiting for the cars to take us to the hotel. Now that I think of it, I never saw the main terminal in Bamako airport. Oh well.

Inshallah this trip will be benificial and a great experience!

Muslim Student saves Jews on Subway

In darkness, sometimes we find light.

In another sad example of prejudice, three Jews were attacked on the New York subway. But in a beautiful example of Muslims standing up for the rights of people of all faiths, Hassan Askari, a Muslim Student at Berkeley College in Manhattan, came to their rescue. Yet, he was the only passenger who tried to stop the fight.

For more information visit the MSA National website: http://www.msanational.org/

Guest Blogger: Randa Kuziez

Assalams All!

Instead of bringing you stories of my attempts to study for finals, my good friend and Treasurer of MSA National Randa Kuziez will be a guest blogger over the next week.

This week on behalf of MSA National Randa joins a delegation to Mali that includes Malcolm X's daughter Ms. Shabazz hosted by Malaria No More and partner organizations including the American Red Cross, UNICEF and the United Nations. The delegation aims to raise awareness about Malaria, a lethal disease. A $1 vaccine can save the life of a Malaria victim.

Randa I can't wait to hear about your trip and how we can save lives for about the cost of a soda!

US vs. Al- Arian

As I watched this award winning documentary, I felt as though I was watching a horror movie from the 1970's. This couldn't be our reality, could it? A man is imprisoned for years, kept from seeing the evidence against him, and when found not guilty by a jury is kept in jail?

Yet the move begins in 2003 and is a modern epic of one of the biggest civil rights violations of our time.

As citizens, its our duty to protect the Constitution and call America back to its better self.

Learn more: http://www.usavsalarian.com/

Yasmin Elhady Represents

My dear friend and member of the MSA National Media and Communication Action Task Force Yasmin Elhady asked a question at this year's GOP Republican CNN-YouTube debate.

Way to represent Muslim Students exercise the power of the press to ask a serious question!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/28/debate.transcript.part2/index.html

Remembering on World AIDS Day

When I was two-feet tall I shyly walked into a kindergarten classroom. As my big brother and sister let go of my hand, I looked around the room at 17 strangers. Within a few minutes Bernie and I had become the best of friends and vowed to be friends forever and ever.

Nine years later I stared at my friend, laying in her open casket.

Born prematurely, Bernie needed a blood transfusion when she was 2 days old. It was the 80's and no one knew about HIV or AIDS, including the Red Cross. Before she left the hospital Bernie had contracted HIV.

Bernie is one of millions of children who died of HIV and AIDS. These victims deserve the support of the entire world. From a simple prayer to donating to find a cure, be involved in one of the largest health crisis of our time.

Condolences I

As I edited a Press Release for the monthly MSA Eletter, I received an e-mail stating a sister from UCLA had passed away. My heart sank as I opened my e-mail to send an "Updated Condolences" section.

The one part of the Eletter you hope you never have to "update" is the condolences section. In one month three MSA students, to my knowledge, died. Active, religious, students like me. Yet all over the world thousands of people die each day of thirst, starvation, disease, and war.

Death is a reminder; a reminder that you, yes you, will one day no longer exist. Your life's worth won't be measured by how many people read your blog or the name on your diploma but by one entity alone; and that opinion is all that matters.

Little Rock, Big Impact

Less than 24 hours ago I hugged Zainab goodbye as I prepared to leave Little Rock, Arkansas.

In the less than 11 hours that I had known Zainab, we had bonded. She told me about how her brothers, lacking an MSA, had found a comfortable home at a Fraternity that respected their religion. We discussed everything from Muslim Country singer Kareem Salama to MSA and youth group. But for me the most amazing thing about our discussions was that Zainab was 11 years old. Despite the fact that she was half my age, as two American-born Muslim sisters we found a lot to talk about.

My time in Little Rock was a brief retreat from classes and e-mails. I had been invited by ISNA in my capacity as an advisor to MYNA and my role with MSA National to speak about Youth Development. The enthusiasm and excitement of these youth, parents and MSAers was contagious and yet eye opening. The presentations, practical advice, and resources were welcomed with hungry eyes by the community members so eager to take their organizations to the next level.

While I remain obsessed with organizational management, my e-mail, and have a cell phone practically sewed into my hijab, physically seeing the needs of our diverse, dispersed community and working directly with students will always be my passion. This is the stuff that drives activists: making a positive difference in the lives of others all in the service of God.

When I first got involved with MSA National as a zonal rep, my activism completely changed. From serving 20+ Muslim students on campus, I was now connected to hundreds. Starting an MSA in Maryland, holding a workshop in New Jersey, meeting with a council chair in DC to discuss how to address issues; this is the life of a zonal rep. And it is by far the biggest joy and Amana, trust, at the same time.

The goal of any institution, for or non-profit, is take what one person can do to the next level; to serve its users better on a larger scale. I have never believed more in the need for strong organizations that serve our community. Like Zainab said, we need people to do more.