Muslim Students Association – Islamic Research and Information Center (IRIC)

West Virginia Muslim students pack 30K meals to help less fortunate

Islamic Monitor — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 13:08:31 +0000

West Virginia University partnered with Islamic Relief USA to pack 30,000 meals.

Extending a helping hand to the needy in their community, West Virginia University’s Muslim Students Association (MSA) joined forces with Islamic Relief USA on a Sunday afternoon, to pack 30,000 meals for nearby food shelters.

The goal of MSA is to unite everyone, not just Muslim students. So they advertised the event through multiple ways in which a lot of extra volunteers came out to help the organizations.

Despite West Virginia’s small Muslim population, the meals will be provided to those in need, regardless of their faith, according to Omar Sabbagh, Vice President of the WVU Muslim Students Association. Over 100 volunteers, including both Muslims and non-Muslims, have actively participated in packing the meals.

“This is what Islam is. It’s helping people that truly need it, and being there for the community because most of these meals are not going to Muslims. These meals are going to everyone that needs it, and this is who we are as Muslims.” Said Sabbagh, gesturing to the more than 100 volunteers who were busy packing meals.

Islamic Relief USA is a non-profit humanitarian and advocacy organization that started in 1993. They have about 25,000 volunteers, including the 100 that participated on Saturday.

Islam encompasses the concepts of community service in its morals. Showing kindness to people and charity to the less fortunate are strongly emphasized moral virtues in Islam.

More information at: WBOY 12 News

California Univ. Muslim students win basketball tournament, raise funds for orphans

Islamic Monitor — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 08:08:01 +0000

A team representing Muslim Students Association in the University of California (CSUF) emerged victorious at a basketball tournament held to promote unity and raise funds for orphans and children in need as part of Charity Week.

Competing against other teams representing Muslim students associations in different universities, the CSUF won the daylong basketball tournament that kicked off Charity Week. This year, Charity Week took place from Oct. 24 to Oct. 30, Daily Titan reported.

The tournament allowed Muslim organizations from universities across Southern California to connect with their community while raising awareness for an important cause.

“The theme of it was ‘Unity: United we Win,’” said Usman Qazi, MSA Event Coordinator who helped coach the men’s team.

“As Muslims, it’s really important for that unity to be there for brotherhood and sisterhood.”

In addition to connecting Muslim youth, the tournament included an auction hosted by Islamic Relief to support those in poverty.

Organized by Islamic Relief, Charity Week is an international humanitarian organization. It provides aid, food security, and orphan support to people after natural disasters.

Running from October 24-30, it runs under the slogan “For Orphans and Vulnerable Children”.

Source: AboutIslam.net

Muslims Demand Right to Preach in Public Schools: Canada

Islamic Monitor — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 16:38:05 +0000

Student Islamists are mounting a coordinated campaign to expand Muslim religious services in the high schools of Canada’s sixth largest city. So far, authorities are proving sympathetic, suspending a new policy meant to regulate student sermons. “The school board should not be policing religion,” campaign leader Shahmir Durrani told one of two November board meetings in Mississauga, Ontario, that heard from imams, parents, high school students and university leaders of the Muslim Students Association(MSA), an organization founded for universities students by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1963. “Many students are feeling stigmatized because of this.”

Talk of prayers and sermons might come as a surprise to those unaware of how widespread Muslim religious activity has become in some Canadian school jurisdictions, and how far the fundamentalist MSA has penetrated the public education system. The changes started a decade ago, when the Ontario provincial government encouraged accommodation of an individual’s religious practice at workplaces and schools. At first, Muslim students were denied Friday congregational prayers and were told they could only pray only as individuals.

Five years ago, however, the Toronto Sun reported that 800 students at Toronto’s Valley Park Middle School were converting the school’s cafeteria into a temporary mosque every Friday during class hours, with boys praying in front, girls praying behind them separated by a barrier and menstruating girls obliged to sit at the very back to observe the service but not participate.

Toronto school trustees upheld the practice, and since then, Friday congregational prayers have been spreading though the public school system ever since.

One of Canada’s highest Muslim concentrations is in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada’s sixth city located at Toronto’s western border. Of the city’s 19 high schools, 17 have a Muslim Students Association (MSA). The list of 17 includes Meadowvale Secondary, which temporarily banned its MSA 10 years ago after two alumni were caught co-leading a terrorist cell known as the Toronto 18, with plans to blow up buildings in downtown Toronto. A third cell member had led the school’s Friday prayers…

Continue reading at: Clarion Project