Muslim Students' Association - Activities

Activities

Further information: Fast-A-Thon and Muslim Interscholastic Tournament

Today, the organization is present in various forms on several campuses across the United States and Canada. In contrast to early membership, members are now frequently American-born Muslims. The groups are funded by campus students as well as the university to which it belongs. Activities include prayer times, lectures, discussion, and social events, and seek to unify Muslim students from different cultural backgrounds. MSAs host "Islamic Awareness Week" activities to educate students about Islam. At a campus level, groups lobby universities for recognition of Islamic holidays and prayer times, the availability and size of prayer rooms and for the provision of religiously permitted food on campus. MSAs engaged in various charitable activities. They raise funds through events known as "Fast-A-Thons", which originated at the University of Tennessee. The MSA launched a "Peace...not Prejudice" campaign to dispel stereotypes and paint Islam in a positive light.

The Muslim Interscholastic Tournament (MIST) was founded in 2001 by a freshman at the University of Houston. It consists of annual Regional Tournaments for high school students in the United States and Canada that take place in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, DC, Philadelphia, New York City, Houston, Southern California, and Toronto. The winners from each Regional Tournament qualify to complete at the annual National Tournament. The tournament features 31 different competitions and lasts two-three days, ending with the Awards Ceremony on the final night.

Read more about this topic:  Muslim Students' Association

Famous quotes containing the word activities:

    “Love and work are viewed and experienced as totally separate activities motivated by separate needs. Yet, when we think about it, our common sense tells us that our most inspired, creative acts are deeply tied to our need to love and that, when we lack love, we find it difficult to work creatively; that work without love is dead, mechanical, sheer competence without vitality, that love without work grows boring, monotonous, lacks depth and passion.”
    —Marta Zahaykevich, Ucranian born-U.S. psychitrist. “Critical Perspectives on Adult Women’s Development,” (1980)

    “No culture on earth outside of mid-century suburban America has ever deployed one woman per child without simultaneously assigning her such major productive activities as weaving, farming, gathering, temple maintenance, and tent-building. The reason is that full-time, one-on-one child-raising is not good for women or children.”
    —Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)

    “Minds do not act together in public; they simply stick together; and when their private activities are resumed, they fly apart again.”
    —Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925)