Yale MSA Fundraiser
Donation protected
The Yale Muslim Students Association (MSA)--an Undergraduate Organization--provides students with the opportunity to come together in a supportive Muslim environment and seeks to educate the Yale and New Haven communities about Islam. All students and community members are welcome to MSA activities and events. Above all, we recognize that students are at varied levels in their own faith and we are welcoming to all, regardless of the extent of one's religious knowledge or determination. Over the past year, the MSA has held numerous events that caters to both the undergraduate and graduate student communities on campus, including spiritual, political, and social. For a list of events held by the MSA, please visit our Facebook page.
Given the recent election results, we are interested in not only maintaining and enhancing this group as the home base for Muslim Life at Yale, but we are also interested in providing more activities centered around improving the broader community’s understanding of Islam.
Just 48 hours after the election results were made public, reports of Islamophobia seemed to be on the rise. Attacks on students have been particularly heightened. In various universities, students had their hijabs forcibly pulled off, another student was beaten and robbed, and one specific incident involved a woman having her hijab pulled off by somebody yelling “That is not allowed anymore. You should hang yourself!”. An instance that hits closer to home is reflected by the vandalization of the New York University (NYU) Muslim Students Association's prayer space. It is disappointing to see that some have interpreted the results of this election as giving them a ticket to Islamophobia, simply because they are unable to understand/relate with Islam and Muslims.
We hope to change this.
Understanding that the next few years may pose several difficulties for our community, it seems like the right time for the MSA and Muslim life at Yale to undergo a transformative period in which the community will become stronger, protecting against hateful rhetoric/actions and providing more education about Islam to the broader Yale community.
We have many goals that we are excited to achieve, and we hope that we can accomplish some of them in the long-term. Below are some of the projects we are excited about possibly enacting. Look at the list below for some of our hopes and dreams!
1. To become an incubator for Islamic self-actualization and supporting the benefits of a life-long journey of Islamic understanding, learning, and compassion.
2. To provide Muslim students with experiences of new ways to interact with their religion, promote a deeper understanding of Islamic principles, and introduce students to taking on their own ways of interpreting Islam into their daily lives as their futures as Muslims begin to be realized during the college experience.
3. To provide the broader Yale community with ways of understanding the Islamic religion, and promoting interfaith discussions.
Here are some ideas of what we might be able to accomplish:
1. Continuing to provide the broader Yale community with events, such as inviting guests to speak. We hope these guests can range from academic, governmental, business, and artistic leaders, who can provide some positive advice to Muslim life at Yale.
2. Setting up more formal mentorship programs amongst the Muslim population at Yale.
3. Producing publications/distributing information about Islam to the broader Yale community and the residents of New Haven in order to promote interfaith discussions and understandings.
4. Sponsoring more events such as Iftars and meals at Halal restaurants.
5. Promoting and engaging in community service programs, such as working in local communities’ homeless shelters, and assisting other groups that are doing similar things such as the operation of the Kosher Kitchen.
6. Setting up service trips during Spring break to assist Muslim regions with any initiatives that that might be occurring in these areas. Doing this, we hope to encourage Muslim Life at Yale to connect with the broader ummah.
7. Creating a research fellowship that sponsors research to enhance our understanding of what is currently going on in the Muslim world.
8. Creating relationships with various companies that our students express interest in creating relationships with, in order to be help them to be on track to secure internships/full-time jobs with these companies.
9. Creating a one-on-one learning program that teaches students, both Muslim, and non, about Islam.
10. Working on promoting Islamic arts and culture by showcasing exhibitions of visual mediums/sponsoring musical and theatrical performance/literary readings.
11. Working towards our goal of having an actual building for Muslim Life at Yale, as opposed to a basement in a freshman dorm.
We thus ask for your generous contribution in helping us achieve these goals, as we think this would allow us to be incredibly better positioned for the difficulties facing our communities over the next few years, improve the understanding of Islam on Yale’s campus, and promote compassion and open discourse on our campus.
Given the recent election results, we are interested in not only maintaining and enhancing this group as the home base for Muslim Life at Yale, but we are also interested in providing more activities centered around improving the broader community’s understanding of Islam.
Just 48 hours after the election results were made public, reports of Islamophobia seemed to be on the rise. Attacks on students have been particularly heightened. In various universities, students had their hijabs forcibly pulled off, another student was beaten and robbed, and one specific incident involved a woman having her hijab pulled off by somebody yelling “That is not allowed anymore. You should hang yourself!”. An instance that hits closer to home is reflected by the vandalization of the New York University (NYU) Muslim Students Association's prayer space. It is disappointing to see that some have interpreted the results of this election as giving them a ticket to Islamophobia, simply because they are unable to understand/relate with Islam and Muslims.
We hope to change this.
Understanding that the next few years may pose several difficulties for our community, it seems like the right time for the MSA and Muslim life at Yale to undergo a transformative period in which the community will become stronger, protecting against hateful rhetoric/actions and providing more education about Islam to the broader Yale community.
We have many goals that we are excited to achieve, and we hope that we can accomplish some of them in the long-term. Below are some of the projects we are excited about possibly enacting. Look at the list below for some of our hopes and dreams!
1. To become an incubator for Islamic self-actualization and supporting the benefits of a life-long journey of Islamic understanding, learning, and compassion.
2. To provide Muslim students with experiences of new ways to interact with their religion, promote a deeper understanding of Islamic principles, and introduce students to taking on their own ways of interpreting Islam into their daily lives as their futures as Muslims begin to be realized during the college experience.
3. To provide the broader Yale community with ways of understanding the Islamic religion, and promoting interfaith discussions.
Here are some ideas of what we might be able to accomplish:
1. Continuing to provide the broader Yale community with events, such as inviting guests to speak. We hope these guests can range from academic, governmental, business, and artistic leaders, who can provide some positive advice to Muslim life at Yale.
2. Setting up more formal mentorship programs amongst the Muslim population at Yale.
3. Producing publications/distributing information about Islam to the broader Yale community and the residents of New Haven in order to promote interfaith discussions and understandings.
4. Sponsoring more events such as Iftars and meals at Halal restaurants.
5. Promoting and engaging in community service programs, such as working in local communities’ homeless shelters, and assisting other groups that are doing similar things such as the operation of the Kosher Kitchen.
6. Setting up service trips during Spring break to assist Muslim regions with any initiatives that that might be occurring in these areas. Doing this, we hope to encourage Muslim Life at Yale to connect with the broader ummah.
7. Creating a research fellowship that sponsors research to enhance our understanding of what is currently going on in the Muslim world.
8. Creating relationships with various companies that our students express interest in creating relationships with, in order to be help them to be on track to secure internships/full-time jobs with these companies.
9. Creating a one-on-one learning program that teaches students, both Muslim, and non, about Islam.
10. Working on promoting Islamic arts and culture by showcasing exhibitions of visual mediums/sponsoring musical and theatrical performance/literary readings.
11. Working towards our goal of having an actual building for Muslim Life at Yale, as opposed to a basement in a freshman dorm.
We thus ask for your generous contribution in helping us achieve these goals, as we think this would allow us to be incredibly better positioned for the difficulties facing our communities over the next few years, improve the understanding of Islam on Yale’s campus, and promote compassion and open discourse on our campus.
Organizer
Yale Msa
Organizer
New Haven, CT