Three student officers of Winthrop’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) took the time to discuss their organizations’ initiatives and values. They additionally shared insight into their experiences as Muslim students at Winthrop University.
By Riley Brodie
AC&T Editor
AC&T
MSA National is a student organization with chapters across schools in the U.S. and Canada. Its primary missions are to provide resources and serve as safe spaces for Muslim students. They additionally facilitate educating broader college communities on Islam.
Hana Kandil, a senior psychology major and the president of Winthrop’s MSA, described the specific chapter’s initiatives.
“Our mission and purpose can be divided into three sections; connection, community and volunteer work,” Kandil said.
Mohammed Zyara, a sophomore biology major and the vice president of Winthrop’s MSA shared similar thoughts on the core motives of Winthrop’s chapter.
“We’re especially focused on building a safe and welcoming community for Muslims and anyone interested in Islam,” Zyara said.
He continued, “I think having brotherhood and sisterhood is really important, because we have to stick together to make this [MSA] work. Trust and dedication are also very important in our group.”
Winthrop’s Muslim Student Association was reinstated this academic school year. Kandil played a large role in reviving the organization.
“I always dreamt of having a friend group in college made up of other Muslims and Arabs, and just being able to be around other people like me. When I came to Winthrop, I realized that there wasn’t a group to facilitate that. So since my first semester of college, I’ve been trying to find people to develop the MSA,” Kandil said.
Throughout her freshman year, Kandil found that the small population of Muslim Winthrop students and a limited interest in joining MSA inhabited her ability to restart the organization. However, the following year, circumstances began to shift.
“Thankfully, this year I have had enough people and interest. We’ve now set a tentative schedule and established officers. Division of tasks with my officers have also definitely helped the process,” Kandil said.
Zyara has assisted Hana with planning meetings and presentations. He has additionally reached out to other organizations to explore future collaborations.
Samar Alshaman, a freshman business administration major with concentrations in finance and economics, and the event coordinator for MSA, also helps with event planning and communications.
MSA has had a significant positive impact on its members and leaders.
“MSA made Winthrop feel more like home – it’s a community where we can share our values and beliefs,” Alshaman said. “It’s also really important to have these connections for our holidays, which are different from what’s common in America. During Ramadan, we have 30 days of fasting, so having people there for you and to support you is really helpful.”
“MSA has opened my eyes to many things. For instance, as Muslims at Winthrop we really didn’t have a space. For example, before, we only had the meditation room in the library, but once we got involved and formed a group we were able to secure another spot in Digs. This helped to show me how important it is to have community,” Zyara said.
MSA has begun to help fill the disparity in Muslim representation at Winthrop, facilitating a space for students to advocate and share their perspectives.
“Having other Muslims there makes you feel like you can advocate for a room to pray in, because you’re not the only person there,” Alshaman said.
“We plan to connect to the broader community, by hosting public events, hopefully cultural events, that educate others about Islam and debunk stereotypes,” Kandil said.
Relatedly, the leaders shared their views on the importance of diverse religious and cultural representation.
“America is said to be the ‘land of opportunities’, ‘the mixing pot’ and all of that. How could it be the mixing pot if we don’t all embrace who we are?” Kandil said.
“Religious and cultural representation brings people closer together. If you just have one perspective on religion, you won’t understand other people. There are many religions, many perspectives, and many values- so learning about them is really important. If there are diverse religions represented, it would make misunderstandings happen less, because they would understand what the religion is and where they’re coming from, instead of just assuming,” Alshaman said.
They additionally shared their thoughts on harmful misconceptions regarding Muslims.
“Media propaganda portrays a very, very small minority of Muslims as if every Muslim is like that, by using rhetoric such as Muslims are ‘all aggressive’, or ‘are all oppressive towards women’. This makes it more difficult to communicate with non-Muslims to tell them who we actually are, because many have been so stuck on this harmful messaging,” Zyara said.
“I feel like the most misunderstood thing about Muslims is that they’re really strict on everything or that they’re not open minded- They have one viewpoint, and they don’t understand the others- when in reality that’s not true. The only way people can learn that is if they learn about Islam, and hopefully that’s what MSA does for them,” Alshaman said. “Additionally, to erase misconceptions, instead of just listening to the news, listen to other Muslims around you, or local Muslims, and see what their perspectives are.”
Winthrop’s MSA has many plans to continue developing and contributing to the betterment of the student body throughout the next year.
“I hope that next year we have more Muslim students coming to Winthrop seeing that there are spaces and resources available to them. I want MSA to have a good connection to the mosque in Rock Hill, facilitate volunteer opportunities with local organizations, and collaborate with other on-campus organizations. I also want us to generally embrace and take pride in our culture here at Winthrop,” Kandil said.
“I see us being a large enough group to where we can start hosting cultural events,” Zyara said.
“Next year, I want us to recruit more Muslims in this community and in college in general. I want to increase engagement with non-Muslim students who are interested in learning more about Islam. I know there are a lot of people that want to learn about it, so I want this to be the place for them,” Alshaman said.
For more information regarding MSA, follow their Instagram, “Winthrop_msa” or join their GroupMe “WU MSA”.
