Shahira Ali, president of the Muslim Student Association and fourth-year College stuent, and spoke to a group of students Monday night in the Multicultural Student Center. Ali’s talk was the fifth in a series of Memory Monday presentations organized by the Minority Rights Coalition and focused on the origins of MSA and the organization’s history of student activism.
Ali described how students founded MSA in 1985 as a community for Muslim students at the University as well as students interested in learning about Islam. The group hosts social events such as game nights and bonfires as well as opportunities for prayer. In addition to providing fellowship within the University community, members advocate for the Muslin community throughout Charlottesville.
In 1999, MSA students worked with Charlottesville’s Muslim community to help to find the property where the first mosque in Charlottesville — the Islamic Society of Central Virginia — was built. ISCV opened in 2012 and members continue to have a close relationship with the MSA. The MSA offers a list of resources for students looking to find opportunities in Charlottesville, including internships and a volunteer network.
“[Before 1999], there wasn’t that much financial contribution or anything towards building a mosque,” Ali said. “We were renting random spaces out of pocket and that’s how we prayed and celebrated.”
In fall 2018, Class of 2020 alumnus Al Ahmed and Class of 2019 alumnus Zaakir Tameez founded the Muslim Institute for Leadership and Empowerment. MILE is a leadership and community development opportunity for Muslim students that selects approximately 30 students each fall who meet for ten two-hour sessions during the spring semester to engage with complex issues and explore strategies for progress.
Ali noted that while the MSA doesn’t have a long history of activism, it’s important to her that students have a community where they feel they belong.
“Being a face of minority students in the first place is political in itself,” Ali said. “We don’t always need to be advocating for something, we just need space to be ourselves.”
Ali said members of MSA also helped establish the Interfaith Student Center at the University in 2019, which provides a space for students of various religious backgrounds to pray and connect, as well as engage with other religious communities on Grounds.
In 2020, some Muslim students chose to break off from MSA to form Black Muslims at U.Va. and Muslims United. Black Muslims at U.Va. broke off from MSA because the majority of MSA members were from South Asian or Arab backgrounds and wanted a space to discuss intersectional issues which affect Black Muslims. Muslims United members formed a separate group to provide a space for students focused on activism — the group has since organized and supported a number of supply drives for Afghan refugees.
“There are many different sects within MSA, so that was something that has been kind of a point of conflict of tension within the Muslim community all around the world, but especially within the Muslim community at U.Va.,” Ali said.
Ali said MSA still values its relationship with both organizations and plans to work together with them to organize events and best support the community.
Currently, MSA organizes Quran studies on Tuesdays, Halaqa — a gathering to discuss Islam and the Quran which comes from the Arabic word for “ring” — on Thursdays and Jummah prayers on Fridays.
Members are currently planning a Mental Health Awareness Week for the last week of classes with MILE, Muslims United and Black Muslims at U.Va. Each day during the week will have a different event and Friday will feature a speaker and debrief on the week.
Memory Monday presentations aim to maintain a collective institutional memory of student activism at the University by providing information about the legacy of marginalized communities on Grounds that may otherwise be lost when organizers graduate. Previous presentations have included members of the Asian Students Union, Organization of African Students, the Cultural Organization for Latin Americans and the Black Student Alliance.
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