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The Muslim Leadership Lab at Dwight Hall (MLL) centered fall 2024 programming on student leadership, social justice, and fostering community-led spaces of reflection. From hosting a town hall for students to discuss the outcomes of the 2024 general election to launching an event series commemorating Malcolm X’s 100th birthday and celebrating the 60th anniversary of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, MLL strengthened Muslim civic life on campus.
Founded in 2018 by Program Director Abdul-Rehman Malik, MLL aims to grow civic leadership skills among Muslim students at Yale and catalyze new directions for Muslim life on college campuses nationwide.
It is tradition for MLL to begin every semester with a student retreat. In fall 2024, the “Spirit of Leadership” retreat fell on September 14th and 15th, engaging students in two days of programming at the Guest House Center in Chester, Connecticut.
Yusuf Rasheed ’24, Programming Fellow at Dwight Hall and former student member of MLL, detailed the planning that went into the event. “This year, we narrowed the focus of the retreat and invited all Muslim student leaders on campus,” he explained. “Because Muslim students occupy really different roles on campus”—from being involved with the Yale College Council, the Yale Muslim Students Association, the Yale Middle Eastern and North African Community, and more— “the retreat gave us a chance to make sure we were all on the same page before the semester got busy.”
Abdul-Rehman, who organized the retreat, was joined by Omer Bajwa, Dwight Hall Board Member and Director of Muslim Life at the Yale Chaplain’s Office, Leenah Safi, Assistant Muslim Chaplain, and Lisa Kinney-Bajwa, who each led portions of the programming. Highlights from the retreat included an opening exercise titled “Upon Every Chair is Sat a Leader,” a Saturday night filled with unplugged games and socializing, and fajr prayers followed by a silent sunrise walk on Sunday morning.
While brief, the retreat intended to spur reflections that students would take with them through the semester and beyond. “One of the cool things we do on retreat is discuss pressing questions, like how to build advocacy among students when there is already division within the community and when they are working in the face of such traumatizing circumstances,” explained Yusuf. “We write down our ideas on posters, present them to each other, and then transfer them to a shared document we can reference at any time. It is very helpful to synthesize our ideas and have action steps for moving forward.”
Two weeks after the retreat, MLL hosted its first public event of the fall semester, titled “The Hijrah Walk: Retracing the Prophetic Footsteps from Makkah to Medina with Dr. Bilal Hassam.” Dr. Hassam, a physician-turned-community organizer based in South Africa, detailed his experience of recreating the Prophet Muhammad’s iconic spiritual journey from Makkah to Medina. He shared vivid photos from the 270-mile expedition and engaged in discussion with Abdul-Rehman on what it meant to visit the same landmarks as the Prophet Muhammad did 1,400 years ago.
“It was really powerful to hear from someone who has done that journey, from the physical exertion to seeing these famous sites,” reflected Yusuf. More than 40 members and allies of the Yale Muslim community attended the event, which culminated in an audience Q&A that raised questions about spirituality and the principles of being Muslim.
About a month later, MLL held its next public event–a town hall on the 2024 U.S. election. “We wanted to host this space after the election–regardless of the outcome–because we knew students were going to have mixed feelings and concerns about who our next president was going to be,” emphasized Yusuf.
The planning of the town hall was informed by the response on campus after the 2016 election, when hundreds of students informally gathered in the Dwight Hall Lovett Common Room to discuss their fears about a Trump presidency.
More than 40 students attended the 2024 town hall, representing numerous communities on campus, including Muslim and non-Muslim students, undergraduate and graduate students, African and African American students, students from the Dominican Republic and Brazil, and students from South Asian communities. Abdul-Rehman led the conversation and was joined by Omer Bajwa and Leenah Safi.
Commenting on the wide swath of identities represented at the town hall, Yusuf noted that “The attendees’ diversity of cultures was very impactful because what people shared about their experiences was very different. I think everybody who attended the event learned something new.”
Overall, the feeling in the room was resilience and a commitment to weathering whatever a second Trump administration will bring.
The end of the fall semester was marked by an exciting beginning–the kickoff of “MX100,” a series of reading circles and events in collaboration with the Whitney Humanities Center commemorating Malcolm X in the year of his 100th birthday.
2025 also marks the 60th anniversary of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a foundational text of the Black Power era. The MX100 reading circles will focus on a few chapters of the autobiography at a time and will culminate in group discussions on “Why Malcolm, and why today?”
The December 4th kickoff event, titled “The Afterlives of X,” featured a discussion on the autobiography and Malcolm X’s legacy led by Dr. Martin Nguyen, Ife Michelle Gardin, and Iman AbdoulKarim.
MLL concluded the semester by sponsoring the opening of “Remember(ing) Zawiyas,” an art exhibition created by MLL member Sityana Abdu ’27 and curated by Yale World Fellow Soraya Hosni. The exhibit, which “offers a multimodal journey into the sacred heritage of the UNESCO World Heritage city of Sousse, Tunisia through photography, interviews, and video” that explore themes of remembrance, preservation of culture, and heritage, was launched at the Yale Afro American Cultural Center’s art gallery on December 5th. The opening event was co-sponsored by the Council of African Studies, Council on Middle East Studies, Jackson School of Global Affairs, and Thomas C. Barry Travel Fund.
Nearly 200 individuals attended the opening reception and more than 100 stayed to watch a panel featuring Sityana and Soraya that was moderated by Abdul-Rehman.
Abdul-Rehman was struck by Sityana’s exploration of the sacred sites of the Medina of Sousse. “Sityana’s photography focused on highlighting female spiritual and civic leadership and preserving these shrines, keeping them alive…and reminding the community that these incredibly important sites existed and actually were sources of community building, development, and gathering,” he noted. “Her ethnographic findings are now being used by local authorities in Tunisia to plan ways in which the culture of zawiyas, or places for spiritual retreat within the city, can be revitalized.”
In addition to the events comprising the MX100 series, MLL looks forward to announcing its annual Dr. Betty Shabazz and Malcolm X Lecture and annual Imam Hussein Lecture on Social Justice in spring 2025.
“I hope that current and future Yale students who are a part of the Muslim community continue to take advantage of this special program, and most importantly, AR’s presence on campus,” said Yusuf.
The Muslim Leadership Lab is a part of the Advance pillar of Dwight Hall’s Engage, Grow, and Advance program delivery model, developing innovative and collaborative programming to promote lasting change in New Haven and around the world.
You may contribute to the Muslim Leadership Lab here or follow @yalemll on Instagram to stay up-to-date on future events.
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