Yale Muslim Students Association (MSA)

Our Mission:

The Muslim Students Association provides Yale students the opportunity to come together in a supportive Muslim environment and seeks to educate the Yale and New Haven communities about Islam. All students, both undergraduate and graduate, and community members are welcome to MSA religious, social and political events. Above all, we recognize that students are at varied levels in their own faiths, and we are welcoming to all, regardless of the extent of religious knowledge or determination.

Our Activities:

Muslim Leadership and Relief Conference
Direct Service
Yale MSA looks forward to hosting the Muslim Leadership and Relief Confernece at Yale, where we look forward to inviting Islamic scholar and Yale Divinity alum Yasir Qadhi, Chaplain Imam Bajwa, and other American Muslim leaders on campus to discuss their experiences and share guidance and advice to young muslim students. We hope this can help inspire the next generation of Muslim leaders. We also look forward to inviting Islamic Relief USA to share the work they are doing to help struggling Muslim communities around the world and will encourage attendees to donate and to help directly with relief efforts.

Breaking Bread and Barriers- New Haven Community Soup Kitchen
Direct Service
MSA's Breaking Bread and Barriers program is a weekly service initiative focused on preparing and distributing food to the local New Haven homeless population. Every Thursday, a group of volunteers prepare sandwiches, snacks, and water to distribute to the local New Haven community on Fridays. This program has been able to provide food to more than 300 community members this year with the help of volunteers from the Muslim Students Association as well as other organizations we partner with such as the Jewish Students Association.

Breaking Bread and Barriers: New Haven Soup Kitchen
Direct Service
MSA's Breaking Bread and Barriers program is a weekly service initiative focused on preparing and distributing food to the local New Haven homeless population. Every Thursday, a group of volunteers prepare sandwiches, snacks, and water to distribute to the local New Haven community on Fridays. This program has been able to provide food to more than 300 community members this year with the help of volunteers from the Muslim Students Association as well as other organizations we partner with such as the Jewish Students Association.

Yale Muslim Prison Project
Direct Service
We will work with the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project to help provide Islamic literature to Muslim prisoners at Robinson Correctional Institution in Connecticut in hopes of helping increase their Islamic knowledge and supporting their Islamic journey.

Muslim Mental Health Advocacy Conference
Advocacy, or Activism
Yale MSA will be hosting a Muslim Mental Health Conference to discuss mental health challenges facing the Muslim community and help advocate for individuals facing these challenges We will be hosting Abdallah Rothman, the Executive Director of the International Association of Islamic Psychology, US and Principal at Cambridge Muslim College. Dr. Abdallah has over 15 years’ experience as a counseling psychologist working with individuals, couples families and youth in a variety of settings. His experience with many different styles and methods of therapy, along with his deep, experiential and immersive study of the Islamic spiritual tradition inform his unique integrative approach to counseling. We hope to discuss his unique approach to counseling and how the Muslim community can benefit from this.

Student Leaders:

Yusuf Rasheed - Coordinator/President