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:

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.

New Haven Soup Kitchen
Direct Service
The Muslim Students Association aims to collaborate with the Yale Community Kitchen to support their efforts in helping provide and serve food to the New Haven community every day of the week. We also hope to expand these efforts by purchasing food and supplies to serve weekly lunches to the broader New Haven community as well.

Local Community Volunteering
Direct Service
We look forward to volunteering in the local community, primarily by tutoring students at local mosques such as Masjid-Al-Islam and providing school supplies and other essentials that will benefit the community at large.

Exploring Black History in Islam - Speaker Event ft. Scholar Mustafa Briggs
Advocacy, or Activism
MSA will be inviting lecturer and educator Mustafa Briggs to give a talk about Black History in Islam. Mustafa Briggs is a graduate of Arabic and International Relations from the University of Westminster and completed a degree in Islamic Studies and Arabic Language from Al-Azhar University in Egypt, renowned as the most prestigious university for Islamic learning. He has been featured on prominent international media such as Al-Jazeera and Islam Channel to discuss Islamic History and Blackness in Islam. He is currently working on translations of West African Islamic Text and has recently published his first book, Beyond Bilal: Black History in Islam. During this talk, Briggs will be sharing insights from his new book and exploring the relationship between Islam and Black History, shedding light into prominent Black figures in the Quran such as prophets, Sahaba, and early scholars that are often overlooked when studying Islamic history.

Advocacy Speaker Events
Advocacy, or Activism
We will be hosting many diverse speakers to give insight and advocate for various social justice issues and how best we can support these movements.

The Digital Sisterhood Speaker Event
Advocacy, or Activism
MSA is pleased to invite the Digital Sisterhood team to Yale's campus to host community conversations exploring the history of Muslim women and the contemporary challenges they must navigate. Founded by Black Muslim women, the Digital Sisterhood is a platform focused on uniting women of color and countering the pre-existing narrative of what it means to be a Muslim woman through various platforms including podcasts, articles and videos. Through their platform, the Digital Sisterhood has inspired millions of women to speak up, share their thoughts, and continuously stand up for rights. The Digital Sisterhood podcast has been especially successful and influential in spreading this message, garnering more than 5.8 million downloads with listeners from more than 65 countries and is #1 in the "Self-Improvement" podcast category in many countries including the US, UK, and Australia. We look forward to hosting critical and thought-provoking conversations about the struggles that Muslim women and women of color face and how the Digital Sisterhood's initiative has helped inspired women of color around the globe.

Speaker Events
Advocacy, or Activism
We will be hosting multiple speaker events related to social justice. We will need to pay for refreshments as well as honorariums.

Student Leaders:

Zahra Yarali - Coordinator/President