Muslim Students' Association - History

History

The first MSA National chapter was formed in 1963 at the campus of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) by international students. The initial leadership came from Arabic-speaking and Urdu-speaking members, with guidance from students of the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood and Pakistan-based Jamaati Islami movements. A Saudi Arabian charity, the Muslim World League, provided early funding for the group. Early goals for the movement included the promotion of "a self-definition involves initially and fundamentally Islamic identity" of its members, as well as an appropriate Islamic lifestyle while they were in the US.

With time, MSA groups became more interested in seeking how to integrate and institutionalize Islam and Islamic culture into American life. Current issues such as the position of women in Islam and problems in the Islamic countries began to be debated. The groups proved important as mobilizers in developing increasing Muslim political activity in the United States. Student leaders, as these graduated, went on to form the Islamic Society of North America. From the 1960s onwards, the MSA engaged in educational activities, including the translation and publishing of works by major Islamic scholars. In 1966 MSA founded the Islamic Book Service, to distribute magazines and books. In addition, books about Islam were distributed on campuses to both Muslims and non-Muslims. In the 1970s, a fiqh, or legal council was established by MSA; initially the fiqh rendered opinions on minor issues such as the start of Ramadan. By 1988, however, it was making decrees on a broad range of religious and social issues. The journalist Robert Dreyfuss in his book Hostage to Khomeini described how the Muslim Student Association is just a front organization for the Muslim Brotherhood. He also describes how Ibrahim Yazdi,the founder of the Iranian branch of the Muslim Student Association became one of the key supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini and served in the early government of the Islamic republic.Robert Dreyfuss discusses how the Muslim Student Association has funnelled money to various Islamic terrorist organizations .

In 1994, after nearly 12 years of being virtually defunct, MSA National's leadership held a first-ever strategic planning retreat at the University of Michigan, bringing 27 undergraduate and graduate students from around the US and Canada together. This retreat would spark the re-emergence of MSA National as an independent, unique organization with a dedicatedly first and second generation focus. Nearly all of the 27 students were born or raised in the US and Canada, and were of the next generation of North American Muslims, signifying a radical shift in MSA National's future direction. From 1994 onward, MSA National held conferences on college campuses, convention centers and mosques around the US and Canada, with no guidance and direction from any other group or organization.

Fifteen years later, by 2010, yet another generation was poised to take the leadership of MSA National. Activities such as Project Downtown, the Fast-athon, and other regional and national projects were born. Now all of MSA National's leadership was born in the US and/or Canada, and MSA began to make its own decisions and take positions on a variety of issues without regard to other groups or organizations.