The Muslim Student Association (MSA) is a recognized student organization at San José State that brings students together through faith, specifically in the religion of Islam.
With no official membership required, the group on campus has roughly 200 regular student event attendees.
The group was founded in 2014, however Muslim student groups have been formed at SJSU since the early 1980s, according to previous Spartan Daily reporting.
Maryam Ayadi, business administration senior and president of the Muslim Student Association at SJSU, said one of the club’s missions is to be the voice for Muslim students on campus.
Ayadi said to support this mission the group hosts networking, social, educational and spiritual events for any student to attend.
“I know that other clubs, they have official memberships and they have fees and things like that, our goal is not really like that,” Ayadi said. “You don’t have to have high levels of commitment to join.”
Subha Khan, business administration senior and secretary for the organization, said the Muslim Student Association helps provide a space for Muslim students to pray, because it is a part of the Islamic faith to pray five times a day.
Khan said the club also works very closely with the MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center to secure a place for students to make their prayers.
The MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center is a student resource center that offers resources and advocacy for students on campus, according to a university webpage. The center has its own department at SJSU and has a shared space for cultural events and clubs.
SJSU collects enrollment data by demographics including gender, age and ethnicity, but not by religion, according to the university’s analytics webpage. Ayadi said there could be nearly a thousand Muslims who attend SJSU, each requiring their own space daily to pray.
“This space is not a luxury, it's a necessity,” Ayadi said. “(MOSAIC) has been really helpful.”
Ayadi also said the Muslim Student Association has partnerships and receives aid from groups across campus including the Student Wellness Center, Associated Students and the university’s administration staff.
Khan said one of the goals for the club is to secure additional and larger spaces for prayer to accommodate all of the university’s Muslim student body.
“There's Friday prayer for Muslims, and that's called Jumu’ah,” Khan said. “It’s kind of a big gathering prayer ... one of the ways we're mainly serving our members and our students is to get more prayer spaces for them for their evening prayers — for people who have classes later in the day.”
Ice cream socials, bake sales and bonfires with other Muslim Student Association branches from other universities are some of the events MSA holds to further create a sense of community among its members.
Many of the students who participate in MSA events are not of the Islamic faith and simply have friends who practice it, according to Khan.
“We have members who are Latinx, we have members who are of the African American community, we have members of the East Asian community, we have members that are Ukrainian, even,” Khan said. “We try to invite non-Muslims and people of other religions and faiths to come together.”
The Islamic faith is practiced worldwide, but originates from what is eurocentrically known today as the “Middle East.’”
Ayadi said students in MSA will benefit from resources the South, West Asian and North African (SWANA) Initiative receives.
The SWANA Initiative is another student group on campus whose depoliticized term for ‘Middle East’ includes more countries and is devoid of colonial and eurocentric ties, according to a Sept. 2 Instagram post from the group.
She also said the majority of MSA’s students fit into SWANA’s demographics.
“Whether it's mental health resources, financial resources, things like that, anything that SWANA receives definitely helps (the Muslim Student Association),” Ayadi said. “If SWANA were to receive a space, that would be amazing.”
Daanyaal Qureshi, senior industrial and systems engineering major and events coordinator for the Muslim Student Association said club members at SJSU represent the Muslim community around the Bay Area, California and beyond.
Qureshi said what the Muslim Student Association provides and is able to achieve will act as a reflection of the greater community as a whole, and will leave a direct impact on the students as they make friends and graduate.
He said the club makes him closer to the campus community bonded by faith in Islam and connects him to every Muslim at SJSU.
“It provides me with a sense of comfort,” Qureshi said. “Being a part of the board for the (Muslim Student Association) allows me to help build on top of what we have and create a space and environment where all Muslims can feel like they have a sense of community to rely on as a source for socialization and support in multiple areas.”
