Since his sophomore year, Wan Sayuti Wan Hussin has wanted to help the Muslim community grow at Penn. His newly acquired position, president of the Muslim Student's Association, is giving him the opportunity to see his goals become reality.
Elections for the new MSA board were held on Sept. 25, overlapping with the initial meeting of the Harmony Campaign, a coalition of groups -- including the MSA -- seeking to support each other in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
MSA outreach and community activities will continue, as scheduled during their meetings last spring, but in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, this new board will face challenges that past MSA leaders could not have imagined.
"The challenge facing us now is even greater as many people now have great misperceptions about Islam which we aim to change," new MSA Vice President Osamah Sayeedi said. "For this reason I believe that further extending our efforts to increase awareness of Islam on campus is important in the coming year."
In an effort to combat prejudice against Muslim students and to educate the campus and community about Islam's teachings and values, the MSA has organized an Islam Awareness Week to last from Nov. 6-10.
Ben Herzig, a College sophomore and MSA member, is certain that the group can rise to the challenge and will do so by forging alliances with different student groups on campus and getting the word out about Islam.
Every night during the awareness week, the group will bring prominent speakers from inside and outside the Philadelphia area to speak on various topics. This year's topics will include several of the more pressing questions that Muslim and non-Muslim students have concerning Islam, including the Jihad in Islam, the Islamic concept of God and Women in Islam.
Though the group will face a rigorous semester in terms of coordinating outreach and battling prejudice, Sayeedi believes the biggest issue the MSA will face this semester is lack of funding in the face of continuing budget cuts.
"We have had our budget cut by half in the past five years, and it has been increasingly difficult for us to maintain our level of activity and even extend it with limited funds," said Sayeedi.
Despite the cuts, the group has already managed to extend their outreach beyond Penn and into the minority Muslim community that exists in West Philadelphia. Already, many of the people who attend MSA events are from other area universities, including Temple and Drexel universities and the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, as well as from different Philadelphia neighborhoods.
