Interfaith Dialogue Today!

General Body Meeting Today!

Why did the Muslim cross the Road? - To get to the MSA’s General Body Meeting!

So when is this happening? Wednesday, November 29th at 5:15pm.

Okay, but where? BA1180 (Room 1180 at the Bahen Centre, 40 St. George Street).

And why exactly should I come? To let the MSA know what your needs are and how we can fulfill them!

A friendly word of advice: Don’t be a Chicken. Let your voice be heard.

This week in the MSA

Dear MSA Member,

Sisters are just so special. So special that we decided to write a limerick for you (referring to sisters) to tempt you to attend the Sisters’ Events Committee meeting on Wednesday, AND arranged for a GBM right after where you can opine on its sheer brilliance while munching on FREE food. So go highlight Wednesday, November 29, 2006 on your
calenders. Like, right now, yeah.

Also this week, be sure to check out MSA and Campus for Christ’s Interfaith Dialogue, happening on Thursday. And if you attend the Tajweed halaqa, make note of the room change. All this and much more (including limerick for sisters) on this week’s MSA-L.

How lucky we are to be sisters!

by Tazeen Siddiqui

The MSA & TMA Sisters’ Eid Celebration was held on Thursday, November 2nd in the Arbour Room of Hart House, when 40 sisters gathered together to celebrate Eid with games, food, gifts, and henna! I arrived promptly at 5:45pm for the 5:00pm event (Paki Standard Time in full effect). The fun was waiting for me to begin!

After a quick round of intros and finding out the sisters’ guilty pleasures, we were treated to a wonderful speech on great women in Islam. It was then time to raid the food. Oh the food!!! This starving student will eat just about anything, but GOOD food is always a welcomed surprise. And yes, there was indeed free cake.

Can you quit with the pictures and bring us our food before our plastered smiles wear off!

How very happy we are to be here - Part I

How very happy we are to be here - Part II

Great food, great company - what’s not to love about the MSA?

With henna-ness running in the background, sisters ate and chatted, laughing all their university worries away. But then it was time for some real fun. Out came the games and prizes!

Henna artists at work

Some sort of game, apparently

Another sort of game, apparently

Not realising there was a colour theme to the evening, I began to question why so many sisters were wearing pink. Turns out that all those who had dressed in pink and/or purple received roses, as did at least one non-pink/purple-wearer whose confusion earned her enough pity to warrant an un-warranted rose. The evening ended with a gift exchange and some Spongebob Squarepants pinata fun!

Roses for the brave souls in pink and purple

Spongebob’s Angels!

Exchanging gifts

The joyful bunch

This year’s event was a blast! Thank you to all the volunteers and the awesome sisters who attended. To get involved in Sisters’ Events and help make the rest of the year’s events equally as fun, if not more, please email msa.exec@utoronto.ca.

One final picture to cherish the memories

MSA-L format: Yay or Nay?

In case you’re still recovering from the trauma of midterms, the new format refers to the MSA-L emails which only give a brief synopsis of the contents of the week’s events and activities, and request you to click on a link (that brings you to the blog) in order to view the MSA-L in its entirety.

So yay or nay? Comment away folks.

Eid at Eva’s Phoenix

by Aasim Hasany

On Thursday, October 26, as part of a Community Affairs initiative, six Muslim students from UofT (5 brown guys and 1 token Arab) took their Eid celebrations to Eva’s Phoenix youth shelter (11 Ordnance road, near Bathurst and King streets). The ride to the shelter from campus was a memorable, albeit slightly uncomfortable, one as six young adults squeezed into a tiny Toyota Corrola steered by the world’s safest driver, Aasim Hasany. After arriving at 6.30pm wtih all joints intact, the six MSA’ers prayed their evening prayers along with Moussa, a staff member at Eva’s and Ali, a resident at the shelter. Following evening prayers, they were invited to share their experiences during Ramadan and Eid and explain the nature of the entire phenomenon of fasting (summarized quite expressively as ‘no eating, drinking, or hankypankying’). The discussion was primarily spearheaded by the MSA president, Shuaib Ally, who was later asked to sign autographs for his excellent presentation (joke).

Following the chit-chat was a fine traditional Arab dinner with chicken, rice, hummus, and the works, prepared wonderfully by Somethin’ 2 Talk About. The evening was drawn to an end with an award presented to the MSA for their involvement in and support of youth issues in the Greater Toronto Area.

To get involved in more initiatives such as these, please contact the MSA Community Affairs Coordinator at msa_comm@yahoo.ca.