Muslim students at UNL

I have been fascinated by Islam since the first time I travelled to Turkey when I was 18. I have never felt good in churches and I thought it would be the same with mosques but I was wrong. All the colourful paintings, thick carpets on the floor and voice of imam seemed just magic to me. However, I realize that all the magic might be simply due to the fact that I do not understand Arabic. Unfortunately.


Blue Mosque, Istanbul



Anyway, I can say that I have really good muslim friends with whom I have spent hours discussing Islam, its roots and traditions. Yet, I have always been concentrated on Islam in Tukey, which is quite specific area, and that is why I think that my views and experiences are quite limited. To extend my knowledge I have decided to focus my Cultural Reporter Blog on Muslim Students Association at UNL because its members come from various muslim countries as well as from the United States. Muslim students, obviously, form a unique culture at UNL as they share religion and most of the patters of behaviour and attitudes connected with this religion.

Muslim Students Association of the U.S. & Canada (MSA National) was established in 1963 on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by a conference of Muslim students from around the U.S. and Canada. Nowadays we can find MSA chapters at many universities around the United States and Canada. These chapters became more and more interested in seeking how to integrate and institutionalize Islam and Islamic culture into American life. They are dedicated to establishing and maintaining Islamic societies on college campuses in Canada and the United States.





I would love to understand more about this fascinating religion and to do so I have already contacted the MSA at UNL and I start by attending their next meeting. I plan also on interviewing the students and discussing their religion, the differences in traditions across countries, current issues they need to deal with being young muslims in the U.S. and their feelings connected with being a minority in conservative Nebraska.








Reference page:

Muslim Students Association - Our history. Retrieved September 25, 2011 from http://www.msanational.org/about