Qureshi 1

Momina Qureshi
Professor Vaughn
English 2089
8 December 2014
The Muslims are Coming: College, Identity and Religion Intermingle
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. As the athan is called out
everyone gathered in the little TUC room standsforming a straight line, shoulder-to-shoulder
on a typical Friday afternoon. This is jummah, the Friday prayer performed weekly by the
Muslims at the University of Cincinnati. The imam, in charge of leading the prayer, calls out to
everyone; God is greater. God is greater. There is a unanimously reply by the congregation;
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
The average American would be bewildered at this scene what are they saying? What
are they doing? For a select group of individuals, however, these terms and these rituals are an
integral part of their lives. These Muslims understand this specialized lexis of Arabic words used
routinely in their religion and they have habituated themselves with the rituals of athan, namaz
and duua. This is more than a community, this is a discourse community. As John Swales,
professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan and author of Genre Analysis, outlines the
parameters of discourse communities he notes that, it is hard to imagine attending perchance the
convention of some group of which one is an outsider and understanding every word. If it were
to happen [. . .] then that grouping would not yet constitute a discourse community (473).
Within this discourse community there emerges an identity constituted by the
intermingling of religion and nationality. As immigration and emigration have exploded in the
last century, most American-Muslims are put in a unique position: battling for cohesion between
a traditionally non-western religion and the American nationality they are assimilating to as well
as maintaining their original nationality.
Today America is home to one of the most diverse Muslim populations in the world,
including people of almost every ethnicity, country and school of thought, according to a 2009

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Gallup poll. In the United States, Muslims constitute roughly 1% of the population about three
million people (Pew Research Center). Islam is the third largest faith in America, after
Christianity and Judaism. However, a 2014 Pew poll found that Muslims were the most disliked
religious group in the United Sates with an average 40% cold, negative rating -- more than
20% lower on the scale than their Jewish and Christian counterparts. Thus, its easy to see how
this population is affected by the social stigma surrounding it, and such social effects surely have
a role in identity and in relevant discourse communities such as the MSA.
In the mid-90s, a couple of students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
found the need to establish the Muslim Student Association (MSA) to cater towards the Muslim
college population in the midst of such struggles. Early goals for the movement included the
promotion of a self-definition [that] involves initially and fundamentally [an] Islamic identity
of its members (Abdo 197). Thus, the MSA is a group dedicated to Islamic societies on college
campuses in America, involved in providing Muslims the opportunity to practice their religion
and to ease and facilitate activities. The founders of MSA later established the Islamic Society of
North America (ISNA) and Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), groups that are still closely
tied to the MSA today.
The University of Cincinnati has its own branch of the MSA. The UC MSA is a diverse
group on campus, focused on bringing Islam into campus life for its members and other people at
the University of Cincinnati. Officially, in the Constitution and Bylaws, the goal of the UC MSA
is to serve as a safe space for regular and efficient interaction between Muslim college students
and students interested in Islam within the University of Cincinnati, the City of Cincinnati, and
MSA National as a whole (1). Many of the members of the Muslim Student Association range
from international students to graduate students, Arabs to African Americans, all coming together
to learn and promote their one striking similarity Islam. In this religious belief and way of life,

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all of these different people come together to grow and learn. Members also come from many
different paths of life. Some of them have been Muslims from birth, while others have just come
to accept the faith or are renewing their beliefs. Many members thus also range in their
knowledge of Islam, creating a spectrum of expertise throughout the group, as well as range in
their time spent in the MSA. This discourse community at the University of Cincinnati has many
challenges as most discourse communities do. As Elizabeth Wardle an associate professor at
the University of Central Florida described in her article Identity, Authority, and Learning to
Write in New Workplaces, this difficulty divides into two categories. There are challenges with
authority and challenges with identity.
The identities of many discourse communities have been studied, but there is little out
there that talks of Muslim community discourses, which is unfortunate considering the depth
and variety of information to be gained from such a rich context (Omar). In particular there is
even less on the study of MSA groups. Burhanuddin Omar writes an article studying how
organizational identity is largely defined by how members balance the tensions that exist
between the various influences they draw from. The results of balancing tensions shape the
organizational identities of members in the University of Michigan (UM) MSA hes studying.
Yet he does not look at the MSA group separately from other discourse communities. It is worth
seeing if the challenges of identity unique to the UM MSA as a discourse community as found by
Omar rings true for the UC MSA as well.
Its important to understand the identity of the members of the MSA as it varies and
fluctuates for every individual at their time in college. College is, after all, a time in these
individuals lives when they begin to truly and independently explore their identity. It is a time
when they separate from their primary Discourses, in most cases, and begin to establish
secondary Discourses.

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James Gee, the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of WisconsinMadison and author of Sociolonguistics and Literacies, is widely respected by his peers
concerning knowledge on literacy. In his article Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, he
discusses how Discourses are ways of being in the world (484). And he defines primary
Discourses as those that constitute our original and home-based sense of identity (485). For the
Muslims on campus, this primary Discourse becomes a carrier or foundation for Discourses
acquired later in life, such as part of the UC MSA (485).
The UC MSA is an integration of words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social
identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions and clothes (Gee 484). This Discourse
community builds a structure for its members to partake in communicating and interacting.
The American-Muslim members of the UC MSA deal with a complex idea of identity.
The range of lifestyles, values and ideas of these American-Muslims differs so much that it
becomes difficult to tackle the fundamentals of identity to create a cohesive foundation for the
entire group. Its important, though, to keep the core of the group centered on the unifying goals
of the Islamic faith, as deterring from that causes major problems for the discourse community in
its purpose.
The goals of the MSA are centered around the needs of the Muslims on campus. In an
interview, Mariam Siddiqui, former Vice President of the MSA, expresses that the goal of the
MSA is just for the Muslims to have some sort of presence in college campus environment.
There are a lot of different ways and avenues for the students to partake in, and the MSA just
serves to kind of solidify the Muslim American identity and have ways for the Muslims to
balance their spiritual and academic life. Again this idea of the importance of identity is echoed
in the goals of the group. If the UC MSA fails to integrate into the identities of its members, then
it has failed in its goals as well, causing a lapse in the purpose of the group itself. Siddiqui
expresses that the essence of MSA through the larger organization is just to unify the Muslims

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on campus, because everyone is coming from everywhere. Just to have another community for
them to come to. A home away from home.
In such a group where identity takes on a pivotal role in the fundamentals and goals of
the discourse community, establishing that identity is of the highest priority then. Yet, it seems
that challenges exist uniformly throughout the community in establishing such an identity. For,
as previously mentioned, the American-Muslim is a myriad of the different ethnic groups which
vary in their level of religious understanding, personal values and goals and beliefs. It becomes
hard to institute a basis because it seems any foundation laid down gravitates to, and is bias
towards a particular way of practicing Islam. The natural differences of the members, brought
through their primary discourse communities as noted by James Gee crosses over into the
MSA. Gee states that tension or conflict is present between any two of a persons Discourses
and when such tension exists, it can deter acquisition of one or the other or both of the
conflicting Discourses, or, at least, affect the fluency of a mastered Discourse (485). Many
cultures have a unique combination of their traditions and values with those of Islam. Thus, the
way an Arab American-Muslim practices his Islam is different than the way a Pakistani
American-Muslim practices his Islam.
It is thus up to the MSA board to decide the best course of action when integrating
Islamic practices and ideas into the community. This five member leadership group consisting
of the President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Marketing Director, as well as the
Advisors come together in biweekly meetings and through various forms of communication to
tackle the problems and challenges faced in organizing the discourse community, and bringing
together the MSA under a common goal. The board itself is a representative and diverse group,
composed of an African American Muslim, a Saudi Arabian Muslim, an Indian Muslim, a Qatari

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Muslim, a Pakistani Muslim and a Caucasian American Muslim. And as Mariam Siddiqui states,
people saw that the board was unified so there was focus.
Omar also noted this discrepancy between the primary and secondary Discourses as he
states, the nature of membership is problematized as we observe how members walk a tightrope
between multiple influences that are not only diverse but potentially contradictory to one another
and how this is potentially enacted through their religious aspect of the identity (50). Hence this
is not a problem unique to the UC MSA, but a general trend in the Muslim population in
America which is highly diverse in origin. And while the broader Muslim population is still
struggling with melting together these different culture identities, mosques unfortunately and
typically are bias towards one culture, the MSAs around the nation are taking steps forward in
this matter.
The identity of the group through the ages has had major consequences on the presence
of the MSA at the University of Cincinnati. When identity was not firmly established neither was
the MSA, but once the goals and basis of the discourse community surfaced in a cohesive
identity, there was major growth. Mariam Siddiqui explains that the MSA has been a part of
UCs history for a long time, but its been fragmented. So like theres a couple of years where its
really active but then it dies down. Then another couple of years where its active but dies down
as a direct result of the identity or lack thereof of the group. She recounts her part in the
history of the MSA when it first started up, a few years ago, it was actually pretty dead. There
were a few members before but it was mostly a diversity club than anything else and Middle
Eastern oriented. Basically it was a couple of Middle Eastern Muslims just casually hanging out
at coffee shops and things like that. There was no goal per se. The UC MSA was then
revamped, a new charter was created that was more goal oriented and that really brought in the
Muslims on campus to make it larger scale. Mariam and the rest of her board had to oust the

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ways of cultural Islam because it simply wasnt working. In re-focusing the UC MSA towards its
original Islamic roots, the board was able to revive the MSA.
Interestingly, another component colors the cohesion of identity for MSA Muslims. Islam
in American today comes with a social stigma, especially considering this as the post 9/11 era.
Uzma Kolsy, a student report for The Nation newspaper and a UM MSA member, recounts that
in a politically charged era in which Islamophobia is rampant, MSA serves as a tool to educate
other students about what Muslims believe in and how they fit into the broader American
narrative. Indeed Omar also had similar findings as he states, these discourses were drawn
from religious and national/cultural backgrounds in part to fit the "PR" strategy encouraged
among the membership and to balance the tension members face between adhering to religious
identity and satisfying American norms of religious tolerance (50). There is a huge pressure on
the typical American Muslim of today to fit in to the western norm, even if that means
compromising on their religious integrity and faith.
Despite all the differences, however, the UC MSA continues to grow along with all of its
members. The MSA benefits in a way none of the other Muslim communities in America can as
fluently. It has members with open minds, who all share the American Muslim experience, and
who can look beyond their primary Discourse in order to liberate the MSA of the weight of
inflexible close mindedness. As Gee attests, liberating literacies can reconstitute and reinstitute
us (486). Uzma Kolsy firmly believes that her MSA endowed [her] with a sense of community
and family, and shaped [her] into the person [she is] today am empowered Muslim American
who strives to contribute positively to the world around [her] and takes pride in upholding the
tenets of [her] faith, more so than her primary Discourse ever did. After all, primary Discourses
can never really be liberating literacies because they are initial and contain only themselves.

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They can be embedded in latter Discourses and critiqued, but they can never serve as a metalanguage in terms of which a critique of secondary Discourses can be carried out (Gee 487).
The UC MSA and its executive board certainly face challenges of identity within the
discourse community, but despite it all the MSA has still managed to be a place where Muslims
of all different ethnicities and knowledge can come together and seek support and strength from
the group. There is tolerance and acceptance in this Muslim community that comes from its
unique position as a group that assimilates to American culture where tolerance and diversity is
surely to be aspired to.

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Works Cited
Abdo, Geneive. Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America After 9/11. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2006. Print.
Gee, James P. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics. Writing about Writing: A College
Reader. 1st ed. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins,
2011. 482-95. Print.
"How Americans Feel About Religious Groups." Pew Research Centers. Pewforum.org, 16 July
2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
"Islamophobia: Understanding Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the West." Gallup. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
Khakis, Leanne. E-mail interview. 21 November 2014.
Kolsy, Uzma. "The Truth About Muslim Student Associations." The Nation. Student Nation, 14
Mar. 2014. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
Omar, Burhanuddin B. "Discourse, Identity, And Culture In Diverse Organizations: A Study Of
The Muslim Students Association." (n.d.): n. pag. Umt.edu. University of Michigan,
2010. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
Siddiqui, Mariam. Personal Interview. 15 November 2014.
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing about Writing: A College
Reader. 1st ed. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins,
2011. 467-79. Print
Wardle, Elizabeth. Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces. Writing
about Writing: A College Reader. 1st ed. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 521-35. Print.