The Muslim Student Organization held its welcome dinner Thursday to get to know new members and discuss upcoming events.
Casablanca, a Mediterranean restaurant in downtown Columbia, catered the free dinner.
The organization had 50 members last year and is growing steadily.
“We’ll hopefully grow even more this year,” MSO President Fareeha Amir said.
Annual events, including Islam Awareness Week and the MSO conference, will continue and feature new speakers yet to be determined by the group. Past speakers include a professor from Georgetown University and a chaplain from Northwestern University. The conference is typically held in April, and Islam Awareness Week is held in late October.
“There will be a bunch of different events to get the campus involved, because that’s what (Islam Awareness Week) is for, for the campus,” Amir said.
Along with utilizing its social media pages on Facebook and Twitter, MSO’s events will also be posted on stufftodo.missouri.edu.
“I plan to put up fliers and send out press releases to get the word out,” MSO spokeswoman Farah El-Jayyousi said.
Next Thursday is the first general body meeting, where members will be voting next on who will fill the the open position of vice president. General body meetings are held the first Thursday of every month.
“We will see what everyone else wants for this year and have Islamic discussions (halaqah) about different issues such as gender relations and how men and women interact,” Amir said.
One person will typically lead halaqah, which are often very spiritual and provide a time for people to talk about practicing Islam in college and what obstacles they have. Discussions are held either monthly or biweekly.
“We talk about what we can do to help each other and what little things we can do in our daily lives to be better Muslims,” Amir said.
The general body meetings will also sometimes feature guest speakers including the Missouri Students Association president and representatives from the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative, RSVP Center, STRIPES and other organizations on campus.
“Anyone is encouraged to attend MSO meetings,” Amir said. “We try to get people more involved that aren’t necessarily Muslim.”
Though anyone is encouraged to attend meetings, only due paying members can vote.
One of the main goals of MSO this year is to increase its membership and get more people involved in its events by getting input from people on campus about what they want to see. Increasing campus involvement in its events will be a focus, Amir said.