Chapel Hill Shooting inspires donations to UNC MSA for a new space

The UNC Muslim Student Association wants to find a larger space to be able to hold group functions and connect to the community.

On Tuesday, UNC Student Congress agreed to make an exception to Title V of the UNC Student Code, allowing the UNC MSA to open an external bank account.

An external bank account would allow UNC MSA to raise money for a new student center and receive funding for events to bring the community together. It also would give donors a more efficient way to contribute to their organization.

“We’re one of the largest organizations on campus in terms of numbers, and every other religious organization either has a center or a local place of worship nearby,” Ayoub Ouederni, president of UNC MSA, said. “We don’t have one so that’s something we wanted to change.”

While UNC MSA hosts many events throughout the academic year, the only meeting place on or near campus for students is in a designated prayer room in the Carolina Union. Ouederni said the idea for the Muslim Student Center came from this lack of space.

“We ran into a lot of problems because the communities we were fundraising in did not have much English expertise,” Youssef Zarrouk, outreach co-chairperson of UNC MSA, said.

“They were all local communities in the area and so we wanted them to have easy access. We want our fundraising to be as successful as possible.”

Many other religious groups at UNC have separate spaces for gathering and group events, but UNC MSA just has their prayer room, which they do call home.

Ouederni said the Muslim Student Center does not have a set location as of now, but UNC MSA is making plans with the administration.

Omar Laaroussi, treasurer of UNC MSA, said the expected cost of the center is $500,000, which will come specifically from donors.

Zarrouk said they are hopeful they will collect the amount needed by the end of the academic school year so the center can be built as soon as possible.

Laaroussi said donors were specifically eager to give to UNC MSA after the three Muslim students were killed in Chapel Hill in February 2015.

Deah Barakat was a second-year dentistry student in the UNC School of Dentistry. His wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha was planning to begin her dental studies at UNC in the fall, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha was a student at N.C. State University.

“After the shooting in February 2015, a lot of different people came and visited us on campus and there was no geographic location where we could (meet),” Zarrok said.

Laaroussi said their organization received many donations during the summer as they traveled along the east coast and spoke to people about the incident.

Many people were familiar with what occurred and extended their desire to see a place for UNC MSA to meet and extend themselves to the community.

Laaroussi said that is exactly what they wanted to achieve.

“We want the center to be a place where people can interact with the rest of the Carolina community,” he said.

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