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To the members of the MSA Board:

Understanding full well the burden of holding authoritative positions in student


organizations, specifically those with as much religious, ethical, and personal
significance as the Muslim Student Association, as well as the challenges faced by a
nascent board that has undergone structural and organizational changes so
recently and so often,

Unable to find sufficient justification to idly sit by and observe the campus wide
ramifications, both on individuals and on the Muslim community at large, of the
current board’s inability and unwillingness to change and/or examine critically the
complete ineffectiveness of this board with respect to positively impacting the
Muslim community at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,

Unable to ignore the lack of confidence of the UWM Muslim Community in the
current MSA board, and their intentional and systematic disenfranchisement,
leaving the standard Muslim student no recourse by which to approach or positively
impact the very organization which claims to represent him/her

Reaffirming our commitment to the wellbeing of the Muslim Community of which we


ourselves are members,

Reaffirming, furthermore, our commitment to the Islamic principles not only of


Imara (Leadership) and Shura (Council) but also of ‘Adl (Justice) and Haqq (Truth),

Reaffirming our desire to re-establish the necessity of a semblance of civility, rule of


law, and formal accountability,

Section 1-Formal Grievances

1a-Disenfranchisement and Open Violation of Constitutional Election Procedure

Noting that the MSA constitution only approves voting membership to those
members who have paid specific dues,

Acknowledging, that neither the current nor any previous MSA board have amended
the constitution in this regard,

Noting furthermore that when asked regarding the aforementioned dues, the MSA
appeared to have no knowledge of said dues, and implied a complete unawareness
of the contents of, and perhaps even the existence and importance of the MSA
constitution

Acknowledging the implication that according to its own constitution, the MSA has
officially zero voting members,

Deeply alarmed by the arbitrary and senseless manner in which voting members
were decided, with the MSA e-mailing such “members” as the board itself saw fit to
exercise the right of vote, with no formal criterion established or agreed upon in lieu
of the constitutional requirements,

Unaware of any official documentation chronicling any past elections, with not even
so much as a list of who voted or participated in the election, with an entire
election, both nomination and voting, performed entirely via open ballot e-mail,

Unaware, also, of any proper person(s) serving on a formal elections committee, nor
of their election to such position, despite the clear constitutional mandate for the
election of such a person,

Condemning the fact that only two positions were voted on in the recent (already
suspect) elections, in clear violation of the constitutional mandate of five elected
officers, the remainder of whom were appointed by executive action with the
defense that no others ran, in spite of the fact that due to the “e-mailed” nature of
the elections, any other nominations could have easily been deleted and thus
suppressed with no evidence or record allowing the board to be held liable

1b-No Confidence in the Board’s Ability to Lead the Organization’s Stated


Community

Deeply alarmed by the organizations steep and dramatic loss of membership over a
very short period of time,

Alarmed furthermore at the sentiments of members of the Muslim student


community who are very passionate about Islam and their community, but feel
entirely disenfranchised and unwilling to invest their time, energies and creativities
in the service of a board which neither respects their democratic opinion nor is
willing to provide the vision, leadership, governance, and wisdom in decision
making required to use such talents efficiently and constructively,

Contesting the MSA board’s claim of legitimacy demonstrated by fifty active


members, and of the existence of any official documentation of such members, a
copy of which was not supplied at request, with the observation that the e-mail list-
server used to reference large membership is filled with contacts of Milwaukee
community members, many of whom have never been students, and many of whom
are no longer part of the community, evidenced by the clear fact that this server
has not been updated since before the previous board,

Noting further that when asked, no active member of the MSA has been willing to
testify to a membership on the order of fifty students,

Concerned by the fact that no general assembly meeting has been called, clearly in
violation of the Constitution’s requirement of a minimum of one general assembly
meeting per annum, with the board making no clear no intention of calling for such
an assembly,
Concerned by the fact that current meetings are held on a “whoever wants to
come” basis, which clearly has no resemblance to a proper general assembly
meeting, which would entail proper advertisement thereof as well as restriction to
members and (most importantly of all) provisions for an unprejudiced,
uncompromised, and unrestricted voice to proper MSA members,

Deeply alarmed by the complete and utter lack of a structured and formal method
of filing complaints or grievances against the board, outside of a face to face,
unnecessarily dramatic, and without exception personally consequential
approaching of a member,

Concerned, furthermore, by the number of former members who have left the
organization after having devoted their time and efforts in attempts to find a
solution to aid the organization, only to have their efforts lead nowhere,

Condemning, strongly, irrefutable reports of members harassing other members in


the MSA office, with the board displaying characteristic lack of leadership in refusing
to revoke the membership of such harasser, nor banning their presence from the
office,

Condemning, furthermore, the unprofessional manner in which, instead, Muslims


(not on the board) are banned from using the office as board members see fit, with
no official rules posted, nor any e-mail addressing such a policy being in effect, with
the board responding when asked regarding such a posting of policy, that it would
simply “see how things turn out”,

Noting, that two social chairs currently exist, whereas the constitution allows for
only one, with, as is expected from the preceding discussion, no record of any vote
or amendment allowing for such a move,

Noting further that no record of attendance is being kept at any meetings,


indicating a lack of transparency, and moreover making impossible the enforcement
of a constitutional mandate to eject all such board members that miss three board
meetings consecutively,

Noting, with due amusement, that the governing document was last updated in
1983, with no plans in the works to update it, and with current policy suggesting
they have entirely ignored its existence as well as its injunctions,

Concerned by the swapping of the holders of the Offices of the President and the
Vice President, with no record of a justification of this, of any voting to approve such
a thing, or even any hint of any consideration taken of members,

1c-Lack of Activism
Condemning the complete and utter dormancy of the MSA, and consequentially the
Muslim Community of UWM at large, except with regards to the few events that
have been cosponsored,

Noting with due diligence the last large organizational event held was Ramadan,
and the seemingly overwhelming accomplishment of providing back to back dinners
for an entire month,

Noting Furthermore, however, the effect that the importance of Ramadan had on
the entire remaining corpus of Muslims both at the University and in the Greater
Milwaukee community at large, leading outside forces to cater and sponsor the
dinners for the students, and as evidenced by the scantily put together organization
of these dinners as compared to years prior, it is no stretch to claim that without the
overwhelming outside support, this event may not have taken place at all,

Noting, that no official schedule of events exits, and efforts to approach board
members regarding such documentation, or any official documentation, is utterly
ineffectual

Noting lastly and most sadly, that future plans are never properly discussed and
subtle mentions of “revival” usually lead to nothing,

Section 2-The Future

With regret, and seeking the permission of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala,

We, the undersigned hereby,

RESOLVE, that it is in the best interest of the Muslim Student Association, and more
importantly, in the best interest of the Muslim community, for the MSA board to call
for re-elections, as it is clear to one and to all impartial observer the impropriety
with which elections have heretofore been handled,

DEMAND, that the MSA board call for such elections immediately, ensuring every
constitutional measure is taken and acted upon seriously, that the elections are
announced immediately, and to ensure fair elections a third party, not involved in
any way with the MSA, be involved, perhaps most appropriately a UWM-SA Justice,

RESOLVE, if the above conditions are not met immediately and adequately, that we
will have no choice but to file an official complaint against the MSA with the student
courts,

REMIND, the members of the MSA the seriousness and graveness of the
circumstances which have compelled us to this course of action, and that any
breaching of this agreement will force us to abandon acting civilly, and proceed with
formal litigation, which would entail attending hearings, requiring testifying and
defense of the above charges, providing evidence, with the possible outcome of the
entire organization being shut down, if the matter is taken to the senate,
URGE, the members of the MSA to settle this matter between us to avoid the
aforementioned ramifications

COMMITT, to what we have stated above, to the best interests of the Muslim
Community, whatever that may entail, and above all else to Allah SWT, and as such
we ask your cooperation in this regard.

The Undersigned,

Signatures on file

By signing this document, you hereby officially agree to carry out elections,
announce them by tomorrow, and announce the selection of an election committee
member,

_____________________________________________

(Ibrahim Yusuf)

_____________________________________________

(Rami Bilebel)

_____________________________________________

(Fatmeh Hamdan)

_____________________________________________

(Uzma Ahmed)

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