Mount Mary University’s Muslimahs unites students of all faiths

Photos courtesy of Mount Mary University

Mount Mary University students Megan Frerichs, Zuhur Hassen and Maryan Abdi enjoy a lively discussion about Catholic and Muslim traditions during the Lent and Ramadan Discussion Series. 

When Mount Mary University’s first Muslim student organization returns to school this fall, it can build on its already strong track record of unifying the entire campus community.

Since MMU’s Muslimahs launched in November 2024, “it built out this wonderful sense of community, not just as Muslim students’ own affinity group, but as part of the broader university,” said Andrea J. Stapleton, MMU’s vice president for mission and justice, in an interview with Wisconsin Muslim Journal last week. “We started having some magnificent celebrations that involved the entire university—staff, faculty, administration and students. It’s really contributed to the interfaith and intercultural aspects of our campus.

“It created a great opportunity to educate people about the Muslim faith and to create a sense of welcome and significance,” she continued. Before the Muslimahs formed at the all-women’s university in Wauwatosa, Muslim students had a “quiet” presence here, Stapleton said. “Now we are seeing how many Muslim students we have and how vibrant they are.”

MMU’s Muslimahs’ formation and unique impact developed when a few key people converged on campus in recent years.

A new student

Khadejah Almaidat graduated from Salam School, an Islamic school in Milwaukee, received a full scholarship to Mount Mary University and began as a freshman there in Fall 2021.

“In high school, I had been surrounded by Muslim friends,” she recalled in an interview over Zoom from Jordan, where she is visiting. During her freshman year, she “wanted to get to know other Muslim girls but didn’t find any,” she said. 

Then “something great happened! They opened a prayer room!” Almaidat was invited to recite a verse from the Qur’an at the ceremony, where she met two other Muslim students.

Although happy to meet other Muslims, the thought of launching a Muslim organization didn’t occur to her. The biology major focused on her studies. In any case, the number Muslim students appear to be too few, she said.

As a sophomore, Almaidat joined MMU’s Student Government Association. “One of the big things we did was to approve other clubs and organizations,” she said. “I realized we had so many clubs and organizations, but none of them were related specifically to Muslims.

“What I like about clubs is that they bring people together. You can bond with people from different backgrounds and ethnicities. But it’s a special bond when you know someone is from the same religion or culture. 

“I wanted that, but that’s not all I wanted. I also wanted this Muslim community to educate non-Muslims in the university about what Islam is, about what being a Muslim woman is.

“I followed MSAs from different colleges on social media. I thought it was nice the way they do a lot of activities. It looked fun. In the back of my head, I hoped we’d reach a point where we could establish an MSA at Mount Mary.”

A new staff member

In August 2023, MMU hired Hadiyyah Clark of Milwaukee as a counselor in undergraduate admissions. 

“I’m a very visible Muslim woman,” Clark told WMJ in an interview last week. Clark wears modest clothing and a hijab covering her hair. “The director of campus ministry approached me and said Muslim students on campus need support and guidance from someone of their religion. I immediately started helping out.”

Whenever Clark saw a Muslim student, she approached her, got her name and contact information, and asked her permission to put them in a WhatsApp group with other Muslim students. “I was starting a community for them,” she said. 

“I believe sisterhood is essential. I wanted the students of the Islamic faith to have a sense of belonging, to know that they matter. Whatever I could do to help them be successful in their faith, their academics, their character development, I was all for it.

“Before the WhatsApp group started, everyone was so separate. Many of Mount Mary’s students commute. They’re on campus for class and then they go home. You may meet someone but you don’t have the opportunity to connect often and build a deep relationship.”

In that environment, Muslim students face challenges, she said. “How do you hold onto your identity? How do you observe your faith?”

Charter members of MMU’s Muslimahs and their first advisor, Hadiyyah Clark (second from left), pose together for a photo at their launch celebration.

Clark applauded Mount Mary’s director of ministry, Theresa Utschig, for consulting with her to ensure that students had everything they needed for worship available to them. She also praised the university for addressing the Muslim students’ needs.

“I helped them renovate the Muslim prayer room to make it more comfortable and inviting. We worked together to get meals for students during Ramadan. The university was getting bidets so students can cleanse themselves properly, which is part of purifying themselves before prayer. 

“In the prayer room, we changed the furniture, added school supplies, and a drawer with extra hijabs and prayer clothes. I worked with the facilities staff to make sure the room is regularly vacuumed and cleaned to be in the best condition for prayer. I added a digital prayer clock that was connected to the local masjid so the adhan is called out when it’s time to pray.”

A new president and vice president, and the director of campus ministry

MMU’s new president Isabelle Cherney, Ph.D., who began her tenure in July 2022, said in a press release, “As I begin my presidency at Mount Mary, … we are poised to weave together our appreciation of diversity, our development of an inclusive community and our deepening of the meaning of social justice, under the umbrella of our mission in even more intentional ways.”

Among her first actions, MMU hired theologian and administrator Andrea Stapleton, Ph.D., in August 2022 for a newly created position—vice president for mission and justice. 

In an interview with WMJ last week, Stapleton noted the importance of the Muslim prayer room, which opened prior to her arrival to campus. “The prayer space is so important for their own prayer and traditions but also so they could find some companionship and community her on our campus with other Muslim students. We are really pleased to see it has gotten a lot of good use.

“Our director of campus ministry and I have wanted to help our Muslim students find community with one another and support them, especially during Ramadan when they are fasting during rigorous times in the academic year. Little by little, we’ve invited the students to get involved with our campus ministry programs, in the life of the university and in some of our interfaith opportunities.

MMU Muslimahs celebrated World Hijab Day in February 2025.

It all comes together

Early in her junior year, Almaidat met Clark in the prayer room for the first time. Almaidat joined Clark’s WhatsApp Muslim student chat group. Every time Almaidat met another Muslim student, she told her about the group chat.

Soon, the WhatsApp chat group grew from five to 18 students, Clark said. “Although we weren’t an officially recognized student organization, from 2023 on, we were very active and engaged. We participated in collaborative events and sat on panels, just so many things.”

With more Muslim involvement on campus, the idea of an official MSA came up, Almaidat said.

During her years at MMU, Almaidat made many Muslim friends. “One is my great friend Zuhur Hassen. She’s the one who helped with the creation of an MSA for Mount Mary. She became the first president.

“We started working on it during my last semester (Fall 2024). I graduated early. From the group chat and from seeing each other in the prayer room, Zuhur, a couple of other girls and I decided to make it happen. It was the work ethic of these girls that made it work.”

The new student organization would need an advisor. Hassen and Almaidat asked Clark. “They could have selected anyone. What an honor for them to choose me,” Clark said.

During her busy last semester, Almaidat added launching an MSA to her pre-graduation goals. “I was in biology honors society and also NSGA. I was finishing my honor requirements and planning for the future. It was a lot. But I knew I wanted to be a part of this. Before I graduated, I wanted to see it happen.”

The small team of young women did the tough work of writing a constitution and bylaws, and jumping through the hoops of the approval process. “It was all-hands-on-deck,” Clark said. Clark had put them in touch with the National Muslim Student Association, where they could receive guidance. 

A month before Almaidat’s graduation, MMU Muslimahs held their launch party. That was November 2024. They began holding biweekly meetings led by the new president, Hassen. 

Their activities included partnering in the interfaith Ramadan and Lent Learning Series, a campus-wide Eid festival for all students that featured local artist and gallery owner Nadia Alkhun, who offered an Arabic calligraphy workshop, a Sisters Iftar during Ramadan, a World Hijab Day Celebration that included talks from local scholars and an end-of-year celebration for seniors.

“These events were campus-wide and for everyone, regardless of your faith,” Clark noted. “MMU Muslimahs put the unity into community!

“We created history,” Clark added. “In the 100-year history of Mount Mary University, we established the first Muslim organization, an organization that will continue to build sisterhood and give the next generation of students a place of purpose and belonging, and the opportunity to learn to be amazing leaders.”

Clark left Mount Mary University in April to become the Muslim Women’s Coalition’s director of strategy and community affairs. In that capacity, she plans to continue consulting with MMU’s director of campus ministry and the Muslimahs. “The beautiful thing about working for the MWC is now I can assist MMU and the organization by leveraging the MWC’s resources and many community connections,” she said.

For its part, MMU looks forward to continuing to develop interfaith understanding through the engagement of its MMU Muslimahs.

At the invitation of the MMU Muslimahs, artist Nadia Alkhun offered a calligraphy workshop at MMU’s EID celebration.

“One of the things that really helped us was winning a grant,” Stapleton said. The grant, from Interfaith America, provides financial support to colleges and universities “to promote religious pluralism and to create welcoming environments for people of diverse religious, secular and spiritual identities. 

“We started with informal, interfaith sharing in discussion groups. When Lent was about to begin for Christians and Ramadan for Muslims, we had a session on feasting and fasting. We got to have fun discussions around some of the rituals and spiritual meanings behind the faith traditions. And the interfaith discussions around what it means to be women of different faith traditions was really interesting.

“You’d be surprised at how many staff and faculty come to these events and learn about what some of these traditions mean. They’ve really been educational for a lot of people.

“If I can emphasize anything, it’s just how joyful it is,” Stapleton added. “It has brought a new dimension of interculturality and spiritual connection on our campus that is hard to describe. Having those relationships with people in different faiths and seeing how really beautiful and enriching this multi-faith and multicultural environment is, is truly joyful and unifying.”

Almaidat, who begins working towards her doctor of pharmacy degree at Milwaukee Medical College in July, feels “very proud” for her role in launching the Muslimahs. “It didn’t just start with dedication; it is continuing. When I see the work they continue doing, I am absolutely proud.”