Our Mission & Vision

MIST inspires high school students to collaborate and compete, develop creative skills, and learn from professionals, while educating them about Islam and Muslims.

We envision a vibrant community of creativity, knowledge, and mutual respect.

Our Values

  • Community: we foster sisterhood and brotherhood; we network and organize a meeting of the minds; we bridge various differences that may otherwise divide us.

  • Knowledge: we encourage everyone to educate themselves in the arts, sciences, humanities, and religion; we share talents and interests with each other.

  • Excellence: we work hard and do more than what is required of us; we help each other problem solve, express ourselves, and reach for the stars with confidence.

  • Fun: we enjoy what we do and look forward to the MIST part of our day.

  • Integrity: we are inspired by Islamic traditions of respect, fairness, dignity, and honesty.

 

Our Programming

We offer tournaments for high school students in the United States and Canada to encourage self discovery, knowledge related to Islam and/or Muslims, creativity, communication skills, critical thinking and problem solving, and interpersonal skills.

We are open to individuals of any religion, race, color, gender, sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, and socio-economic background.

MIST exposes participants to aspects of Muslim customs and practices, but does not enforce religious adherence. We encourage attitudes of respect in relation to religious or philosophical disagreement.

Our Organization

MIST is a registered educational non-profit organization (IRS EIN 27-141933, MI LARA ID 800923854, Canadian Corporation #1115801-5). We were founded in 2002 by Shazia Siddiqi, now our Founding Trustee Emeritus. After organizing our first regional tournament in Houston, MIST quickly spread in the next few years to Washington, DC, Atlanta, and Boston. The first national theme was established in 2004, and the first annual Nationals tournament was held in 2006. In 2008, MIST moved beyond the South and East Coast by opening regions in Toronto and Detroit. By 2009, we had established seven regions. In 2010, MIST started its first West Coast region in Irvine, California and a National Directors Committee was formally created. By 2019, MIST had fifteen regions and had held its Nationals tournament in seven different cities. In 2020, MIST adopted a new governance structure and established a Board of Trustees.