MIST Nationals Take Place in New Jersey

by Zain Ahmed

Returning after being online due to COVID-19, MIST (Muslim Interscholastic Tournament) held a Nationals Tournament at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey July 29 to July 31. MIST is a Muslim non-profit organization that works to educate and bring together Muslim youth around the world. The organization does by holding a variety of competitions. The top three finalists for each competition in many regions, including New Jersey; New York, Detroit, Washington D.C.,Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville, and Columbus, came together to compete in the tournament to decide who is truly the best of the best nationally. 

According to the organization’s website, MIST has a vision to inspire high school students to collaborate, compete, develop creative skills, and learn from professionals while educating them about Islam. Per its website,  MIST values include community, knowledge, excellence, fun, and integrity This is all influenced by the competitions and events that happen during the weekend. 

Competitions held by MIST are split into several categories, including knowledge and Quran, Writing and Oratory (consisting of Extemporaneous Speaking, Original Oratory, Spoken Word, and Creative Writing), Brackets (which includes Math Olympics, Debate, Mist Bowl, and Brothers and Sisters Improv) Group Projects (which includes sub categories of Business Venture, Humanitarian Service, Science Fair, Short Film, and Brothers and Sisters Nasheed/Rap), and lastly Sports. For Nationals this year, the sports category only included Basketball. Awards were also given to the top overall regions, as well as the top overall individuals as stated on the MIST website.

Every year, MIST has a theme in which they integrate through their competitions and events. This year, the theme was “The Conviction In Courage: Finding the Balance Between Fear and Risk”.When people think of courage, they look at the physical and moral aspect of it, by imagining a fearless person having to make a tough decision.  MIST focused on the saying of Prophet Muhammad PBUH on how a person can stay strong and display courage time and time again. This topic was stressed throughout the weekend, and explored by many competitors throughout their time at MIST Nationals. 

Overall, MIST Nationals 2022 was a successful tournament, and has been a great experience for high school students throughout the nation to develop skills, meet new people, gain confidence, and have fun. This was also a great opportunity to bring the Muslim community from all over America and Canada and unite and get closer to each other, as well as their deen.