UK Muslim University Students Refuse To Pray In Multi-Faith Prayer Room

One would think that a multi-faith prayer room in a university would be good enough for followers of any and all religions. The idea that people of all faiths would be welcome to worship in one space, is something you would think all human beings would aspire to. The ability to sit side by side, in prayer, coexisting peacefully. But not so.

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City University London built a multi-faith prayer room in December after a racially instigated attack by some local boys against Muslim students in their dedicated Muslim prayer room last November. University officials felt it was best to close the prayer room to avoid any further attacks, and built one where students of all faiths could worship. Well, apparently this was not good enough for some of the Muslim students, and they are now protesting the fact they do not have their own prayer room, claiming they refuse to pray in a multi-faith room. So, instead, they are out on their knees in the street, hallways, library and lecture rooms, all the while balking at the fact the university refuses to cater to their demands.

But the university has its own very valid reasons as to why, other than reasons of safety:

The university says it goes against its philosophy to provide a room for just Islamic students.

"We felt that the provision of a dedicated prayer facility to a sub-section of our Islamic students did not fit with our university's values," said Professor Julius Weinberg, who is the acting vice-chancellor at City University.

"We're a secular organisation. Our university values statement says that we will not discriminate and having a dedicated prayer room actually went fundamentally against the core values of the organisation."

Caving into the demands of one group is discriminatory. If they build a prayer room for the Muslims, then why shouldn't the Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists get one as well. It's a question of logistics and cost. These people need to just grow up and realize to get along with others you can't isolate yourselves and you aren't always going to get what you want, no matter how much you piss and moan.

"Our needs have been taken away," said Saleh Patel, president of one of the Islamic societies at the university.

"Our prayer room has been taken away. We've been forced to pray outside.

"Our sisters have nowhere comfortable to go to. The prayer room used to be a place where they were comfortable and able to take off their veils."

No, they haven't been forced to pray outside, they have a perfectly viable area to pray and it's the multi-faith room, they are making a conscious choice not to avail themselves of it. And if they wanted a special prayer room all for themselves, perhaps they shouldn't have chosen a secular university and applied to some university in Saudi Arabia. I don't even recall having a prayer room in my university.

Thankfully not all are spoiled brats like Patel, and his Islamic society has even admitted that there are Muslim scholars who would disagree.

"There are many Muslim students belonging to another Islamic society who are very happy to use the shared faith facility we've provided and now feel more supported by the university," said Professor Weinberg.

As long as students like Patel continue to think of themselves as separate and privileged and unwilling to coexist with the rest of humanity, we will continue to be wary of them.