The Student Government Association (SGA) passed legislation to create a worship room specifically for Muslim students and is planning to meet with school administrators to discuss possible locations.
According to surveys conducted by SGA, 330 students, 60 percent of whom identified as non-Muslim, signed a petition in favor of the creation of a prayer room specifically for students of the Islamic faith.
Mohammad Farraj, senior biology major, minority senator for SGA and co-sponsor of the legislation, said that he and other Muslim students often pray outside the library, in the corners of the library, and in the grass outside of the UC. According to Farraj, a prayer room for Muslim students would be an attraction for the large Muslim population in South Florida.
“NSU claims diversity, and we push to give a life to students that comforts students of all colors, all ethnicities and all religions,” he said. “So if we push for all that, advocating for a prayer room will have zero negative impact on the school. It could only help.”
Ujala Ahmed, senior finance major and treasurer for SGA, wrote a similar prayer room resolution during the 2014-2015 school year. Ahmed said that she originally decided to write the legislation because she has a Muslim background and received requests from other Muslim students. According to Ahmed, there was a lot of support for a Muslim-specific prayer room in 2014-2015, but a room wasn’t designated because there wasn’t enough persistence from the students.
“Because we’re trying to be very efficient with how we use our spaces, higher administration needs to see that there’s a big push for things,” Ahmed said. “I think this second push is what’s really going to help them see that this is necessary.”
Ahmed said that prayer for Muslims is very intimate and that they need to be removed from all distractions in a clean space.
Sahar El-Talla, first year optometry student and Muslim who signed the petition, said that it’s mandatory that Muslims pray five times a day.
“This [prayer room] is not something that’s not going to be useful,” El-Talla said. “[Prayer] isn’t something that we only do if we want to. It’s something that’s mandatory. So, no matter what we’re doing, even if we’re at school, we have to stop what we’re doing for a certain time and have to go pray.”
El-Talla said that the University of Miami, Broward College and Florida International University all have prayer rooms.
Jonatan Salazar, senior marketing major, Inter Organizational Council senator for SGA, co-sponsor of the prayer room legislation and non-Muslim student, said that last year he would see Muslim students praying outside and in the hallways in the Carl DeSantis building.
“It’s almost like you’re starving a culture,” he said. “There’s churches around that you can go to that are right down the street if you’re a Christian and you want to go pray, but especially in the difficult times we’re in now where there’s a lot of division amongst different groups, it’s important that we come together to support every religion in practicing its faith.”
Salazar said many Muslims he’s spoken with have expressed that they need a prayer room and that many prayer rooms open to all religions don’t meet requirements for the Muslim faith.
Farraj said now that the legislation has passed, the creation of the room isn’t up to students.
“The choice for this will be made by the higher-ups,” he said. “I’m at NSU more than I am at my own home, and as comfortable as I am here, student life and my personal experience here can be enhanced by this prayer room, because I’m one of the ones that leaves every day to go pray.”
