Prayer Room Not a Threat to AUIS Secularism

The students seem to be very happy to attend classes at AUIS Campus as it houses comfortable conference rooms, lecture halls, computer labs, and classrooms. However, the campus lacks one of the most important places for many students: a prayer room. AUIS does not provide space for the daily prayers Muslim students must make-as other universities around the world do.

Many students and faculty staff members are forced to find temporarily empty classrooms to perform their prayers. It is difficult for the students to find a place without having to stare up and be looked down upon by across of other students when they pray. So, it should never be a problem a place on the campus for the university to set aside a small room where Muslim students and faculty staff members can pray without facing such problems. Since there is not a convenient mosque near campus where the students can go and pray, it is perfectly reasonable for the students to have a place on campus where they will be able to pray.

I understand that the new campus is designed around a long-term plan and there may be a plan to open a prayer room later. However, providing a prayer room is a must along with the other services today. The students have a very diverse schedule. Many of them should stay at the school from earliest morning until late evening; thus, there is no chance for them to perform their daily prayers without a prayer room.

Some people might oppose this idea by saying that AUIS is a secular institution, so it is not appropriate to have a prayer place on campus. But this is a very weak argument. Secularism, at least in the American sense of the world, does not mean the complete absence from religion from daily life, it means the freedom of individuals to practice religion as they please. This is the simplest right of every human being. So, in the spirit of the United States, if there are people who want a place of worship, regardless of their religious identity, they should have the freedom to establish one. In short, having a prayer room on campus would not mean that AUIS was no longer a secular institution.

The decision to not include a prayer room has not been made just by American administrators, it has also been supported by AUIS’s Iraqi leadership. Indeed, it is worth mentioning that the AUIS Board of Trustees consists of both American and Iraqis, so it is not only American’s decision to keep AUIS as much secular as possible.

I had an internship at Georgetown University in the summer 2011. Guess what? The Muslim Prayer Room in the basement of Georgetown’s Copley Hall was the first place where my mentors showed me. Georgetown is an openly Catholic university; yet, there is a prayer room there but here. All I want to ask on behalf of many students is a room like a class or an office- where students can do their prayers.

Note: This is my second editorial on the second issue of the AUIS Voice Newspaper of this year. This piece has also been published on the AUISVoice website.