{"id":2172,"date":"2015-06-28T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-06-28T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/?p=2172"},"modified":"2015-06-28T10:00:01","modified_gmt":"2015-06-28T08:00:01","slug":"muslim-students-struggle-for-prayer-room-in-belfast-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/?p=2172","title":{"rendered":"Muslim Students struggle for ‘Prayer Room’ in Belfast University"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mandatory<\/a>

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theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n

Muslim students at a Northern Ireland university have to pray in corridors, classrooms and forgotten corners of the campus because the college will not provide a dedicated space for prayer.<\/p>\n

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Students at Queen\u2019s University Belfast are campaigning for the university to set aside a private area where they can pray \u2013 a move that would end constant struggles to find privacy while on campus.<\/p>\n

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Speaking on the BBC Radio Ulster Talkback programme, Ahmed Amer<\/em> from the QUB Muslim society stressed that most other universities in England and in the Republic of Ireland have dedicated rooms for prayer \u2013 as does the University of Ulster.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHaving a prayer room on campus is just a sign that the university is accommodating the needs of its students,<\/em>\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Describing how he had dealt with the lack of private prayer space in his own student days he said: \u201cI used to walk to the mosque most of the time. Sometimes I used to pray in a corridor. But I was lucky because I studied close to a hospital which had a quiet room so I would make use of the quiet room in the hospital.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nadira Nazir, <\/em><\/strong>a Queen\u2019s student from Malaysia, said the situation was particularly difficult for women: \u201cSometimes you get students already coming into the class and they see us praying. I am glad for their understanding as they have to wait for us to finish [before] they start their lecture, because we are literally using their class.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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The campaign for dedicated prayer space is being backed by the Right Rev D\u00f3nal McKeown, the bishop of Derry.<\/p>\n

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However, Bob McCartney \u2013 former leader of the UK Unionist party \u2013 opposed the move: \u201cThe Muslim religion has this very strict requirement of a number of set prayers during the day which have to be carried out at times that are not always appropriate.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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Adding that the university had a strict non-denominational policy, he said: \u201cThis is in no way about the right of Muslims to exercise their right to prayer.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is about the university\u2019s responsibility to provide the facilities to exercise such a right and who is to pay for such facilities?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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In a statement, the university said: \u201cA key priority in the Vision 2020 strategy for Queen\u2019s University Belfast is to increase the number of international students studying at the university.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAccordingly, the university is currently reviewing all amenities in the context of its charter and statutes to ensure that staff and students from all backgrounds have access to appropriate facilities.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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It said a \u201cquiet room<\/em>\u201d has been created at the Queen\u2019s Elms halls of residence which is about a ten minute walk from the main university building in south Belfast.<\/p>\n

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According to the BBC there are currently about 1,200 international students from more than 80 countries studying at the university, with at least 400 thought to be from the Islamic faith.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

theguardian Muslim students at a Northern Ireland university have to pray in corridors, classrooms and forgotten corners of the campus because the college will not provide a dedicated space for prayer. Students at Queen\u2019s...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,7],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-2172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","category-about-islam","category-news","tag-muslim-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2174,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions\/2174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}