Forced to pray in the cold
A conflict between the University of NSW and its vast Muslim student body has reached boiling point.
The last straw came earlier this year when the administration re-allocated the Islamic Society’s Friday prayer – or Jumuah – space to COFA, as the Oxford Street campus is currently undergoing renovation.
Faced with no viable alternative, the Islamic Society chose to move their prayers onto the university lawns, in protest of the changes.
The prayers last for one hour and are compulsory for men. Attendance often reaches above 600 making alternative venues proposed by the university – such as the Sam Cracknall Pavilion with its capacity for 120 people – not a safe option.
Despite several meetings and the Islamic Council of NSW’s involvement, a long-term solution is yet to be found.
Islamic Society member Umair Ghor said: “We are not asking the university to move mountains; we just want one hour a week in a safe, respectable and adequate venue.”
The university has offered a larger venue for five weeks and bookings for the gym area in 2011. These have been criticised as “disingenuous, band-aid solutions” by some members of the Islamic Society who say that with winter fast approaching Muslims praying on Fridays could find themselves in the cold when no venue is available.
Judy Brookman of the Universities Administration said the university had been trying to find an acceptable solution for some time.
“But space on the campus is limited, particularly flat floor space and there are many competing demands,” she said.
In recent years a combination of increased Government reliance on international students to subsidise domestic education and the UNSW’s aggressive overseas advertising campaign – particularly in Islamic countries – has led to a rise in the number of Muslim students enrolled at the university. As these numbers continue to grow, so will the demand for a larger prayer venue.
One possible solution, considered for several years now, is the construction of ‘Madinah College’, a Muslim residency building similar to the Anglican and Jewish colleges already on campus. The building would include student housing and a dining hall that could act as a prayer space on Fridays. But the project looks far from becoming a reality any time soon.
Asked how much longer he would continue to pray on the lawns, Elias Attia, head of the Islamic Society, told City Hub: ‘We will be praying for as long as the Sam Cracknall Pavilion remains as the only solution the university is putting forward.”
– By Kieran Adair
