Salah, known as the act of prayer, is essential within the Islamic religion, and not having a prayer room on campus has became an issue for many Muslim students.
Muslims need to pray five times a day, and they have to wash their hands, face and feet before they pray.
The Islamic Center of Muncie and the Muslim Student Association proposed the idea of building a prayer room to Ball State's administration a couple of years ago, but students are still waiting for action to be taken.
“I was a part of those who questioned the administration to give us a prayer room,” said Muhammad Maqbool, an associate professor of physics and current president of the Islamic Center of Muncie. “In the response, they said we can go anywhere to pray, like the library, but they did not give us a real solution.”
Maqbool said the administration told him they could not fund the prayer room, but gave no reason as to why.
However, Joan Todd, university spokesperson, said if a request were to be made, the administration would take action.
“If the university receives a specific request, they will review the request and make a decision based on what is specifically requested,” Todd said.
As a substitution to the prayer room, Todd said the university does provide space for students and staff to reserve during business hours in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
The Student Center offers rooms for anyone to host events and meetings for free. Students would need to fill out an online request form on the Student Center’s website or a paper form provided by the Center at least 24 hours in advance, or by noon Thursday for weekend events.
While this is an option, Maqbool said there are other campuses in Indiana that provide prayer rooms to students, like Purdue University and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.
The Islamic Society of Greater Lafayette is located in the heart of Purdue's campus, and it hosts five daily prayers for students and community members. While Purdue’s Muslim Student Association does work alongside the Islamic Society, the school itself does not have any involvement, according to Islamic Society of Greater Lafayette.
Similar to Lafayette’s, the Islamic Center of Muncie does provide a prayer room for the Muncie community, but the issue for students at Ball State is the distance from campus.
“We don’t have a place to go within walking distance,” said Danah Alqunfuzi, treasurer of the International Ambassador’s Association and a Muslim student. “We have to find somewhere else to go five times a day, and it’s really an inconvenience.”
Although the library provides a space for prayer, Alqunfuzi said having the right atmosphere for prayer is important.
“Within the room, there can not be a lot of noise and it must be quiet so prayer is taken seriously,” Alqunfuzi said. “There is also a process before prayer where we have to clean and wash our hands, face and feet, and doing that in any bathroom just is not pure.”
Muslim students like junior public relations major Abdullah Alghamdi have tried praying in the library, but he said it can sometimes be uncomfortable and is not personal.
“When I go to pray downstairs in the library, it is hard to focus when there are people around me because I feel judged,” Alghamdi said. “The problem is, [Muslim students] don’t want to stick out and make others feel uncomfortable, but we do want to have prayer done the right way, and I feel like if we have an actual room, people would be more open to it.”
Maqbool said he plans to try to ask the Muslim Student Association to promote the prayer room to the administration again in hopes of action being taken.
“We [Muslims] are happy with the Muncie community and haven’t had any major issues,” Maqbool said. “But it’s important to remember that Ball State is a part of the community, and they should consider Muslim students to be a part of the bigger community and provide them with an equal opportunity to express their religion.”
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