Post 39—Public Space for Prayer

            

I want to comment on an article in Mclean about dedicating space for religious practices at McGill University (Feb. 23, 2015, p. 42).  There are two issues in that article that I wish to address, one in this post and the other in post 41. (I interrupt the flow of these posts with a celebration in the 40^th.) 

First, then, there is the problem medical student Ahmer Wali has, namely the lack of suitable space for Muslim prayer on the campus. There is a small room dedicated to Muslim prayer sessions, but it is makeshift and too small, so that there is a long lineup of students waiting to get in. This would make him late for his next class.  So, he occasionally finds a quite spot in the library and politely asks the students to leave the area for him to pray. Most of them are accommodating. Some will pray “under staircases, in storage rooms and in empty classrooms.” In his capacity as President of the Muslim Student Association on the campus, Ahmer is fighting the administration for dedicated space. 

I quite understand the need for dedicated space for the long haul. It makes for more orderly prayer sessions and, hopefully, would accommodate all the religious groups on the campus, though the article is not clear whether Ahmer is struggling just on behalf of the Muslims or on behalf of all the religious groups. I also understand that the struggle for dedicated space is part of the ongoing struggle for religious freedom as Muslims perceive it. Even if Ahmer and his followers do not in principle need such a facility, they would probably fight for it in their attempt to expand their religious / human rights.

What is not clear to me is why these students endure these long lineups or the other cramped quarters like spaces under staircases or why they need to ask other students to interrupt their reading sessions in the library. While they continue to struggle for suitable arrangements, why not turn the entire campus into a mosque?  I have lived for 30 years in a country that currently has some 80 million plus Muslims and I have written eight volumes on Christian-Muslim relations. That’s another way of saying I know something about Islam, more so than most Westerners or Christians.

The relevant Muslim fact that I wish to single out here is that Islam does not require special dedicated spaces for prayer. The whole world can be turned into a mosque. At prayer time, a Muslim can simply stop whatever he is doing, spread out his prayer mat and go to it—anywhere, in any public or private space, in the market, along the road or street.  So, my advice to Ahmer is to simply spread out his mat wherever he finds himself at prayer time and pray. 

That advice may sound preposterous and even offensive to secular Westerners, while shy Christians would cringe with fear and embarrassment. Few Christians would have the courage for such public display of spirituality, but, generally, Muslims are not that shy. They are proud of their religion and tend to do all they can to display and demonstrate it. I have seen them pray under every imaginable circumstance on the edge of the most crowded conditions. So, Ahmer, why do you make it so difficult for yourself and your followers? While other students are strolling into the classroom, just kneel on your mat in the corner and pray. You’re waiting in a lineup for a bus? Just move aside and pray. Islam makes it so easy. 

Or could it be that the paralyzing influence of secularism is also taking its toll among Muslims as it has among Christians?  Is that why Muslim students seek to find private places where others don’t see them?  I wonder….

I am a Christian missionary and offer you a professional insight. Though many in this secular country would be offended by and scoff at such public displays of religion, there would be quite a number who will be impressed and who will start wondering and asking questions. That would provide an opening for you, an opening that will not develop if you hide yourself.

Why do I as a Christian missionary offer this advice? Because in a secular society like ours, if one religion is suppressed, others will suffer along with it. We do not need to trivialize our differences, but we do need to stand together in the face of our common opponent. A defeat for one religion along these lines is a defeat for all religions.

 
Ahmer, if you come across this article, feel free to contact me at www.SocialTheology.com. I will try my hardest to get it to you.