Though many Duke students look to the stately grandeur of the Duke Chapel or the sleek design of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life as their designated places of worship, the space allotted to the University's Muslim population is far less visible and a little more subterranean.
Tucked away in the basement of the Bryan Center, Room 0045-labeled the "Muslim Students Association Prayer Room"-is the only stable place of gathering for Muslims on campus.
Equipped with a few prayer rugs, sparsely decorated with framed verses of the Quran on the wall and plagued by a recent ant infestation, the office-sized space is visited throughout the day by Muslim students looking to pray and socialize.
In some ways, the prayer room is similar to the presence of the Muslim population on campus in general-a little more under the radar than other religions and, in the view of many Muslim students, in need of room to grow.
Unlike other religious denominations that have a network of faculty and staff support, the center of Islamic religious life on campus revolves around the activities of the Muslim Students Association, said senior Sayed Zaman, president of the organization.
He said the need for more space is currently one of the group's biggest concerns.
"[The prayer room] is not an ideal location," said Youshaa Patel, a first-year graduate student in religion and a member of MSA. "We kind of feel like we're an ad hoc... an appendage."
Patel said he eventually hopes that someday MSA will be provided with a cultural center comparable to the Freeman Center, in keeping with the University's commitment to diversity,
"Because Muslims are very stigmatized in public discourse, we feel there should be an emphasis in the Duke community on accepting Muslims. [A center for Muslim cultural life] is sort of an embryonic idea," Patel said. "We want to review internally about the feasibility of this project."
MSA currently reserves the Multicultural Center for its Friday congregational prayer and the Women's Center for its weekly meetings.
But even those spaces are becoming overcrowded and inadequate for the 30 to 40 students that come to these weekly MSA events, said sophomore Junaid Raja, Da'wah chair of MSA.
In addition, the organization lacks a full-time paid chaplain, something many of the Christian denominations and the Freeman Center have, said Imam Abdul Waheed, current volunteer leader of MSA.
Waheed, a car salesman by profession, is paid a stipend of $51.40 a month for providing his services. He has been at Duke since 1998.
"Certainly, I'm hoping to be on campus more regularly in the future as a paid member of the staff," Waheed said. "I believe that this is my life's work."
Some Muslim Duke students said they also experienced a few difficulties along the way in adjusting from practicing their faith at home with their families to maintaining their religious traditions in a campus setting.
Freshman Sanaa Nagji was not aware that the Marketplace opened early during the month of Ramadan to accommodate Muslim students who are required to eat at sunrise every day before fasting. She said she improvised and took meals to go from the Marketplace each day so she could eat early the next morning.
"Why didn't they advertise that?" Nagji asked. "That's a really cool idea, so they should do a better job of getting the word out."
Junior Shams Kazmi, treasurer of MSA, wrote in an e-mail that the availability of the prayer room and the dining venues' willingness to open before sunrise during Ramadan are examples of the University's dedication to meeting the needs of its Muslim population.
"The administration-whenever we've brought up an issue-they've been fairly responsive," Zaman said. "Things aren't bad but there's always room for improvement."
Other students said they believe the University does an admirable job overall of catering to Islamic practices. Some also said they found the campus generally open and interested in the Muslim faith and culture.
Kazmi pointed to the success of past MSA-sponsored campus-wide events, such as Campus-Wide Fast, the Abrahamic Faiths Dinner and Islamic Awareness Week.
"On the whole, the campus is very tolerant," Raja said. "In terms of ignorance [about the Muslim culture], if people are ignorant, that's our fault and we try to hold events to educate others."
Junior Nader Mohyuddin, a member of MSA, said, however, that there have been a few instances that have raised concerns about how Muslims are perceived in the Duke community. Specifically, he said he was concerned with the reaction to the Palestinian Solidarity Movement Conference that came to Duke in 2004 and the controversial advertisements for the screening of the documentary "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" by the Duke Conservative Union.
"The Palestinian Solidarity Movement definitely brought up a lot of issues," Mohyuddin said. "And a lot of the flyers for the documentary screening had their own incendiary comments that needed clarification."
MSA members, nevertheless, said they believe the Muslim community is thriving at Duke and their situation can only get better.
"MSA, in conjunction with the Duke administration and other campus groups, is a testament to the recognition and accommodation of Muslim life on campus," Kazmi said. "Muslims on campus are students, athletes, professors, researchers, visiting scholars... basically a microcosm of the greater Duke community."
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