“Then I [shaytan] will come to them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left, and You will not find most of them grateful [to You].” [Quran 7: 16-17]

We begin in the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the One Who Bestows His Mercy

An Open Letter to University students & staff by the Muslims of City University

Following the Acting Vice Chancellor’s email sent to university staff and students regarding the congregation of Muslims in the vicinity of Northampton Square on Friday 19th February 2010, the Muslim students of City University feel some points of clarification are necessary in order to portray a more balanced view of the situation.

Firstly, we wish to profess our immense gratitude to the university for their genuine concern in meeting the needs of a vast number of university students and staff. We appreciate that this is highly time consuming, given the internal and external pressures they must be under on a day-to-day basis. We appreciate that they have allotted much time to discuss this issue with us, and we anticipate that an amiable solution will soon be found.

Please rest assured that what ensued on Friday was by no means a demonstration, as it was referred to by the Acting Vice Chancellor, Julius Wienberg. Rather, it is an obligation upon every Muslim male to attend the Friday prayer [Jumu’ah]; whilst the sermon beforehand and a congregational gathering are conditions necessary to validate the Friday prayer. So in light of this, it should be understood that the speech, gathering and prayer were all performed as an obligatory religious duty, one that has been fulfilled at the university for many years. The only difference on this occasion was that usually, the Jumu’ah Prayer is held in the prayer room of the Gloucester Building, but unfortunately, that was not possible on this occasion as the university had decided to lock these rooms, consequently leaving the Muslim students and staff with no sufficient place to perform their obligatory prayers. It is worth mentioning here that we have never had, nor would we ever have, any qualms with people of other persuasions coming to listen to the sermon. In fact, we would encourage it.

Following the incidents last November, where Muslims students were attacked, the university and Islamic Society worked together to reach an appropriate solution to avoid such events from befalling again. The University reassured the Muslims that they were committed to establishing an adequate prayer room for Muslims in the long term, but that for the foreseeable future they would look to move us temporarily to a more central location, with adequate facilities. A proposal was made and agreed to. However, subsequent changes made by the university to the initial plan resulted in a meeting between ourselves and the university on the 17^th of December 2009, where, on behalf of the Muslims, we informed the university that the latest alterations – which included the size of the rooms drastically decreasing, limited accessibility, and rooms now becoming ‘multi-faith’ – would be wholly inadequate for the Muslim population at the university. This is because a vast number of Muslim scholars throughout history believe it is impermissible for Muslims to offer prayers in a place where other than our Lord, Allah, is worshipped. Aside from the religious perspective, even logistically we believe it is impossible for us to have limited access to a prayer facility when we observe a minimum of three, out of five, prayers throughout the day at university, each within its prescribed time. We clearly informed the university that the latest adaptation, would not be adequate and that the Muslim students and staff would not be able to use such facilities for the various reasons mentioned above.

Despite this, the University proceeded with its plan, knowing that we would not be using the alternative rooms. The Acting Vice-Chancellor mentioned that they have provided rooms to be used by all the faith communities for prayer and reflection, with changing facilities adapted for Wudu (Islamic Ablution) in the “heart of the University”. If the location of these rooms on the lower levels of the Drysdale building, is in the heart of the University, then truly our University is in a sorry state. It is our sincere belief that the University would be embarrassed to show the area to prospective students, yet sending hundreds of current students there is being made to sound like an act of goodwill. In addition, many of the faith societies oppose the nature of these rooms, and foresee many difficulties in the practicality of the University’s suggestions.

Furthermore, the Director of Services for Students, John Tibble, outlined in his interview with the press on Friday the 19^th of February, that the new multi-faith facilities only accommodate a maximum of 40 students per room at any one time. As mentioned earlier, the sermon and gathering are both prerequisites of the obligatory Friday prayer, so it needs to be asked, how many sets of sermons and prayers will be conducted for each set of 80 people? As was made evident in Northampton Square on Friday, the number of males that attend the Jumu’ah prayer easily surpasses 200, on average. So that would have to be a minimum of 3 lots of sermon-and-prayer in these new facilities. This, in addition to the fact that the time for the Friday prayer is limited, so it would be impossible to have 3 satisfactory sermons and prayers within the space of approximately 2 hours. Also what about the daily congregational prayers throughout the week which normally consist of 45-60 people? It could be said that the remainder of students exceeding the initial 40 can go to easily commutable mosques, the nearest being East London Mosque which is 39 minutes away via bus. Furthermore, the changing facilities provided have had no modifications that would be of benefit to the performance of ablution. In fact the modifications are a health risk to students and staff members should they use them. These are only some of the many problems with the provisions provided.

The Acting Vice-Chancellor mentioned that the University had consulted with Muslim scholars, however at a meeting held between Muslim students and University officials, the University revealed that the scholars consulted were from East London Mosque, Whitechapel. When asked to provide a name(s), the University officials informed us that they would get back to us. Since then several meetings have taken place between Muslim students and University officials, and upon questioning the name(s) of these Muslim scholars, University officials still fail to provide any. Therefore the Muslim students of City University spoke with the management of East London Mosque and asked whether City University had been in contact with any of their scholars, and the management categorically denied the claim of the University and stated that they are willing to issue a written statement in support of this.

The University has claimed that “many” of the Muslim students are using the new facilities, however in reality, the vast majority of the Muslim students and staff members are not using the refurbished squash courts, as the Jumu’ah prayer on Friday and the daily prayers held all over the University campus demonstrate. With regards to safety, we are sure that the Muslims of City University feel safer praying in the Gloucester Building rather than on the street and if the university feels that the building is unsafe for students, then what about the hundreds of Muslim and non-Muslim students who have lessons in the same building until 5:50pm every day. Surely if the building is unsafe for Muslim students to pray in, then it must be unsafe for all students to study in.

We are fully in support of the University’s ambition of bringing people together and are actively pursuing this alongside the Students Union; however the use of a multi-faith room will not accomplish this. The target of improving relations in our diverse community will not be accomplished by driving a vast section of students and staff away from comfortably practicing and integrating their faith at University, as they have done for many years. Though we fully understand and appreciate the endeavour of the University in wanting to bring together people from all walks of life and thereby increasing social cohesion, the reality is, these recent changes will do nothing more than have a counter-productive effect. As it stands, we would like to think that there is an amicable rapport between all faiths and societies at the university. But, if circumstances arise – which they inevitably will – that each society has to restrict it’s time in the multi-faith rooms to accommodate other societies at the detriment of their beliefs and practices, naturally, there will be a breakdown of good-relations between the very people that the university seeks to socially cohere.

As Muslim students at the university, we seek to maintain a good relationship with all our colleagues, as we have done so thus far, without bringing detriment to our religious beliefs and academic performance. In offering prayers in the Gloucester Building, we have been successful in this endeavour for many years. And in essence, the university has also been free of any difficulties from students in accommodating the observance of the Friday prayer. But as last Friday demonstrated the lack of accommodation from the university – though well intended – has only served to diminish what was, and can, once again be, a thriving atmosphere for all staff and students at City University.

We take this opportunity to sincerely apologise to fellow students and staff inconvenienced by our performance of the prayer outdoors last Friday. In keeping with our faith’s teaching of good manners and etiquette, we attempted to make room for people to pass by with ease, but the sheer volume of Muslims needing to pray rendered this near-impossible. We apologise once more for any hassle and ask that you understand, it is never our intention to cause disruption. But, as Muslims we regard our faith and the performance of religious duties as more important to us than anything, and since the facility enabling us to do so has been locked, we are forced to move to the only space large enough and accessible enough to accommodate the Muslim students and staff.

In closing, we would like to reiterate that the Jumu’ah prayer held on Friday was not a demonstration, but rather it was the Muslins of City University fulfilling an obligatory requirement of their religion. We would like to restate our request to the university to have the Gloucester Building Prayer rooms made available to us once more – at least until an adequate separate facility, catering to the needs of hundreds of Muslims students and staff can be found.

For more information or any queries you may have, please visit: citymuslims.co.uk

Kind Regards,

Muslims of City University