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Britain
Muslim students call for segregated campus prayer rooms
2004-06-18
Muslim students are to launch a campaign to get all universities to provide proper prayer facilities. The campaign will be consolidated at the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (Fosis) conference in Nottingham this weekend following calls from Muslim students at universities and colleges around the country to get proper facilities installed. Muslims are required to pray five times a day. During the winter most would expect to pray twice during a working day and once during the summer. Fosis is calling for universities to provide proper facilities, including washrooms and a room divider to separate the men from the women.
"How'm I supposed to say my prayers with her butt in my face?"
Aisha Janjua, general secretary of Fosis, an umbrella organisation representing around 70,000 Muslim students in Islamic societies at campuses around the country, said: "One of the things that needs to be done is the research on how many universities have prayer rooms and how appropriate they are for people. Once that’s done we can work with universities and student unions towards at least a small contemplation room. A lot of universities don’t see this as a necessity. It is a necessity, praying five times a day is a necessity for Muslim students. It’s differentiating between the obligation and choice of it. A prayer room on every campus is very essential."

Andrew Nightingale, former head of the Association of University Directors of Estates, said universities are well aware of the issue and had discussed it at a conference on estate management last week. He said there was agreement that providing facilities such as prayer rooms could become an important part of a university’s remit as students become more vocal about their needs once top-up fees are introduced. "I’m not aware that there is any legal requirement for universities to provide any social or cultural facilities other than education. But a lot of universities have some facilities. Derby [University] has done a lot of work on this. It is a topic of concern. It’s something we’re becoming aware of. "A lot of universities are close to mosques anyway," he added.

At today’s conference many students reported that their universities had facilities, but in many cases these fell short of what was required. Hafida, 20, a Westminster student, said there were no prayer rooms available at her university. "I have to pray in classrooms, sometimes people come in and I have to repeat my prayers. On the other campus there is a small corridor we use." Fatima, a 19-year-old University College London student, said there was a contemplation room, mostly used by Muslim students, but nothing to separate women and men. "There’s not much competition because no one else goes. It’s a place of worship where we put up the curtain, but it is just a tiny hut." Isma, who is doing her A-levels at a sixth-form college in Redditch, said she goes home twice a day to pray. "There aren’t a majority of people asking for the facilities so we won’t get them."

Fosis is holding its four-day conference at Nottingham University, exploring areas of student life. Up to 750 students are expected to attend today. Hasan Patel, one of the conference organisers and a former executive officer at the National Union of Students, said Fosis was trying to move towards issues more specific to Muslim students on campuses in Britain - Islamaphobia, education funding and widening participation - and away from international debates.
Posted by:TS(vice girl)

#25  Silentbrick - Got any pamplets for that religion? LOL
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats   2004-06-18 8:17:55 PM  

#24  Wishful thinking regarding your radical solution Zenster. But the Islamofreaks are so without rational thought, that the point would be lost on them, and all we'd see would be retalitory strikes against Western targets for "daring" to try and control their "holy" sites--it would the the "grand excuse" for them to do anything and everything.

Once Medina was demolished because of "retaliatory strikes," the Islamists might calm down a whole bunch when Mecca's number came up next. Plus, it would tend to defocus a lot of Islam's central doctrine if the shrines were simply obliterated because of their continuing atrocities.

It becomes a little more difficult to worship that big black rock when it's all just slag and melted glass with a toasty background count. Such a thing would make it rather hard for Islam to recruit more disciples when their holiest of holies no longer exists as a reminder of their inability to stop committing atrocities.

Let's see, join up and become one of those whose claim to fame is getting the rest of the world so pissed off that they melted down our shines. Thanks, but no thanks, guys.

Posted by: Zenster   2004-06-18 7:55:21 PM  

#23  "I have to pray in classrooms, sometimes people come in and I have to repeat my prayers...."

That's because you're not trying hard enough. Boy is Allah gonna be pissed at you!!!
Posted by: Rafael   2004-06-18 7:04:22 PM  

#22  Ex-lib,

Very well said...an excellent post.
Posted by: jawa   2004-06-18 6:58:49 PM  

#21  Indonesia for the Indonese!

Ah, Albion, how hast thou fallen...
Posted by: mojo   2004-06-18 6:49:58 PM  

#20  No big secret, for 40+ hours a week, I deal with the public.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2004-06-18 5:58:36 PM  

#19  Howard - I did say milk the goat. This can lead to other activity - depending on the goat. But if it gets too exciting, then there has to be a prayer room .

So we are back to where we started. . . .
Posted by: BigEd   2004-06-18 5:58:03 PM  

#18  Silent - Okay, so far so good, but I wanna know what makes you (faithful adherents of your creed) seethe. I'm pretty big on learning how to seethe properly and I might be interested in signing up if you include seething training.

I admit it: I'm seethe challenged.
Posted by: .com   2004-06-18 5:50:58 PM  

#17  My religion requires me to burn muslim pagans five times a day, in public, during muslim prayer times. I'd like to have a stake erected in front of the University Center and I'll need lots of gasoline and matches.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2004-06-18 5:45:27 PM  

#16  "Ack Ack-Ack"
Posted by: Frank G   2004-06-18 5:37:35 PM  

#15  jules 187 ...could it be they have an anal fixation? That too--but pagan dieties, such the moslem "god" of war, always require humiliating things of their followers.

Wishful thinking regarding your radical solution Zenster. But the Islamofreaks are so without rational thought, that the point would be lost on them, and all we'd see would be retalitory strikes against Western targets for "daring" to try and control their "holy" sites--it would the the "grand excuse" for them to do anything and everything. Of course, that doesn't mean it's not fun to think about . . . :-)

Aside: ever see Tim Burton's film "Mars Attacks"? So appropo right now --the martians are a lot like the Islamics . . . gotta see it if you haven't.
Posted by: ex-lib   2004-06-18 5:33:08 PM  

#14  BigEd: the goat has a far more lurid purpose.
Posted by: Howard UK   2004-06-18 4:55:08 PM  

#13  And BTW--the Islamotwerps want rooms to themselves so they can influence others to gain converts (see above).

Great point, ex-lib. Why should they have private recruiting stations set up for them? At best a common chapel where all worship and activity could be monitored by outsiders.

Zenster: I'm warming up to your Mecca/Medina takeover idea . . .

Thank you, pal. I see few other levers we can use to persuade Islam as a whole that their entire structure is threatened from within. There has to be a price for noncompliance and gating the Haj is one of the only universal penalties that applies.

Islam does not blanch at collective punishment (i.e., terrorism) and neither should we. Once they manage to get their juvenile waterfowl aligned, the Haj may resume but not a femtosecond sooner.
Posted by: Zenster   2004-06-18 4:36:58 PM  

#12  Just one more thing--if they're so eager to pray, let them stop in the halls (at whatever time they deem appropirate), stick their butts in the air, and have at it! When Christians or Jews pray at universities, we have to just "make do." Of couse, our God doesn't require us to stick our butts in the air!

Good point, ex-lib. Hmmm...could it be they have an anal fixation? Or maybe they just like it doggie style under those robes, in the quiet of the mosque? :)
Posted by: jules 187   2004-06-18 4:32:59 PM  

#11  This is nothing more than part and parcel of a much more long-term goal, namely: Expanding/Enforcing Islam on the West.

That's all it is.

Using societal rights (which the Islamics don't respect), which the West has developed and adhered to (and which are, essentially, based on a Christian-influenced worldview) the IslamoFascists will continue to demand their way: "Innocent until proven guilty! Freedom for (our) religion! Civil rights at airports--no security checks! Right to privacy (especially for our bombmaking kitchens) ! Kill the Christians! Kill the Jews! Ooops! . . . Uh . . . "

Well, there you have it. This is what they're after. They won't stop until we make them stop.

I see the psychology of it this way: everytime an IslamoFascist "wins" something (like a beheading or a bombing), the rest of them feel a little better about themselves--their "self-esteem" rises as they experience vicarious "success" by identifying with aggressors. This is a BIG personal pay-off in their world of weak-willed men and subjugated women. I don't think they'll quit because things like freedom, democracy, equality are just words--might as well be aliens from a distant planet trying to convince them of the value of those things--or the need to make sacrifices to attain them.

So, I gotta wonder: will the West wake up in time?

I think the conservatives get it, but the liberals are another story. Since they consider themselves elite, advanced, superior to everyone, they cannot imagine that they could ever be vulnerable. (example: I wonder what Michael Moore would do if he found himself in Paul Johnson's situation. Bet he'd whine and fuss for the Marines, President Bush, etc. But then of course, he's spent the past ten years making friends in low places, positioning himself for safety should the ultimate happen, and his low-life Marxist/Islamo friends win the day.) I digress.

Just one more thing--if they're so eager to pray, let them stop in the halls (at whatever time they deem appropirate), stick their butts in the air, and have at it! When Christians or Jews pray at universities, we have to just "make do." Of couse, our God doesn't require us to stick our butts in the air! And BTW--the Islamotwerps want rooms to themselves so they can influence others to gain converts (see above).

LOL and right-on! Bomb-a-rama, jules 187.

Howard UK and BigEd: Someone definitely should start demanding livestock accomodations be provided on every campus! :-)

Zenster: I'm warming up to your Mecca/Medina takeover idea . . .
Posted by: ex-lib   2004-06-18 4:14:24 PM  

#10  Suggestion: go to the damn mosque to pray. Can't find time? Improvise. Now shut the hell up and go away.

Bingo, Bomb-a-rama.

A lot of universities don’t see this as a necessity. It is a necessity, praying five times a day is a necessity for Muslim students. It’s differentiating between the obligation and choice of it. A prayer room on every campus is very essential."

"Essential?" Horsesh!t! It is most definitely not a necessity. No school is obliged to provide prayer facilities, save for a seminary. Like B-a-r said, go to the properly appointed facility if your need for prayer is so dire. How in hell is any school supposed to accomodate all the possible religions represented among their student body? Preferentialism is simply not allowed, no matter how much the Islamic pupils whine about it.
Posted by: Zenster   2004-06-18 2:20:45 PM  

#9  Howard - Depends whether you :
1) Pray to the goat.
2) Milk the goat.
3) Slice the goat's throat.

#1 has to be done on your break,
#2 has to be done on your break, and in the parking lot.
#3 has to be done after-hours, and in the parking lot. . . .

Posted by: BigEd   2004-06-18 2:03:43 PM  

#8  I'm going to insist that work provide me with a pagan teepee. Now, where's that goat?
Posted by: Howard UK   2004-06-18 1:48:37 PM  

#7  When a schoolteacher in London, no muslim pupils prayed during the schoolday. However, some twat of a white convert (Blonde beard, Salwar Kameez etc.) insisted the school gave him a prayer room, which of course in liberal Britain they obligingly did - he went in their every break time and on free periods. (And never joined the rest of us for coffee). Immediately he started pressuring the muslim students to pray with him. We fired him for intimidating the kids and getting no work done. Plus the regular students 'slaughtered' him - even the muslim kids thought he was a dick. It's often the idiots who spoil the status quo. Usually they're so vociferous in the name of their cause as to draw immediate attention. We should go after them.

Posted by: Howard UK   2004-06-18 1:46:02 PM  

#6  Muslim students are to launch a campaign to get all universities to provide proper prayer facilities.

Suggestion: go to the damn mosque to pray. Can't find time? Improvise.

Now shut the hell up and go away.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-06-18 1:23:32 PM  

#5  Suggestion for a requisite for college entrance/graduation?

Semitephobia classes. All the other phobias could be lumped in there, of course, but since history documents the disproportionate hatred and suffering the Jews have endured, studies of anti-Semitism should make up the bulk of the required study.

Fantasize, for a moment-remember that Rantburgian article about piblic school students being forced to pray to Mecca, say Allahu Akbar, yadda yadda yadda? How fun would it be to force these Muslim students to say a Jewish prayer and wear Jewish religious gear.

Boy, that was invigorating.
Posted by: jules 187   2004-06-18 1:21:43 PM  

#4  ...calls from Muslim students at universities and colleges around the country to get proper facilities installed. Muslims are required to pray five times a day...Fosis is calling for universities to provide proper facilities, including washrooms and a room divider to separate the men from the women.

SO

How do they reconcile:
Building public facilities that segregate people based on their sex (not washrooms)?
Public facilities that favor one religion over another (i.e., providing religious facilities for one religious group and not another--will they likewise build separate facilities for Jews, Zoroastrans, Christians (multiple sects), Buddhists, Satanists, Deists, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, Copts, Orthodox...?

Separation of church and state in terms of building prayer facilities with public funds?

Oh, this has to make a lot of lawyers smile.
Posted by: jules 187   2004-06-18 1:03:38 PM  

#3  Eewwwww - The Girls all have cooties!
Posted by: BigEd   2004-06-18 12:17:15 PM  

#2  Bhurkas on drivers' lee-sounces. Then separate prayer rooms. It's a fifth column advance, step by step. "I am entitled to be more equal than others." They are trying it in this country too.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-06-18 12:15:09 PM  

#1  Prayer room or weapons depot? You be the judge.
Posted by: Seafarious   2004-06-18 12:10:55 PM  

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