The University of Iowa Shouldn’t Be Giving Muslim Students Their Own Prayer Rooms

• Report rights infringement
• published: 14 Apr 2016
• views: 822

The University of Iowa Shouldn’t Be Giving Muslim Students Their Own Prayer Rooms Hemant Mehta (http://www.friendlyatheist.com, http://www.patreon.com/Hemant , https://www.facebook.com/friendlyatheist) http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/03/29/the-university-of-iowa-shouldnt-be-giving-muslim-students-their-own-prayer-rooms/ http://www.kwwl.com/story/31144598/2016/02/04/u-iowa-adds-new-muslim-prayer-spaces ... College campuses should absolutely be welcoming to students of different religious backgrounds, but how far should they go to accommodate their beliefs? At the University of Iowa, administrators may have gone too far, creating two special prayer rooms only to be used by Muslim students. Muslims can pray or meditate in those rooms 24/7. There's one for men and one for women. And they appreciate this because they can pray in peace without being interrupted -- or judged, for that matter. I obviously support their right to pray and I'm sure Muslims on campus don't always have an easy time finding space to do it. Especially when there are a lot of them on campus. But here's my question: why is this the university’s responsibility? Why should tuition dollars be used to give Muslims a special room? I'm not asking this for the sake of being a jerk. There are presumably just as many Jewish and atheist students on campus. Just because they don’t have prescribed prayer times doesn’t mean they couldn’t use gathering places of their own. Should the university create meeting spaces for them, too? In the wake of Iowa's decision, one outside group actually requested a unique prayer space for Hindus on campus. They may be trolling, but what’s the counterpoint from the school? On what basis can they say yes to Muslims but no to Hindus? Or anyone else? There’s a way around this: Create spaces that all students can use and allow registered Muslim clubs or students to reserve the rooms whenever they need them. Give them the option of reserving it multiple times a day. The only way that doesn't work is if some asshole tries to block them all out -- but assuming everyone's acting in good faith, that solution should work. Simply put, administrators should not be in a position to decide which religions are more important than others. And just because you have many students of a particular religion on campus doesn't mean they should get special perks for it. You can't give some of them private meeting space while denying others the same opportunity. This is a school, mind you, that already has an on-campus chapel with a Christian cross on it. (That’s a separate-but-sorta-the-same problem. It’s clear this isn’t the school’s first time endorsing a particular religion.) University officials need to fix this before the problem gets worse and they get hit with a lawsuit. Join the conversation. Leave your questions and comments below and we'll try to address them in future videos. Don't forget to subscribe for more! Also, follow us at ... https://twitter.com/atheistvoices https://www.facebook.com/TheAtheistVoices https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/106662137332631352312/106662137332631352312/posts/p/pub http://theatheistvoice.tumblr.com/ http://www.theatheistvoice.com/ The Atheist Voice provides a platform for discussion for atheist leaders, authors, bloggers, activists, and everybody else who is passionate about atheism, and secularism. Join the discussion by commenting under the videos or submitting video responses. If you'd like to collaborate on this channel or if you'd like to appear in our videos please visit our website www.TheAtheistVoice.com