Everyone should be able to express their conviction in the right place at the right time. This is a conviction of mine. The right place and the right time may vary depending on where you stand regarding an issue but sometimes things are very clear cut and a stance needs to be taken.
A few months ago, the Antonine university had a tough situation with Muslims students who were adamant about praying at their university, which happened to be a Maronite Monastery, so they took the convent’s courtyard to do so. This sparked a debate in the country: should these students be allowed to pray or not at universities with obvious religious affiliations?
The point of view that I expressed back then and which I still stand by is the following: If a Muslim student (or a Christian student for that matter) believes it’s of utmost importance for him/her to pray, then that should go into their university selection criteria. If that student deems prayer not important enough and believes that getting the best education that can be provided, regardless of the university’s religious affiliation, is the way you to go, then that student doesn’t have the right to complain later on.
Université St. Joseph (USJ) had a similar incidence yesterday where more than twenty Muslim students decided to gather around and take a room without permission in order to pray. The incident was reported to the dean who rounded up the students only to have the situation swell by attracting more students to the place where the prayers were taking place. Some took the job of acting as guard to let the prayers continue.
The situation escalated to the maximum point without a confrontation happening and the incident has sparked some Christians at USJ to express outrage at what was happening. They believe that including a prayer room in the faculty of medicine was good enough – forcing every single faculty to adopt such policies is a step too far. The faculty in question was ESIB. For the Muslims who want to pray at USJ, it is their “right” to pray five times and they believe the university should provide them with a prayer room to do so.
It seems that such endless debates are our bread as Lebanese. But here’s what it breaks down into quite simply.
- USJ is a university that is obviously Christian. It is run by the Jesuites. It doesn’t hide its Christian affiliation and as such, those applying to study in it are well aware of that.
- Given that the nature of USJ is a general fact, weren’t those Muslim fully aware that attending USJ will bring them the best education possible and not spiritual fulfillment?
- When a prayer turns into proving a “principle” and rubbing it into other people’s faces, the question asks itself: what’s the point of praying in the first place?
- When a prayer becomes a point of conflict, the question also asks itself: are those students really seeking religious salvation or are they simply seeking trouble? I believe it’s obviously the latter.
- What forces universities with obvious religious affiliations to provide praying facilities for all its students? Is it something that they’re obliged to do? Absolutely not. If a university had been secular, the problem wouldn’t present itself. The American University of Beirut converted its chapel into an assembly hall and has denied requests for prayers rooms. AUB is secular. USJ is not.
- Universities abroad, which provide prayer rooms for students, are not religious in nature. And if the prayer rooms are provided, they are not for one religion and not the other – they are for all religions. Religious ones, on the other hand, are not forced to do so: Case in point: the Catholic Medicine faculty in Lille, France, does not provide prayer rooms for its Muslim students.
- Would a Lebanese Muslim university open a chapel for Christians to pray in it? The answer is obviously not. The argument that Christians don’t need to pray doesn’t hold. What if they want to?
Lebanese students in general, both Christian and Muslim, need to know that universities are not churches. They are not mosques. They are not synagogues. Universities are places where they pay in order to learn and build a future for themselves and their families. The fact that all of my Muslim friends at medical school, some of whom are extremely religious (they are Salafists and awesome), have no problem going through our long days without praying is testament enough that those “Muslims” wanting to “pray” at USJ are only seeking to create trouble and tension at a university that’s known of accepting people from all parts of Lebanese society, regardless of religion. But there are lines you cannot cross.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
So what ended up happening?
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here’s a prayer to all ye men and women of Faith:
“may you all join your gods today before tomorrow and render our world free from your ignorance, and may your gods soon forever retire from every corner of this world to the shelves of fiction or mythology where they all belong”
born and raised Christian in Lebanon, turned godless hamdella wou 3a2beilkon
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There he is, the Muslim-hating Christian fanatic, welcome back
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Good job as usual. I fully agree. Students need to know class is not for prayer and I don’t care if a religion asks them to pray or not.
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see that’s the thing, do you really know whether your Muslim friends pray or not? You don’t really need to hold up the bell and scream to everyone that you’re going to do that, it completely misses the point (demanding a prayer room falls under screaming for everybody…) I never felt like I had to choose one or the other (prayer or university). I would just take a couple of minutes between classes in an empty classroom or the edge of the green field or wherever, discreetly, and move on. ma badda prayer room l ossa ya3ne.
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Asma thinks you’re a fanatic. I think you’re speaking common sense. Does that mean I’m a Christian fanatic too?
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The Hebrew University in Jerusalem was originally built with a synagogue in it. When I was a member of the student union in 2010, the student union (made up mainly of Jewish students) voted in favor of demanding that the university set aside a room for Muslim prayers.
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Ma fi prayer room bi AUB right? Students used to pray 4th floor West Hall, now they have signs that say you’re not allowed to pray there (cz they turned that floor into an office area). If a university like AUB (which started out as a Christian college I think , but not longer has religious affiliations) doesn’t have a designated room, then why is there drama at these “christian” universities?
I think they should be allowed to pray, there should be a designated area. Bas ma badda hal2ad.
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Well I guess people should take it easy and realize that we don’t live in an Islamic country, nor a Christian country for that matter, and we should stop forcing our beliefs on others. If you’re so convinced that you need to be praying at University, choose one that accommodates it to start with.
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When people become this much narrow minded, I don’t believe they are practicing religion.
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I have a couple of friends at EPFL, Switzerland and there is a prayer room there on campus. Take into consideration that this is a secular university in a European country where there are few Muslims.
Lebanon is an Arabic Country for God’s sake, and the majority of population are Muslims.
Students entering these universities already know that they are not going for spiritual fulfillment, but there is something called respecting other people’s religious beliefs and acts.
So declining the request for a prayer room with the excuse that a certain university is secular is invalid.
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Hey Elie, American reader here. I check in on your blog a couple times a week (interesting country you guys have 🙂 and I love your writing–always look forward to it. Question on this topic though: does the USJ receive any public funds at all? Because here in the USA, if a school is private–as long as there’s NO taxpayer money assisting it–it would be completely out of the question that it would HAVE to accomodate any religious/political group. If I remember correctly, the “Occupy Wall Street” protests were illegal and lost all legitimacy because it was held in a private park–“rights” my ass! LOL
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Very well said!
But there’s no praying room in the faculty of medicine of USJ!! Is this what you meant?
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I attend university in Calgary, Alberta Canada and we have several prayer rooms for any student of any religion, of any nationality and background to feel free to pray and hold religious lectures/meetings. And though you are attending university to get an education it should also be about learning to get along with different people (this should apply to all universities whether they are Muslim, Christian, Orthodox, Maronite or have no religious affiliation). I am Lebanese and this is such a disappointment as I would have thought university was a place for adults to not only get an education but to expand as a person as well.(That means learning to tolerate other religions and cultures, even if they are not your own).
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