Three of Germany’s leading universities have closed prayer rooms, largely used by Muslim students, thereby sparking accusations that they may be targeting the faith and singling out its adherents.

“Practicing Muslims will find a way to pray one way or another and they'll find a place,” said Ender Cetin, chairman at the Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin. “If the mosque is too far away, they'll find a corner to do it in. … You easily feel discriminated against by people if they don’t talk to you and then say, 'you can’t practice your religion as you are used to' … One doesn't need to be in a prayer room only for Muslims. A common prayer room is a good idea for everyone's wellness.”

However, several other universities see the issue differently and a spate of decisions to close prayer rooms for Muslim students has led to claims of religious discrimination. The Technical University in Dortmund permanently closed its prayer room last month though it was used by people of all faiths. The university claimed that Muslim men had attempted to usurp it by imposing gender discrimination and allocating a much larger space to men than women as well as stocking prayer mats inside.

“The attempt to create a pan-religious meditation space has failed,” said a university spokesperson.

But Muslim students responded by accusing the university of placing them under general suspicion. As many as 400 signatures were collected for a petition accusing the university’s administration of discriminating against Islam and its adherents. This happened after the university said the prayer room would be closed for security reasons, potentially leading all to believe that those using it on a daily basis were in fact using it to practice radical forms of Islam, such as Salafism.

At the University of Essen-Duisburg, a prayer room for Muslim students that had existed for over 20 years was also closed recently. University officials stated in a letter that the prayer room had to be closed due to a space crunch.

“With more than 130 nations at our university, we can’t offer a room for every religion or culture,” the university said. “The room was installed in a time in which there were no places for Muslims to go nearby. This has changed in the past two decades.”

Part of the reason could also be that the university had received complaints from non-Muslim students, who alleged during prayer times, certain activities were considered taboo. These activities included using toilets or commuting by a lift that are present within the vicinity of the prayer room. This particular prayer room is now likely to be replaced with a neutral “room of silence”.

At the Technical University in Berlin, where at least 34,000 students happen to be enrolled, a prayer room, which had existed for years, was suddenly closed as well. This university too cited a space crunch as its reason to close the prayer room, typically used by Muslim students.

“The room was created in a time where the Muslim students had no place nearby to go for prayers,” said Christian Thomsen, president of the university. “The next places for Muslim students to pray may be not in walking distance, but with a bus it’s just two or three stations away.”

It is difficult to assess just how much demand there may be for prayer rooms across German universities, as these institutions are disallowed from inquiring about its students’ religious preferences, thus making it even more difficult to determine the actual number of Muslim students that may be studying at one institute at any given time.

“If we knew how many Muslim students there were here, we could use that to argue with the administrators,” one TU Berlin student said.

Yet, not every German university is turning a deaf ear to the requirement of a prayer room within the campus. The University of Cologne, for instance, is all set to open a new prayer room this summer.

“As a university, we always face conflict between secularism and religious freedom,” said a university spokesperson. “Many people of faith have certain necessities involved in praying and they need a special room for these.”

Photo Credits: The College Fix