Open a prayer room for Muslim students helps promote inter-faith relations
There are over 900,000 Muslims in Canada (or 2.8%) and we have increasing numbers of Muslim international students coming to study at our universities. Following the suit, many post-secondary institutions are offering prayer spaces for Muslim students. What is unique about Emmanuel College in Toronto is that it aims to not only accomodate one religious group of students but create praire spaces where students of different religions can share their spiritual journey. According to Onislam:
“Enjoying a welcoming atmosphere, Muslim students at a Canadian university are celebrating the opening of a new prayer room to fulfil their religious duties. “It’s beautiful,” Hasna Egal, a fourth-year neuroscience student, told university newspaper The Varsity on Monday, February 11.
“The Muslim prayer space is welcoming, clean and very quiet.” A new prayer room was opened at Emmanuel College in Toronto last month to help Muslim students perform their prayers.“I think it’s going really well,” said Amjad Tarsin, the first Muslim chaplain at the University of Toronto. The space is very beautiful. The whole space fills up every prayer time, but what’s also really cool is that you can find people studying there and using it as a hangout space.” …
The new multi-faith center would also allow different groups to be able to use the space at the same time. … University officials opine that the move to open a prayer room for Muslim students helps promote inter-faith relations.” Read full article
Source: Onislam website, Prayer Room Delights Toronto Muslims
Tags: diversity, inter-faith, prayer, religion, space, student