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Essay On Muslim Students

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Currently, at Andover, the Muslim student population is made up of around 8-12 students, representing less than 1 percent of the student population. There is one Muslim faculty member, new this year, representing less than 1 percent of the faculty population. Over the last several years, Muslim students have been given access to various prayer spaces, the school unable to provide one consistent location. Originally, there was a room in the basement of the chapel reserved for Muslim students, but after repeated use of this room by non-Muslim students for inappropriate behavior, the administration completely closed it off to both non-Muslim students and Muslim students. The prayer space then moved to the library, with the students expected …show more content…

Currently, Andover is seen as a place where it is impossible to pray everyday, and that image should be changed. Initially, we proposed the creation of a faith space within the library, available for Muslim students and students of any other faith as well to use for prayer, meditation, etc., and solving the problem of centrality. This room would be protected by blue card access, and to gain access to the room students would need to fill out a school-approved form, solving the problem of exclusivity as only dedicated individuals could use the room. Also, because the library is open all week and for most hours, the room would be available for most of the day, solving the problem of availability. The strengths of the original idea were in its centrality, exclusivity, and availability. However, there were some unforeseen flaws in our plan noticed by Mr. Prescott and three Muslim students interviewed for feedback: Newaz Rahman, Sawsan AlShaiba, and Hana Illikkal. Fortunately, the weaknesses (what are they? Am I supposed t already know this?) pointed out by those four do not change the fundamental idea of the project: to dedicate a space to Muslim students and other underrepresented faith groups, but the way we go about doing that must change. Our feedback found that the weakest points were in our single-mindedness in location, the size of the space, the possible noise factor, getting access to the room, and spreading awareness. Instead of just thinking about the

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