academia is key to seeing the trends of curiosity among people in a nation state.
issues related to govt policies, general racial sentiment of resentment or dislike or acceptance towards them, are very clear among the academic clout.
what kind of feeling the following article evokes in you? share if you like.
best,
Dushwari
At Harvard, Students’ Muslim Traditions Are a Topic of Debate
Rick Friedman for The New York Times
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: March 21, 2008
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Two issues of Muslim practice — whether the call
to prayer should ring out across Harvard Yard and whether the
university should grant women separate gym hours — have unleashed
small waves of controversy over how Harvard practices tolerance.
Heated discussions have erupted on dormitory chat rooms, students
said, while various opinion articles in the student newspaper, The
Harvard Crimson, have denounced both practices.
“I think that because Harvard is a secular campus, there is a fear
among some students that religious beliefs or practices might be
imposed on people who don’t want anything to do with them,” said
Jessa Birdsall, a 20-year-old sophomore who said she thought the
university should accommodate the beliefs of all students.
The debate began in early February, when the undergraduate college
restricted one of the three largest gyms on its main campus, the
Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center, to women only on Mondays
from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10
a.m.
The college spokesman, Robert Mitchell, would not describe how the
decision was reached, but various students said a small group of
Muslim women undergraduates living in the Leverett House dormitory
asked for the change.
The group of women felt that workout clothes violated the Muslim
prescription that both sexes wear modest dress in shared
environments. So they asked that the dormitory set aside its mini
gyms for women a few hours each week. The request eventually made its
way to the Harvard College Women’s Center and it was decided that the
Quadrangle center, which Mr. Mitchell called the college’s least-used
athletic facility, would be restricted to women only at certain
times. He said the change was an experiment that would be re-
evaluated in June.
The second controversy occurred after the adhan, or call to prayer,
was once again broadcast across Harvard Yard at noon from the steps
of the Widener Library for several days late last month. The
broadcast was part of Islam Awareness Week, sponsored by the Muslim
student club, the Harvard Islamic Society.
On March 13, an op-ed article by three graduate students denounced
the practice, which has been going on for several years. They wrote
that while pluralism was fine, the adhan espouses Muslim intolerance
toward other faiths by stating that the Prophet Muhammad is God’s
messenger. Calling it proselytizing, the op-ed article said, “The
adhan, it seems, is the exception to Harvard’s unspoken rule of
religious tolerance and respect.”
The arguments over both issues boiled down to whether Harvard was
being admirably tolerant or was disrupting the lives of everyone to
placate a vocal minority.
Rauda Tellawi, a 21-year-old senior who veils her hair, said that the
animated arguments about the gym hours that unrolled on her dorm’s in-
house chat room noted that even some men felt intimidated by the
presence of women in the gym if they were, say, not bench-pressing as
much as a buddy. Ms. Tellawi said she habitually left the gym if men
were hovering nearby while she ran or did sit-ups.
“Even if you have loose clothing on, they are going to see things
that we are not supposed to let them see,” she said, adding, “Islam
doesn’t encourage you to physically lie down in front of men.”
Ms. Tellawi did not consider it discriminatory to set aside some
hours at the gym for women. Instead, she views it as a healthy
accommodation. She noted that students who follow kosher eating rules
have a separate area in her dining hall and said that some non-Muslim
women also supported the separate gym hours.
The new system has been criticized for not attracting enough women to
warrant separate hours, and several students said perhaps only 15
people use the center during peak periods at night, despite the fact
that it offered its own locker rooms, squash and basketball courts,
weights and aerobic machines.
Nicholas J. Wells, a junior who used to work out in the morning, said
he thought the change was “unfair to men and inconvenient for women.”
While he was all for supporting Muslim women, he said there had to be
a more practical way so that Quad residents did not lose access to
their main gym.
A junior, Lucy M. Caldwell, echoed those arguments. She criticized
the hours for women only as too drastic an accommodation to make for
a religious minority, dismissing the idea that many non-Muslim women
supported it.
When word of the new gym hours became public, Harvard was attacked in
the blogosphere for being a bastion of liberalism run amok.
As to the call to prayer, Muslim students said the adhan was a basic
statement of their creed and had nothing to do with denying other
faiths. The debate focused mostly on whether Muslims were getting a
right denied to people of other religions.
One student wrote in the comments section of The Crimson’s Web site
that Harvard Yard was not a comparative religion class, while another
said if students could romp there naked and urinate on the statue of
John Harvard, surely forbearance toward other cultures was warranted.
Many students seemed oblivious to either issue, saying they were
preoccupied with midterm examinations.
Taha Abdul-Basser, the Muslim chaplain at Harvard, said both episodes
were indicative of the growing number of Muslims in the United
States.
“There are some people who are not just comfortable that Muslims, by
virtue of the change of demographics, are going to become more and
more visible,” he said.
