Muslim students discuss their religion

Some students ignorant about Muslim issues

Junior Farheen Hakeem said that when she comes to class with henna on her hands in the intricate patterns that are part of the Muslim tradition, she knows that some of her professors and peers are looking at her strangely.

Hakeem cited ignorance as the reason for the extra attention and said, "If you are ignorant you are not a bad person, as long as you ask questions and try to become more educated."

Muslim students at Oberlin say they face a special set of challenges at Oberlin, but that Oberlin is more accepting of Muslims than mainstream America.

"I have always gotten respect," Hakeem said. "Compared to general America, I have gotten better treatment at Oberlin." Oberlin professors, said Hakeem, have been willing to accept her as a Muslim.

Junior Hozefa Lokhandwala said that in addition to general campus ignorance, he has felt racism and disdain from white and Jewish students. "A lot of people also do not understand where we are coming from. We are exoticized and oppressed in a certain manner," he said.

This semester, Zionism and the Free Palestine movement have received a good deal of attention. The recent round of discussions dates back to civil rights leader Kwame Ture's speech in late March. Ture was called anti-Semitic by a number of students and faculty members.

Muslim students have said that the debates following Ture's speech portrayed them and their religion in a negative light. Some Muslim students have said that there are many misconceptions about their religion on campus.

Muslim students cite other misconceptions as well. "I've heard about students taking religion classes here about Muslims and they have seen it as being really oppressive to women, but I've never been asked about this or disrespected for being Muslim," first-year Dorothy Abdullah said.

Lokhandwala said that the college administration has made it difficult for Muslims on campus to survive as both students and strict followers of Islam. Lokhandwala said that the administration tends to operate under the premise that Muslim students should forget about their Muslim ways of life. "The structure of Oberlin in itself destroys the Muslim lifestyle. It's not conducive to Islam at all," Lokhandwala said.

There are resources for Muslim students on-campus.The Muslim Student Association's [MSA] main goals are to educate the Oberlin community about Muslims and Islam and also to provide support and a community for Muslims on campus, Hakeem said. There are between 30 and 40 Muslim students at Oberlin, and leaders of MSA hope to increase student participation in the group.

Currently, only about five or six students regularly attend meetings. While in past years group prayer and holiday celebrations for Eidalfitur and Eidalfadha occurred regularly, Hakeem said that scheduling difficulties have made such activities less common this year.

Abdullah said that she has "heard that a lot of people didn't agree about some of the stuff going on in the organization and some people just didn't want to deal anymore."

Since the organization does not meet on a regular basis, Oberlin Muslim students generally pray and celebrate holidays on an individual basis. Some holidays, such as the month-long Ramadan, requires a fast between sunrise and sunset and only allow Muslims to eat certain blessed food items. Though she tried to eat the Ramadan dishes prepared by the dining hall, Hakeem said that the Campus Dining Services dishes contained little nutritional value and after eating them she became ill.

This year, however, "I got my parents to send me food frozen, and in the food [they sent me] was the meat that I can eat, since it is blessed," Hakeem said.

Some Muslims who decided not to eat in the dining hall have asked to get their board money back for the month of Ramadan.

Since being Muslim is a way of life as well as a religion, Muslim students often do not know whether to go to the Office of the Chaplains or the Multicultural Resource Center to discuss Islamic issues, according to Hakeem and Lokhandwala.

"When it come to tensions, there is no real resource and we feel like we are more multicultural, it is not just a religion to us," Hakeem said. She felt that whenever Muslims do need something they should go to the Multicultural Resource Center rather than the Chaplain's Office.

Some students would like to see a Muslim spiritual leader on campus.

"If you have a rabbi and a minister you should also have an Imam," Abdullah said.

As it stands now, Lokhandwala said, Muslim students feel that they are "periphery students and we are the other and I think that we have to make a space for us on campus to be a part of the discourse."

In addition to Lokhandwala's call for administrative changes on campus, Hakeem said that if Oberlin Muslims want to become more community-oriented, then more of them need to put effort into creating such a community.

"I feel like I have put in a lot of energy," Hakeem said. "If there are Muslims on campus who want more community, then they need to put in more energy as well."