Mediation Necessary Over Room Set Aside for Meditation
by Jim Brown
May 31, 2005
(AgapePress) - A meditation room at the University of Michigan-Flint has become the center of a religious dispute between Muslim and non-Muslim students.Room 386 at the school's University Center is about the size of a storage room. It had been set aside and designated as the "Meditation Room" and as a place for peaceful reflection and prayer. But Associated Press reported last week that complaints started in November that Muslim students were monopolizing the space and filling it with religious materials and anti-Israel literature. Muslim students responded that they were being unfairly targeted, and appealed to the university for religious tolerance.
In response, the university ordered the Muslim Student Association to take down religious paraphernalia and put away pamphlets that deny Israel's right to exist and accuse the Jewish state of human rights abuses against Palestinians.
Katie Segal, president of the campus's Hillel Student Organization, says she now feels comfortable using the prayer room.
"Everything has been taken down [and] the room has been whitewashed," she explains. "So [now] we can go in there and not be disturbed by any hate paraphernalia."
But while the anti-Zionist propaganda has been removed, the 20-year-old student maintains relations between Muslim and non-Muslim students have not improved.
"I believe the tension is growing now," Segal shares. "There has been a committee formed to increase the communication between the religious groups, which I believe will start in the fall, so we can talk about any tensions and get that out of the way."
According to Segal, the committee's suggestions should kick in next fall -- which does little for the current situation. "[R]ight now I think there's a little tension between the two groups," she says.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
