Ball State Muslim students, community reflect on faith, controversy

This week's Sept. 11 memorials will take place during one of the holiest days for Muslims, Eid al-Fitr. A coincidence of the calendar that could provoke problems elsewhere but is leaving Muncie mostly unaffected.

"We are really safe in Muncie," said Ahmad Qutub, Ball State senior and imam at the Islamic Center of Muncie. "Nobody has been trying to attack us."

Despite the increase of Muslim students from abroad attending Ball State, Hadiyah Abdurrasheed-Wagner said she has not heard of many cases of discrimination in Muncie or at Ball State's campus.

"It is a little strange sometimes when you're in class and the teacher starts talking about terrorists," said Abdurrasheed-Wagner, who wears a hijab, or scarf-like covering over her head. "The professor's voice gets weary and the room gets tense. We definitely get weird looks sometimes. ... But there are so many [Muslim] people that can be seen walking along McKinley that I think people are getting used to it."

It has been a different story for Abdurrasheed-Wagner, however.

Whether at a gas station or walking down McKinley Avenue, she has heard people shout at her from their cars.

The worst experience occurred while she was shopping with her husband at the Muncie Mall. A group of young people behind them shouted, "Don't blow up the mall!" before running away in the opposite direction.

"Most people don't say anything to my face. It's usually while they are on the go and driving," she said. "But that was the closest it has come to someone saying it to my face."

There are at least 100 Muslims in the Muslim Student Association, and more than 200 Muslim students on campus, Abdurrasheed-Wagner, a senior psychology major and Muslim Student Association vice president, said. An increased number of Muslim students visiting the Islamic Center have dwindled space available for prayer compared to last year.

"There are two large rooms for prayer, one for men and one for women at the center," she said. "There are so many people, now we have people sitting in the basement."

The Islamic Center itself looks like an ordinary brown building northwest of McGalliard Road. Slightly hidden from view, the mosque looks like an ordinary building if it weren't for the plain Islamic Center signs.

The building is perfectly visible from the front of Muncie resident Phil Bridgman's house, though. Living next to a mosque doesn't bother him, but he definitely has an opinion on the proposed "mosque" in New York City.

"I don't think it should be built by ground zero," he said quickly, then pointing his finger at the Muncie mosque. "I don't care about that."

The controversial mosque is actually the Cordoba House, a community center two blocks from ground zero housing a swimming pool, classrooms, play spaces for children and a memorial honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an editorial by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf wrote in The New York Times.

When told that the Cordoba House is actually built for multiple faiths, not just Muslims, Bridgman said that he didn't know the specifics of the building, but he still didn't like the location.

"I still don't like it. ... Why do they even want to build it there?" he said.

The controversy of the Cordoba House can be felt all over the country, and it is something MSA adviser Muhammad Maqbool cannot understand. Maqbool said that since the United States is one of the most educated countries, it should also have the most open-minded and accepting people.

"People are thinking more emotionally than broadmindedly," Maqbool said. "More educated people should think more broadmindedly and use their wisdom to find common ground and come together."

Some Americans have taken to extreme measures to protest against Islam. Pastor Terry Jones, of Gainesville, Fla., is proceeding with a Quran burning Saturday as an anti-Islamic protest. Muslims from all over the world have condemned Jones and his church, the Dove World Outreach Center, according to a New York Times article.

Abdurrasheed-Wagner said Jones has every right to go ahead with the event, citing the church's First Amendment rights.

"I don't agree with it, but I understand and respect that it's their right to [burn the Qurans]," she said. "It's extremely dangerous and disrespectful, but if you're going to be for burning the Qurans, then you must support building the mosque [in New York City]. You can't be for just one or the other."

Maqbool said people should try to educate themselves about other religions in order to live peacefully.

The annual student iftar dinner held Friday between the Muslim and Christian students at Ball State is an example of what needs to happen on a larger scale, he said.

"Whatever we do locally, the same thing we should do on a national level," Maqbool said. "We need to come together to reduce hate and misunderstandings."

He said that students shouldn't rely on only what they see in the media. If they have questions about Islam, they should read translations of the Quran or talk to a Muslim scholar.

"The [U.S.] should play a mature role and differentiate between al-Qaida and a Muslim," Maqbool said. "They should not treat an educated Muslim like an uneducated terrorist. ... If we keep hurting each other, there will be no peace forever."