A Mosque in All But Name — Closing a “Prayer Room” at Essen University

The following article is the first of series on controversies caused by the closure of prayer rooms — de facto mini-mosques — at German universities. This one, from the University of Essen, is not current; it was published in February of this year.

The most chilling part of this piece is the university’s justification for the closure: the prayer room is no longer needed, since there are now so many mosques in the neighborhoods adjacent to the campus.

Many thanks to Egri Nök for translating this article from Der Westen:

Discrimination in the name of Allah — Essen University closes prayer room

Essen. Non-Muslim students in Essen complain about repression by Muslim students. Now, the university closes the prayer room.

The Islamic prayer room at the University of Essen will soon be closed, the university directorate responds in answer to an inquiry by this newspaper. “As there are a variety of religious sites close to campus, no prayer rooms used exclusively by a single religious group on the university property are necessary anymore,” the statement of the directorate says, referring to the many mosques close to the university.

Students complain: elevator is blocked

There are plans now to introduce a neutral “room of silence”.

According to this newspapers’ research, non-Muslim students are discriminated against by fundamentalist Muslim students. At Friday prayers, they are regularly hindered from using an elevator which leads to the prayer room on the fourth floor. But the University Directorate “clearly objects” to the impression that a “fundamentalist regime” was spreading in the prayer room’s vicinity.

The prayer room “R12 T04 E96” has been controversial for years. In 2007, the University tried in vain to close the room with reference to an acute shortage of rooms, hate preachers, and occupants foreign to the university. Talks with Muslim students led to a compromise.

Are students of the university Duisburg-Essen discriminated against by fundamentalist Muslim students, just because they are “infidels” from a Muslim perspective? As this newspaper learnt from a reliable source, during Friday prayers, disturbing restrictions were regularly enforced on the campus in Essen.

The accusation: Non-Muslim students are brusquely prevented by religious zealots from using the elevator in the building “T04” during Friday prayer. Lapidary justification: The elevator, which leads up to the Muslim prayer room on the fourth floor, is exclusively reserved for “brothers” during prayer time. Even female Muslim students are not allowed to use the elevator during that time. However, the “sisters” did not seem to mind this unusual form of segregation of the sexes. But it does not stop there: even toilets near the prayer room are not permitted to be used by “infidels” before, during, and after the Friday prayer.

University justifies closing with mosques near campus

“Open in thinking” — the university Duisburg-Essen casts their tolerant, cosmopolitan self-image into this slogan. But does this image of man, formed by the spirit of enlightenment, namely freedom of religion and equality of the sexes, also apply to Muslim students? Doubts appear justified, as it seems they created their own guidelines.

Outside of the important Friday prayer, a curtain separates the room which holds 50 to 60 people in two areas: one for women and one for men — as usual in a mosque. The internet page “moscheesuche.de” (“mosque search”) explicitly describes the specific characteristics of “R 12 T04 E96”. It says: “The mosque has got a separate entrance for women and for men. For Friday prayer, the prayer room is only open to men; for Asr [daily afternoon] prayer, the mosque then is open to all sisters again.”

Alleged restrictions in the Name of Allah under the roof of a public academy — this newspaper asked the university for a statement. But the University directorate “clearly objects” to the “subjective impression that a fundamentalist regime formed in the prayer room’s vicinity”.

The university justifies the closing with the many Mosques near campus. “Therefore, the prayer room will soon be closed in the course of extensive construction measures in this university building,” they say. At the same time, they stress that the university is an ideologically neutral establishment, “which principally does not prefer any religious group”. Now the management plans to support retreats for students and staff in neutral rooms. Such a “room of silence” would allow them to calm down or to pray. The university explicitly stresses that they see themselves as a “place of tolerance and peaceful coexistence”.

Muslim student destroyed a cartoon poster in 2013

In the past, the University of Essen was shown in an unfavorable light because of Islamic zealots and fundamentalists. Because she deemed her religious feelings hurt, in 2013 a Muslim student destroyed a cartoon poster with a pair of scissors. A full frontal attack on the freedom of opinion and art, to which the university reacted with self-censorship. The student exhibition “What Comics Can Do” in the library foyer had to be closed prematurely, and the district court later sentenced the picture-destroyer to a fine of €400 for property damage.

At one time the few Muslim students on the campus of Essen were viewed as exotic birds, but they have long since appeared to be numerous and self-confident. Moderate Muslim students complain about an atmosphere of intimidation by the fundamentalists, who arrogate to themselves to define what is Islamically correct.

At the last elections to the General Student Committee, with 30% the “United Students”, dominated by Muslims, became the strongest group in the student parliament. One of their central demands is: halal food in the canteen and a better prayer room at the Duisburg site.

7 thoughts on “A Mosque in All But Name — Closing a “Prayer Room” at Essen University

  1. They did the same at UCL in 1997 when I was a postgraduate there.

  2. The changes here in Europe are incredible, whether one lives inside the EU colony or in Switzerland as I do, a sort of semi-controlled zone where the Swiss government must pay millions of euros each year to keep the Brussels mafia off their backs. Here too there are certain types of Muslims with their version of Islam that declares, “give us an inch and we take a mile every time we see an opportunity.” The “moderate” Muslims meanwhile are too scared to say anything. Aside from the mediocrity of the controlled Western prestige media and the overall leadership on the continent, there are awkward formulations of political correctness practiced by academia that demonstrate an embarrassing lack of sophistication, mimicked by their overpaid and under-educated professors, which then the students can only learn to become as ignorant as their teachers. There are so many fronts where the changes are occurring and so many groups fighting among each other, so I guess it’s working our perfectly for the ruling class and their minders. Now the Grand Drunkard, EU Chief Jean Claude Juncker has threatened Britain over Brexit and called them deserters. It will also be interesting to see what happens if Britain is actually allowed to leave, and how the TTIP and Fisa will affect the dynamics of the EU migration flows and the expansion of Islam in Europe, once it goes full swing. How will corporate rule deal with the population replacement; just go with the flow and profit? As the constant traveler throughout Europe what I come across makes me realize how complex this whole thing is. Will the traditional Catholic Roman upbringing of Italians have a point anymore since the Pope in so many words recently encouraged indigenous Europeans to breed with Muslims. Not all Italians see the contradictions.

    • Pinocchio Osborne predicts a fall in house prices [He call it ‘value’.] in the case of Brexit. – http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36344425

      What’s not to like? Sure, the property speculators may lose . . . but the consumers of housing as housing will be clear winners. New entrants to the housing market will achieve great value, and it may actually spawn some real activity in the building industry.

      Still, I predict that ignorance – and Islam – will win.

  3. Clearly a “compromise” with the Muslim students is in order. Female students will now be welcomed into the elevators along with Muslim males, since it’s a convenient place to grope the infidel chicks and there’s no place for them to escape. Perhaps the prayer room can be converted into a rape room.

  4. The Euro-Arab agreements seek to implement massive migrations from MENA into Europe and eventually open borders, outlaw criticism of Islam and facilitate elements of Sharia law- all under the auspices of tolerance, multikulti and anti-racism;

    Scenarios such as the one described in the article above are a direct consequence of the EU’s agenda.
    “Over the past three decades, the EEC and the EU’s political and cultural organizations have invented a fantasy Islamic civilization and history. The historical record of violations of basic human rights for all non- Muslims and women under sharia (Islamic Law) is either ignored or dismissed.”
    http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/eurabia-code_19.html

    Meanwhile Islamic countries and organisations continue to see such wishful EU thinking, as an open goal for the expansionist, supremacist mission of Islam.
    As Fjordman said, the EU is the principal driver of Islamification and it is the greatest organised betrayal in Western history.

    The EU is also well on its way, along with its massive network of irony-proofed antifas, to vilifying and radicalising half of Europe.

    The EU recently funded military-police exercises to practice dealing with civil unrest- there are too many examples of Europeans protesting against Islamification being treated worse than rapists and thieves.
    If anyone thinks these EU police will be used to defend Europeans and not against those who oppose the EU, Islamification and the insanity of multikulti- I would suggest waking up.

  5. It seems to me that these [Moslem] students are only protective toward their place at the moment, very soft indeed. They will leave the defensive stance and adopt a an aggressive one as soon as they have the numbers. When they will claim private sets of toilets, ask for segregation of classes or force ladies into hijab is just a matter of time. Expect attacks on other students if Charlie Hebdo publishes another Mohammed cartoon then.

    Some people may think I am joking, but they really attacked me in my home country, during a protest against Mykonos event and further Argentinian court verdict. I was on my way when a few protesters left the group and threw stones toward me, perhaps someone wearing kravat could be their Argentinian for a while. When [Moslems] are together they know no logic, no fear, no nothing.

    Their efforts, of course, are not without reward. We know well why these things happen. The more aggressively they attack and create fear in the hearts of enemies, the prospects of being introduced to power headquarters for promotions and job offers will be higher. These are totally conducted events that serve a purpose, as long as I know.

    I have heard many bad news from Russian universities too. [Moslem] Students from Kyrgyzstan, Chechen, Uzbekistan, etc has formed groups to attack Russian students in Moscow, and Russian boys give them hell in return. All in all, news are not promising.

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