Days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a Queen’s student was thrown from his bike near West Campus and had pebbles thrown at him.
A task force examining the need of Muslim students at Canadian universities heard this story when it came to Queen’s on Nov. 1. Organized by the Canadian Federation of Students, the task force was formed in January 2006 to address the needs of Muslim students at Canadian post-secondary institutions. They released their findings on March 21.
The report’s main finding was that in today’s campus culture, Islamaphobia is ever-present and steps must be taken to reverse this cycle.
The task force conducted roundtable discussions at 17 universities, and about 1,000 students participated.
In January 2006, the federation formed a task force to research the needs of Muslim students. Over the next year, the task force conducted depositions at 17 universities involving more than 1,000 students to get the opinions and thoughts of Muslim and non-Muslim students alike.
On Nov. 1, the task force organized a discussion at Queen’s with the help of the Queen’s University Muslim Students’ Association (QUMSA) Chairperson Haseeb Khan, SGPS Executive Director Jennifer Stacey and History professor Adnan Husain.
Khan said issues raised at Queen’s include posters ripped from the walls of the interfaith prayer room, the commonality of subtle hurtful or racist comments towards Muslims and a lack of diversity in social activities as well as courses and faculty .
“There were two types of concerns; those on the individual level and those that were more university-broad,” Khan said.
Queen’s only has one Muslim professor, Adnan Husain, who is currently on sabbatical. Also, many universities have Islamic studies departments, which are lacking at Queen’s.
“We call ourselves the Harvard of the North, and pride ourselves on being one of the best universities in the country, but we do not live up to this level,” Khan said. “Harvard has one of the best Islamic libraries in the world, something Queen’s does not even come close to.”
Khan said he would like the University to talk more with students, open a dialogue to see what can be changed.
He also wants the istration to focus on more Arabic and Islamic courses, as well as increasing the number of Muslim faculty .
“The onus is on the student clubs to push for change, because the University istration has been slow to catch on.”
Jesse Greener is a task-force member and Ontario federation chair.
Greener said the idea came forth after a string of racist and Islamaphobic incidents at Ryerson University last winter.
The task force was given the mandate to identify the daily needs of Muslim students that go above and beyond personal safety on campus.
“The plan was to get the ball rolling; no one has done anything like this before,” he said.
Greener added that he hoped the AMS and other campus organizations review their policy on social events and orientation and rethink their approach, so students who wouldn’t normally come out would be encouraged to.”
He said events like Homecoming are exclusive in that they place an emphasis on alcohol that could go against some people’s religious beliefs.
Dana Olwan, SGPS equity commissioner and a speaker at the deposition, said one of the more disappointing things that came out of the depositions is the fact that the Queen’s istration didn’t show up to listen to the voices of concern.
“We need action, not just an audience to hear grievances,” she said. “We tend to think we live in the Queen’s bubble and [racist incidents] aren’t happening.”
AMS President James Macmillan stressed that at Queen’s there is a strong effort to be really sensitive to issues of discrimination.
“The AMS tries to be a proactive organization in of making sure what we do is equitable and accessible to everyone and is a voice from students to the University on issues such as this,” he said.
One issue Macmillan said the AMS is trying to work on with the University is the issue of students kneeling to receive their degree at convocation.
“The University is looking at different ways of making that ceremony more available to people of different faiths who don’t want to kneel,” he said.
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