AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The headquarters of the American University of Lebanon is in New York. Students at the Byblos campus say they are being prevented from praying. The lack of prayer space at the American University of Lebanon campus in Byblos has sparked controversy in Lebanon. Muslim students accuse the university of discriminating against them.
Byblos, also known as Jbeil, is a city with a Christian majority north of Beirut, but hundreds of Muslim students study at this university campus.
Most students, even non-Muslims, have accused the university of preventing Muslim students from praying on campus and closing spaces that were previously used for prayer at the university. They also noted that there is no mosque within walking distance of the university, and reaching mosques takes time.
After the closure of the prayer space, praying anywhere else has also been met with a response from the university. One student at this university, who gave only his first name, Suleiman, told the New Arab newspaper, "Students used to pray in an unused locker room, but the university said it wanted to turn it into a laboratory and closed it, but that never happened, and it was not turned into a laboratory."
When students asked if they could have [another] space for praying, the university did not care. Students started praying under the staircase in the parking lot, but the university said they absolutely could not do that. One student asked Chaouki Abdallah, the university president, for another space to pray, but the students were told to forget this request entirely.
About 300 students recently signed a petition asking the university to provide a prayer space for Muslims. However, Suleiman said many Muslim students are afraid to speak about this out of fear of being expelled.
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