Roaming Reporter: Muslim Students Speak Out
Jacob Winter, Senior Staff Writer, BA Politics and International Relations 03/02/2025
SOAS is almost unique amongst British universities in how prominent its Muslim students are. Islam is the single most adhered to religion at SOAS, with 31% of its students declaring itself to be Muslim in 2021/22. The Islamic Society is one of the largest societies at SOAS, founded in the 1960s and continues to be one of the most active societies at the university. Despite the prominence of Muslim students at SOAS, they also face challenges that can be disruptive to their university experience, with recent issues like space allocation and islamophobia making many Muslim students feel unsafe on campus. I spoke to Zaid Anas Altikriti and Sacdiyo Abdulahi - Welfare lead and Operations officer for the Islamic Society respectively - about the problems Muslim students have faced on campus.
When asked what the main issues facing Muslim students at SOAS were, Zaid emphasised the lack of space allocation for Muslim students to fulfill their religious obligations, particularly prayer. Muslim women have not been given a large enough prayer room for the number of students who need to pray, which had previously led to random allocation of rooms at SOAS for prayer.
When asked about prayer spaces, Sacdiyo said that, “Muslim students on campus have consistently requested a permanent prayer space that is appropriately sized for the sisters, but these requests continue to be ignored, despite the significant Muslim population at SOAS. The current prayer room for sisters is far too small, often becoming overcrowded during prayer times. As the room can only hold around 40 people at once, sisters are sometimes forced to take turns to pray, causing them to be late to their lectures and tutorials. This also creates health and safety risks where people are tripping over bags, jackets and shoes as they are in a hurry. Additionally, the lack of space creates accessibility issues, as sisters who require a chair to pray often cannot do so.”
The issues with the women’s prayer space has led to the Friday Jummah Prayer being hosted in the JCR, which drew the ire of students at SOAS who saw their main common space shut off over the lunch period one day a week. Sacdiyo emphasised that the JCR was not the chosen prayer space, but had been left with “no other viable option.” In a statement published by the Islamic Society on the 20th of January, the society expressed the unsuitability of the JCR under Islamic guidelines, with its insufficient wudu facilities and decor that isn’t conducive to supporting a prayer space.
Another issue with the assignment of the JCR as a women’s prayer space is the accusation of harassment from security and complaints from other students. When asked if SOAS had an islamophobia problem, Zaid said that the students have faced “consistent aggression” from security staff, and both Sacdiyo and Zaid pointed to issues with other students blaming the Muslim students for the space allocation, with people accusing Muslim students of “taking over” spaces, or that they have an undue amount of influence with SOAS management and the Student Union.
Sacdiyo added that “It was a careless decision on SOAS's part to allocate a social space for prayer without considering the potential repercussions. Asking us to manage the situation ourselves by having to ask people to leave the JCR has further placed us in a vulnerable position. The university should have anticipated the backlash and taken steps to protect us from the Islamophobia and hostility that we are now facing.”
The comments on the SOAS SU instagram post ranged from islamophobic remarks to general anxieties about space allocation, with one student raising that 3 hours for the prayer slot is during one of the busiest times for the JCR, while another claimed that the prayers in the room were “invalid” followed by laughing emojis. Several comments were also placed on @soasmatchmaker, with some complaining at the lack of access to microwaves, while others complaining about the need for a truly private space for Muslim women to pray.
The issue of the islamophobia at the university was placed in its historical context by Zaid, saying that “SOAS has gone from being one of the literal outposts of empire, a collaborator in the enslavement and oppression of Muslims globally, to being one of the most prominent centres for Islamic studies in the Western world.” He also stressed that this contradiction is one of the main issues that Muslim students face at SOAS, “Muslim students are provided with an ultimatum, choose between academic success or spiritual contentment - the implication being that Islam can't be compatible with academia which we know is just simply not true when we consider the rich history of Islamic academia across the world.”
So, if SOAS has such a largely represented Muslim community, why does SOAS have such a problem with adequately providing for them? The neglect by the university was regularly highlighted by both Zaid and Sacdiyo, with the responsibility placed at the hands of university management, “As I said before, it is because those with decision making power, and regularly even elected representatives, see our voices as negligible and expendable. The advice we receive tends to be that more noise needs to be made, but I fail to understand why students trying to get an education have to cause problems and ruffle feathers to get the bare minimum as far as accommodation is concerned.” SOAS has acknowledged a lack of communication and committed to “initiating a conversation with all faith communities within our university to think through how the provision of prayer facilities can be best enabled for all in an equitable manner and reflecting the varied needs of our diverse student body.”
Sacdiyo added that, “Whilst the Islamic Society has continuously raised this issue, students should not have to sacrifice their education by going above and beyond to prove that there is a demand for something that is so basic and essential. Additionally, when the university faces criticism for their neglect, they opt to give us temporary resolutions such as assigning the JCR for the sister’s Friday prayer just so they can claim that they have done something. They choose to ignore the issues we face with the space itself as well as the negative feedback from students and staff. The university would rather give us temporary solutions that make us vulnerable to such backlash rather than giving us what we asked for, which is a permanent prayer space of an adequate size.”
When asked what steps should be taken by the university for Muslim students to feel more secure, Zaid insisted that the onus of providing for Muslims at SOAS is on uni management itself, “The ISoc maintains, as it has for some time now, that they have the responsibility of representing Muslim issues on campus, dealing with management with regards to these issues, and offering Muslims a safe space to communicate these issues and simultaneously detach themselves from them so they can focus on their general university lives.”
The importance of consulting ISoc on these issues was also raised by Sacdiyo, “In regards to the issue of prayer spaces, the ISOC has been raising this issue with the SU for the last two years in hopes of attaining a permanent and adequately sized prayer space for the sisters. More recently, the ISOC has organised a Town Hall meeting with a member of the SU to express our frustrations with the prayer spaces as well as several other issues Muslims face .
As well as this, the ISOC has endorsed the Muslim Student Census to encourage students to document their experiences and express their concerns to help the ISOC understand the issues that need to be tackled.”
If SOAS continues to neglect and ignore its Muslim students, and provide a sustainable solution for the many issues that face them, the consequences for all students will be profound. Whether it's a problem with space allocation or security harassment, other students cannot ignore that the problems Muslim students face impact on all of us.
The full comment from a SOAS spokesperson said:
"SOAS will be initiating a conversation with all faith communities within our university to think through how the provision of prayer facilities can be best enabled for all in an equitable manner and reflecting the varied needs of our diverse student body.
"While the primary purpose of a university is to enable the teaching of our students, and our estate is directed for this purpose, we recognise the importance of pastoral care for our students and that religious observance may be an important consideration in their lives.
"We endeavour to enable the provision of prayer facilities for all within our community, as our rights, rules and policies apply equally to all. As a cosmopolitan and multi-faith community in the heart of London, this does require all within our community to view this provision from both their own perspective and that of their fellow institutional citizens."
