Nueces Mosque visitors mostly comprised of students

Editor's Note: This is the seventh part of a series on religious centers and places of worship available to students on and near campus.

From the chipping paint to the unkempt lawn, the Nueces Mosque may seem worn, but the nearly 300 UT Muslim students involved with the center feel differently.

"A lot of students, especially freshmen, usually don't have a community to go to and, so they don't get involved in the wrong crowd, we want to provide a social and educational atmosphere," said sociology senior Mubashir Kamran, the mosque's financial officer. "We're trying to provide a very nice, close-knit social community."

Though the percentage of Muslim students at UT is small, the University has a large Muslim community compared to other college campuses, said business honors and Plan II junior Farah Ahmed, spokeswoman of the Muslim Students Association.

"This is the first time in my life where I've been able to go [to mosque] regularly," she said. "Because it's so accessible and in walking distance, this is the first time I feel a real community."

Students can use the mosque to pray five times each day, attend Friday afternoon services, study and hang out, Kamran said.

Ahmed said about 90 percent of the people who attend the Nueces Mosque - located on Nueces Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 21st Street - are UT students, which includes a lot of individuals involved in the Muslim Students Association.

"Recently the students stepped up at this facility, before it wasn't very student oriented," Kamran said. "We're trying to make the facility more student oriented and help student causes. We've changed a lot, but we're expecting more growth."

The mosque does not offer social activities, but plans to provide that service, as well as volunteer opportunities, in the future, he said.

"I think there is always the fact that Muslims get stereotyped because of political situations around the world and things that have happened in the past," Ahmed said. "It seems the whole religion gets blamed, but I really don't feel like people face that every day. I don't feel like it's hard to be a Muslim at UT."

Comments

1 comments

Paul Eulette

Sun Oct 18 2009 15:48

This is a very good article - It is interesting to see the comparisons of religious activities of college students across various religious backgrounds. We are comparing a similar topic in our magazine, Quarterlife Magazine.

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