Seeking Understanding & Acceptance

So what is life like as a minority on campus?

“Overall, everyone has been nice, but they do always assume that I’m LDS. Sometimes they speak to me and I’m like ‘wait what?’ because some terms I don’t understand,” said Shaksher.

“I assumed that people knew the basics, but you find out that a lot of people don’t know the most basic thing about Islam,” stated another BYU sophomore and Georgia native, Taif Almadi.

Almadi also reports situations of passive racism. “I never assume that’s their intent . . . but sometimes it’s hurtful.”

What can be done to change the widespread ignorance? Students’ answers varied.

“Be open . . . to not always talk about church,” offered Shaksher. Almadi expressed appreciation for the religion classes offered to non-LDS students, including one about the Book of Mormon. She suggested the flipside of that: incorporating principles of other religions into the required religion classes at BYU. This could even help BYU students be better missionaries as they increase their social and religious empathy, she claimed.

Although Muslim students don’t always feel understood, they do feel overall accepted by their well-meaning peers.

“I was expecting that the people may not be friendly and accepting to the Muslims but when I arrived, I was surprised when we actually shared a lot of commonalities as Muslims and the people from the LDS church,” stated Abdul Hameed, a postdoctoral student from Pakistan. His experience seems to be shared by the majority of other Muslim students. “Before coming to BYU . . . I had some thoughts like whether I would be discriminated against or not but I didn’t experience any of these things. People here are very welcoming,” said Sakhawat Ali, another postdoctoral student from Pakistan. Many Muslim students acknowledged that their LDS peers are open to hearing about their customs and beliefs.

Most Muslim students have traveled across the globe to attend BYU, coming from Palestine, Egypt, Georgia, Pakistan, and other Middle Eastern countries. What entices someone to travel across the globe to attend a school where they will be a minority? The most popular answer to this is, in fact, the honor code.

“[BYU] is the only college I applied to because it’s church-based . . . it felt like the safest environment for me,” said Almadi.

The BYU Honor Code requires students to live virtuous lives, abstaining from cheating, alcohol, drugs, and sex before marriage. These standards are also upheld by practicing Muslims. Shaksher expressed that the environment and moral standards in Provo are similar to that of her home in Palestine. This allowed her parents to be comfortable with sending her so far away all by herself.

Although there are no official BYU organizations for Muslim students, there is a Muslim Students Association Facebook page, whose purpose is to “provide support to Muslim students at BYU and bring them together to form a strong Muslim community” and promote “friendly interaction between Muslims and the people of other faiths.” This group organizes Friday prayer which takes place in the Wilkinson Student Center each week. These Friday prayers are a place for Muslim students to build relationships with each other and live their faith. “Religion influences everything I do . . . to be able to express it means a lot to me,” shared Almadi. Students of other faiths are also welcome to join Friday prayer.