The aim of the Think Tank is to pro-actively tackle the way that Muslim students experience systemic exclusion on campus. Since there is a diverse range of Muslim students on campus, each student's experience of systemic exclusion will be unique.
We believe strongly that those from minority belief systems should be able uphold their beliefs and be integrated into the campus community. Muslim students, like all SU students, deserve to feel a sense of belonging and community on campus.
In the context of our efforts, we consider exclusion to be any activities or interactions where a Muslim student is forced to choose between their student identity and their Muslim beliefs or practices. The choice to prioritise one often comes at the expense of the other. In particular, systemic exclusion, refers to exclusion that is built into the way that residence, faculty, academic, and administrative systems operate at the university. Such exclusion may be evident in formal policies or manifest more informally but still significantly in social engagements and event co-ordination.
Examples of this include but are not limited to:
The issues highlighted through the work of this Think Tank are a reflection of the concerns that Muslim students continue to face on campus. Muslim students constantly feel that they have to navigate between their religious identity and feeling a sense of belonging in a campus community that does not cater to them. Our discussion of this feeling of "either/or" has brought up themes of feeling alienated, undervalued, and alone.
In light of this, the work of a truly inclusive student leadership or staff body would seek innovative ways to break down the barriers that Muslim students face in their efforts to build meaningful connections with their fellow students. Such a seemingly colossal undertaking can begin by simply taking Muslim students into consideration during planning and working from there.
We would like to highlight the distinction between accommodation and integration. Accommodation acknowledges the ways that systemic exclusion plays out in a space and seeks to find ways to get around them temporarily. Integration involves examining the systemic exclusion and re-conceptualising policy or social engagements in a way that eliminates the issue altogether.
A chief example of this is halaal food on campus. Muslim students whose residences or PSO hubs don't have halaal certified kitchens are accommodated by being granted access to other facilites that have the necessary certification. However, this means that they have to go to another residence during mealtimes while their fellow residents simply go downstairs to their dining hall. Recently, the Monica and Harmonie kitchens have been certified as halaal. As a result, Muslim students from those residences enjoy both easier physical access to their food and are able to access the social opportunity that eating with other residents affords them. Integration has taken place.
While we acknowledge that in some cases, the integration of Muslim students presents as impractical, we would like to urgently appeal to student leaders and staff to look into ways to integrate, regardless. Accommodation often appears to yield solutions that are quicker, easier, and cheaper. However, Muslim students on the receiving end of these accommodations also receive the impression that they are only worth solutions that are quick, easy, and cheap. This erodes the sense of value and belonging that Muslim students have of themselves as members of the campus community and ultimately hinders how productively they can exist and contribute in a given space whether it be socially, academically, affectively, or in a leadership capacity.