Muslim students tossed around by University
The recreation centre, a storage room, a used classroom and now a dark far away space. Muslim students are thrown around Albany campus with no idea when the multi-faith building they were promised will be ready.
“At least gives us a roadmap,” Naomaan Riyaz, President of the Muslim Students Association said. He expected to have already moved to a multi-faith space, said to be ready by June this year. However, since mid-last year Riyaz has had no updates from the university, not even to say that construction hasn’t started.
The current ‘temporary’ space for Muslim students is a 25-minute uphill walk away from main campus on the Ōtehā Rohe (OR) campus. Muslims pray five times a day, at least two are within university hours. Riyaz said, “It's not that easy for students to go to the OR campus in the middle of the day.” He felt neglected by the university, “For students to have to walk 25 minutes one way and then pray for maybe 10 minutes and walk back 25 minutes. That’s too long.”
Not only is the current space far away, but many students have fallen on the slippery path. Riyaz has complained that it is very dark with trees covering it. “It's got a lot of issues, there's no lighting.” The walkway to the room is always wet from the trees and moss.
With over 100 members, the temporary space is not big enough for the Congregational Prayer held on Fridays with students and their families. It was also too small for the month of Ramadan, when students break fast at school. “That means food and drinks for about 60 people every evening. So that means we need a bigger space because we sit on the floor and eat,” Riyaz said.
Since 2020, the association has been relocated from a prayer space in the recreation centre, a storage room, a classroom in the Atrium building constantly being used by others, and now mainly use a ‘temporary’ room on the OR campus. Riyaz said, “I tried my best to get something on the main campus but they didn’t have a place and they were waiting for the new building … All we needed was a bigger space.”
A Massey University spokesperson confirmed that work on the multi-faith space is yet to start. “The work on the multi-faith space is yet to commence due to delays in the resource consent process with the local council. As soon as consent is received work will commence.”
Jake Law, Auckland Student Association President said, “I do think it would be good for those groups to actually have a dedicated space purpose built for them.” However, he has not been given any timeline of when the building will be ready.
“If you walk past the space, you can see that it doesn’t look like it's going to be open this year.” He understood the multi-faith space will provide some offices for chaplaincy and a prayer space for the Muslim Students Association.
