By Catie Byrne, Staff Writer

Published in print Apr. 1, 2015

Last Friday, Ahmet Tanhan of UNCG’s counseling department and Dr. Vincent Francisco of UNCG’s department of health education hosted a dinner in the auditorium of the Bryan Building to discuss the results of Tanhan’s survey report of community concerns among UNCG Muslim students, faculty and staff.

Tanhan and Francisco opened with a discussion about what the top strengths and problems the 116 completed surveys indicated for UNCG’s Muslim community.

These top strengths, measured as questions on the survey ranked highest in satisfaction and importance, included: “You can practice your faith; you are pleased with your experience at UNCG; you can accomplish the goals of your education in the USA; students, faculty and staff improve relationships with others of different ethnic and faith backgrounds and I (as a Muslim of UNCG) am able to attend different activities.”

However, as Tanhan and Francisco noted of the data, there were far more top problems identified in the survey than strengths. In fact, there were twice as many issues highly ranked in importance with very low satisfaction.

Among participants, these concerns included: “You have prayer places/rugs, ablution stations and water in restrooms; I (as a Muslim of UNCG) feel safe; I (as a Muslim of UNCG) am safe; you do not experience verbal or physical insults, or abuse; you do not have to be concerned about your physical appearance; your belief/religion/spirituality is seen in a positive light/perspective by others; you are able to cope with difficult situations and pay attention to your academic studies; you feel safe to call the police/security when faced with some disturbance (e.g., insult, threats); UNCG community members prevent misconceptions or stereotypes about Islam and you have the support needed to handle sad news.” 

“We have to read the data very carefully,” said Tanhan, “Even our top strength was not really a strength.

“What does that mean for us— for this community,” he asked.

The 45 discussion attendees—a majority of them Muslim—responded impassionedly.

Nada Alnajjar said she felt safety was a top priority, “Especially after what happened in Chapel Hill.”

Alnajjar noted that a reason for examining how to change and improve conditions among UNCG’s Muslim community was that when she noticed a police officer in the room, she felt threatened and not protected.

“My first thought was: Why is he here; we haven’t done anything wrong,” Alnajjar said. 

Yasmin Ali said that she felt as though the dissatisfaction with feeling safe for Muslim women on campus was connected to a general concern of facing abuse due  to their appearance, especially for those wearing hijabs.

Ali, who wears hijab, said the “concern with appearance category” is, “Very important to me, but my satisfaction was very low—I’m conscious of my appearance at night.” This she said, contributed to her safety concerns.

In response, Francisco said he invited the police officer to remind those concerned with their safety of the escorting services available on campus.

However, some Muslims in the discussion did not feel this would remedy feelings of unease, and that it merely offered some protection without addressing the larger issues of why and how frequently Muslims, especially Muslim women, were targets of abuse.

This incited waging perspectives of whether Muslims within the UNCG community must work more to educate non-Muslims and present in a certain way to combat bigoted perceptions or whether non-Muslims should be more accommodating to a set of different cultural standards, practices and beliefs.

Ahmad Aljasser said that UNCG Muslims already “do our part to try to represent our faith in a positive way,” noting the “Ask A Muslim” signs the Muslim Student Association held in the EUC to establish a dialogue of understanding among Muslim and non-Muslim UNCG students.

However, while many Muslims in the discussion felt that the “Ask A Muslim” activity created positive communication, they emphasized that it wasn’t enough to rely on the Muslim Student Association to establish ways for UNCG Muslims to combat ignorance, abuse and collectively voice concerns needed to spark positive changes on campus.

One suggestion for inciting this change was for Muslim students to attempt one-on-one discussions with professors to prevent an outward projection of Islamophobia and a negative portrayal of Islam in the classroom.

However, some noted fighting for more positive inclusion in the classroom came with another set of potential drawbacks, namely that speaking out could potentially jeopardize the grades and make a target of whomever decided to defend, discuss and educate about Islam.

For those interested in reading Tanhan’s entire survey report summary and additional comments and concerns raised at the discussion dinner, he can be contacted through UNCG’s counseling department and Francisco through the department of health education.