{"id":27828,"date":"2013-11-25T10:47:30","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T15:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=27828"},"modified":"2016-09-30T15:59:38","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T19:59:38","slug":"a-catholic-university-makes-room-for-muslims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/11\/a-catholic-university-makes-room-for-muslims\/","title":{"rendered":"A Catholic university makes room for Muslims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From The Minneapolis Star Tribune:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dark-haired young men started arriving about 12:30 p.m., piling their backpacks and coats in the narrow hallway. One by one, they slipped off their shoes and darted into an \u201cablution station\u201d for ritual washing. Then they filed silently into room 302 of Loras Hall.<\/p>\n

For the first time in its 128-year history, the University of St. Thomas has its own Islamic prayer rooms, as well as ritual washing stations for observant Muslims.<\/p>\n

The prayer rooms, which opened in September, reflect the surging number of students from Middle Eastern countries flocking to the Catholic university in\u00a0St. Paul<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The contingent from Saudi Arabia alone has jumped tenfold, from 12 students in 2008 to 121 this fall, and officials say they\u2019re now the largest bloc of foreign students at the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we are a Catholic school,\u201d said Karen Lange, the dean of students, \u201cbut I think this shows that we\u2019re also a diverse place, and we\u2019re welcoming of students from all faiths.\u201d<\/p>\n

The symbols of the university\u2019s Catholic heritage are everywhere on the St. Paul campus: in the chapels, in the artwork, in the St. Paul Seminary divinity school.<\/p>\n

Yet they came as a surprise to some of the newcomers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know this was a Catholic university when we came here,\u201d admitted Afnan Alowayyid, a business communication major, who came from Saudi Arabia with her husband. Her English was so rudimentary, she says now, that she didn\u2019t realize that the school was named after a Catholic saint.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe name didn\u2019t mean anything to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It was also her first exposure to churches, crosses and images of the Virgin Mary. Growing up in Mecca, the capital of the Muslim world, she was never \u201cexposed to any other religion before,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Minneapolis Star Tribune: Dark-haired young men started arriving about 12:30 p.m., piling their backpacks and coats in the narrow hallway. One by one, they slipped off their shoes and darted into an \u201cablution station\u201d for ritual washing. Then they filed silently into room 302 of Loras Hall. For the first time in its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,602],"tags":[11208],"class_list":["post-27828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-muslims","tag-muslims"],"yoast_head":"\nA Catholic university makes room for Muslims<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From The Minneapolis Star Tribune: Dark-haired young men started arriving about 12:30 p.m., piling their backpacks and coats in the narrow hallway. 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