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MUSLIMS IN UNIVERSITY Muslims and the Dorm Experience: MILC Creates Muslim Living Environment on Campus by Tasneem Jennifer Crooker During the 1997 fall semester, a group of Orthodox Jewish students at Yale University sued their chosen institution of higher education for its failure to provide comfortable living quarters. In particular, the Jewish students (in this case, men) objected to the co-ed [mixed sex] living environment, insisting that their religion forbids them to live with unrelated members of the opposite sex before marriage. Mixed sex dorms (co-ed) are the norm on campuses Co-ed dorms are, in fact, the norm on the vast majority of college campuses, even in many conservative traditionally Christian schools. Individual rooms are shared by members of the same gender, but the floors themselves are mixed. Many dorm rooms do not have individual bathrooms, rather, the floor shares a common bathroom which is also co-ed. This is especially true in dorms allotted for freshmen, while upperclassmen are allowed the privilege of dorms with private bathroom facilities, or even apartments. In addition, most universities require that freshmen and sophomores live on campus unless living at home, married, or over the age of 21. Therefore, students who find on-campus living situations uncomfortable often find no escape. Why this is a challenge for Muslims For Muslims, college dorms present a formidable problem. Living close to members of the opposite sex and sharing bathrooms with them, the presence of alcohol, tobacco and drugs among non-Muslims, the presence of music, the lack of a suitable place to perform Salat, or lack of modesty among members of the same sex combine to make dorm life for Muslims uncomfortable, even intolerable. Georgetown University and the MILC Muslim students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. have found a way to solve this problem. Beginning in the 1997-98 school year, aided by the Department of Housing and Campus Ministries, the Muslim Interest Living Community (MILC) was established for sisters living on-campus. The 10-member Community is located on an exclusive floor in the only freshman dorm with private bathrooms for each room. The common area is equipped with a lock that only MILC members' keys can open. Khadijah Lin, a senior, came up with the idea and submitted a proposal to Campus Ministries, which endorsed the project and funded the Community's activity budget of $1500. The goals of the Community, as outlined in Lin's proposal, include strengthening the Muslim community and providing a comfortable place for Muslims to live, while also reaching out to the non-Muslim community. Lin says she came up with the idea for MILC because it was often difficult to foster unity between Muslim students who lived scattered throughout different parts of the campus. Planned meetings in the campus prayer room or other common areas were difficult to arrange, and often fell through. A communal living environment, on the other hand, while “establishing an Islamic living community with an Islamic environment” would facilitate unity and allow the sisters “to be together and learn from each other.” Georgetown University, a Jesuit school, also has three other Interest Living Communities: for Jewish students, for Catholic students, and for students interested in volunteer work. Initial doubts about the project When the proposal for MILC was first submitted, many expressed doubt as to its value. An article published in The Hoya, one of Georgetown's student newspapers, quoted several students and faculty members and conveyed the tone that MILC would be a living community for extraordinarily religious students, intimidating for some Muslim students who are not accustomed to a religious environment. However, MILC's members come from a variety of cultural backgrounds and represent six states from Maine to California and from Florida to Michigan. Yet they are unanimous in their praise for the community, and say that they chose to live there in order to feel more comfortable with their surroundings and to be supported by other Muslims. According to Su'ad Abdul-Khabeer, a sophomore from New York City who gave up an apartment to live in MILC, “you can be friends with whoever you want outside, but your home should be a place where you feel the most comfortable.” Syma Ahmad, a freshman from California said she decided to live in MILC because “there are no worries...you can be more comfortable living with a person who has the same values.” She says the MILC is not only a place to live, but a “built-in family.” MILC is not only a living community, but a center for many Muslim activities on campus. Many of MILC's members have been vital in the success of MSA activities. MILC has also hosted Islam information sessions, and get-together for sisters from Georgetown and other area universities. Members have participated in community fasting on Mondays and Thursdays, weekly trips to Masjid in the Washington, D.C. area, and during Ramadan provided food for each other at communal Suhoor gatherings in the floor's commons area. MILC's common area provides space to pray Indeed, the common area is one of the most important elements of the Muslim Interest Living Community. One freshman resident believes that, “it is one thing to have a Muslim roommate, but without a common area where are you going to relax with other sisters, and where are you going to pray?” The common area of MILC is split in half, with one half serving as the prayer area and the other half as the “living room”. Since the room is locked, community members have made their appliances such as microwaves, toasters, and bread machines (appliances normally forbidden in dorm rooms but allowed in the common areas) available for everyone. Others have offered their Islamic libraries. Difficulty establishing MILC for 1998-99 school year MILC's organizers for the 1998-99 school year are already facing difficulty establishing the community for next year [this article was published in Spring 1998: Sound Vision]. One factor endangering the future of the Muslims Interest Living Community is a lack of numbers. The Housing office allowed the Community to operate below capacity this year, after some freshman who initially committed to living on the floor backed out during the first week of classes. This situation, however, causes the university to lose money on the vacant places, and therefore housing is unwilling to let MILC exist in the future except at full capacity. “The Freshman experience” used to oppose MILC The main opposition comes from Residence Life, which holds to the oft-invoked concept of “the freshman experience”. Unwilling to let upperclassmen live in the freshman dorm where MILC is currently located, MILC will be reestablished in on-campus apartments, (including several apartments for brothers), but the Housing office will not let freshman live in apartments under any circumstances. Shaheen Kazi, a freshman from Oklahoma who is coordinating [the 1998-999] Muslim Interest Living Community, says that the Housing office is “very opposed” to the idea of MILC because they believe that freshmen should have “the freshman experience” of “living in dorms and dealing with different kinds of people.” While the idea of learning to live with “different kinds of people” may sound harmless and even appealing on the surface, MILC members agree that for Muslims it causes more harm than good, causing Muslims to live in an environment which distracts them from their desire to become better Muslims, and even drawing weaker Muslims away from Islam. MILC participants are satisfied with their experience and feel that students in other campuses should also work toward establishing such communities especially at a time when co-ed living is taking a wider meaning. ****** Tasneem Jennifer Crooker, a native of Maine, is majoring in Arabic and Linguistics at Georgetown University. She served as a summer intern at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) headquarters during 1997 and is active in MSA [the Muslim Students' Association]. This article was originally published in the May/June 1998 issue of Islamic Horizons magazine under the title “Creating a Muslim Living Environment on Campus”. It has been republished with permission. 
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