{"id":1022,"date":"2025-04-05T15:10:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T15:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/?p=1022"},"modified":"2025-04-13T00:16:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T00:16:52","slug":"muslim-prayer-room-vandalized-prompts-hate-crime-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/muslim-prayer-room-vandalized-prompts-hate-crime-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim prayer room vandalized, prompts hate crime investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Members of the Muslim community at NYU were left shocked and disturbed after a student discovered prayer mats soaked in urine and inappropriate graffiti etched onto the walls in a prayer room on Bobst Library\u2019s lower floors Thursday. The university has since launched an investigation into the incident as a hate crime and act of Islamophobia, and said that those responsible would be subjected to \u201c<\/span>the most serious sanctions available<\/span><\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The vandalism included chalked graffiti illustrating male genitalia, alongside the letters \u201cAEPI\u201d \u2014 which student groups claimed was in reference to the off-campus Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, a group <\/span>suspended in 2015<\/span><\/a> after being found responsible for hazing. NYU informed students and faculty in emails sent to the university community that the Department of Campus Safety and New York City\u2019s Hate Crimes Task Force will investigate the desecration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two hours after the incident was reported, several on-campus student groups \u2014 including the Muslim Student Association, Black Muslim Initiative and the Muslim Graduate Student Group \u2014 called the incident a hate crime and a \u201cdirect threat to our safety\u201d <\/span>in a post on Instagram<\/span><\/a>. The groups demanded the immediate expulsion of the perpetrator, a public condemnation of the attack and a commitment to installing additional security cameras outside the prayer rooms in Bobst. Silver sophomore Khadyja Gueye, also a chairperson of MSA, said the incident is a result of the university\u2019s failure to protect its Muslim students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be honest, students know there are cameras on \u2014 when they go into a building they have to scan their IDs, so they know if they do something like that, it is easy for them to get caught,\u201d Gueye told WSN. \u201cBut the fact they are comfortable enough to do something like that is because they feel like the university has given them that space and has allowed them to commit acts of Islamophobia without repercussion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Campus Safety head Fountain Walker condemned the desecration on Friday, calling it \u201chateful and repugnant.\u201d In <\/span>a post by NYU\u2019s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine<\/span><\/a>, the group accused President Linda Mills of enabling \u201canti-Palestinian and Islamophobic hate crime\u201d and criticized her for not issuing a public condemnation of the incident. SJP referenced the New York City Police Department\u2019s sweep of last year\u2019s Gaza Solidarity Encampment outside Gould Plaza, <\/span>when police arrested students, faculty and alumni<\/span><\/a> during Maghrib prayer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Faiyaz Jaffer, the associate chaplain of Global Spiritual Life at NYU, <\/span>said in a Thursday statement<\/span><\/a> that the incident was part of a broader uptick in instances of Islamophobia \u201cin the context of increasing governmental policies that marginalize and criminalize Muslim communities.\u201d In the last few months, the Trump administration has cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests, detaining and revoking visas of <\/span>at least nine noncitizen<\/span><\/a> students and faculty at colleges across the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations <\/span>issued a statement<\/span><\/a> on Friday calling on the university, state and federal law enforcement to investigate the vandalism. CAIR-NY director Afaf Nasher called the incident a \u201cvile act of desecration\u201d and \u201ca direct assault on the Muslim community\u201d at NYU and in the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had a meeting in the library earlier and I felt like even if I have to pray, I\u2019m not going to go downstairs and pray \u2014 I\u2019m going to actually go outside, cross the street and go to the Islamic Center prayer room to pray,\u201d Gueye said. \u201cBut even doing that I was a bit hesitant, because when you\u2019re praying, you\u2019re in your most vulnerable state. You have to understand that anything could happen while you\u2019re praying because it\u2019s like you\u2019re almost powerless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A group of Muslim student leaders on campus drafted a letter to the university, calling for the protection of Muslim students on campus and demanding immediate action to address the \u201cwider anti-Muslim sentiment.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Muslim student, who requested to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said news of the vandalism reached the Muslim community \u201cduring what was supposed to be a special time,\u201d as it occurred during the second annual Eid Fest \u2014 an event hosted by NYU Shuruq in collaboration with the other Muslim student organizations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to break the news to everybody that was there and you could just tell how sad everybody felt,\u201d the student said. \u201cIt felt like this incident was a message to us that Muslims can\u2019t be safe and that we can\u2019t enjoy ourselves in that sense, as we\u2019re celebrating our holiday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the last year, NYU <\/span>has added multifaith prayer spaces<\/span><\/a> on campus \u201cdesigned to provide accommodation for those of Islamic faith during Ramadan and for the quiet reflective practices of other faiths and spiritual communities.\u201d However, for students like Gueye, the Thursday desecration elicited concern for their safety and has led them to be more \u201cvigilant\u201d and \u201cwary\u201d of their surroundings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to show that, at the end of the day, Muslims have a voice in this community, we have a presence in the broader NYU community, and you can\u2019t really get rid of us,\u201d the student said. \u201cYou can\u2019t discourage us from using the spaces that we deserve to use just as anybody else. Our presence is always going to be heard, this is not going to scare us. This is just going to motivate us to be who we are and to take up space as we should be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Liyana Illyas at news@nyunews.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

This story Muslim prayer room vandalized, prompts hate crime investigation<\/a> appeared first on Washington Square News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Muslim community at NYU were left shocked and disturbed after a student discovered prayer mats soaked in urine and inappropriate graffiti etched onto the walls in a prayer room on Bobst Library\u2019s lower floors Thursday. The university has since launched an investigation into the incident as a hate crime and act of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1025,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/1025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}