Junior Mohamed Abdi is commanded by his religion to pray five times a day, but he no longer will be given excused periods during school to complete these required prayers..
“It’s important for Muslims to be able to pray in school,” he said. “When we get out of school there is no time to pray because many people participate in sports and other activities.”
Abdi, along with other Muslims at Park, was upset when he learned that Muslim prayer group, held every day during fifth hour, had been temporarily cancelled.
“I was disappointed when prayer was cancelled because it took away a chance for me to get my religious duties done in school,” Abdi said.
Junior Ayan Ahmed agreed, but said it was unclear why prayer was cancelled.
“I was sad when they cancelled prayer, but I understood that there had to be a good cause,” she said. “We were just never told the reason.”
After a week-long cancellation, prayer is up and running, but with new times and new supervision.
Jeremy Riehle, one of the advisers for prayer, said that it was temporarily cancelled because the room was not being adequately supervised.
“Prayer has been totally restructured,” he said. “Now students need passes, attendance is taken, and the room is well supervised.”
Abdi said he is excited about the new prayer situation.
“Now people will hopefully use the room only for prayer which will be less distracting,” he said.
According to a column published in the New York Times by Park alumnus Thomas Friedman, Park now has more Muslim students than Jewish students, due to the recent influx of Somali refugees to Minnesota.
Riehle said he believes it is important for Park to accommodate this change in demographics.
“Since we have a large Muslim population, school prayer time is a courtesy that we as a school have to extend to that group,” he said.
Ahmed said she believes the large Muslim population at Park makes it unique.
“For us to have a safe place to pray is very important,” she said. “Not many schools have that.”