 "Photo: Missy Calvert")
 "Photo: Missy Calvert")
Seen from afar, Manhattan may be looked at as a small, predominantly white, Christian community. But with K-State and the ever-growing international student programs, Manhattan has become an extremely diverse Kansas town throughout the years. One ethnic group that has grown in particular is the Muslim community in Manhattan.
"Most of our community members are students. They are attracted here to K-State," said Abdulrahman Kamal, graduate student in curriculum and instruction. Kamal is the president of the Islamic Center's executive committee and the Muslim Student Association at K-State.
Through International Student Services, students come to K-State to study from many countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Turkey, Malaysia and Libya. According to statistics from ISS, students from Saudi Arabia are now the biggest foreign population studying at K-State.
"In 2006, the government in Saudi Arabia had a new program that was sending more students outside of the country," Kamal said. "I heard from friends who were here, before that program started, the Saudi students were about 10 or 12; they were mostly graduate students. But now we have 120 plus and most of them are undergrad students."
With such a surge in numbers, the one thing missing in Manhattan was a place for these Muslims to pray and gather together in their Islamic faith. This was first apparent in the 1980s.
According to the Islamic Center of Manhattan's official website, the Muslim Community realized that a place of worship was necessary and they worked to obtain a two-story house that was officially the first masjid, or mosque, in Manhattan.
After outgrowing this house, the community was able to build the mosque that is standing today through the help of donations from across the U.S. and overseas. The Islamic Center of Manhattan is located at 1224 Hylton Heights Rd. and includes separate prayer halls for men and women, a library, classes for the Children's Islamic school and an area for social gatherings.
The masjid serves as a place that Muslims can gather for social events, festivals and prayer. In the Islamic faith, Muslims pray five times a day.
"Especially for the male, it is better to pray in the masjid," said Kamal. "Since we are students here, we come very early in the morning before dawn time and the very last one after sunset."
Kamal said they also have weekly prayer on Fridays that consists of a twenty-five minute speech and prayer.
"This is the time where you can find most of the members come. Every week, we have about 80 to 90 brothers come and pray," he said. "For the females, it is not mandatory for them, but they can come."
Students also have a place to gather with the Muslim Student Association. This is a K-State student organization, but stems from the Islamic Center.
"Muslim Student Association just reflects the Muslim community and Muslim students," said Abdulla Al-Alili, member of the Islamic Center's executive committee. "Each year, they try to bring a guest speaker to speak about Islam and to give an idea about Muslim, because you know how the media reflects the Muslim community and they try to clarify this."
As students studying in a culture that is not predominately Islamic, prayer times often come into conflict with class schedules. For Kamal, he has found that professors will work with his schedule to make sure he is accommodated for his religion.
"I go off for four minutes, five minutes, and I come back," he said. "Especially in education, our lectures are usually two and a half hours. So we need to get out otherwise I will miss the prayer time. All of my instructors, they understand this. They allow me just for five minutes, I go and that's it."
Kamal said there is a meditation room on the fourth floor of the library that he can go to and pray. He said this is where many Muslims go while they are studying in the library.
The Islamic faith is a monotheistic religion, worshiping Allah. The religion follows the five pillars of Islam, which are general practices of the religion. These pillars include a declaration of faith, five daily prayers, almsgivings — an obligatory act of giving — fasting and a pilgrimage to Mecca known as Hajj.
Hajj is often difficult for Muslims to make, due to the financial obligation of traveling to the holy site, but if the journey is possible to make at a point in one's life, then it is required of them. Al-Alili is one Muslim who was able to make the trip to Mecca.
"One thing about Hajj I like is that everyone is equal," he said. "Rich, poor, male, female; especially the males, they wear simple clothes. You cannot distinguish between ruler or the king or the poor people. It is very great."
Kamal, who is originally from Saudi Arabia, was also able to make the journey.
"It is a great opportunity to talk, to exchange ideas, to learn about different cultures," he said. "I grew up in Mecca, actually. So around our house were many Muslims from all over the world, from Pakistan, from Arab countries, from African countries. I have learned a lot from them."
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"The idea that immigrants need to maintain group cohesion promotes the perception of them as victim groups requiring special accommodation, an industry of special facilities and assistance. If people should conform to their ancestral culture, it therefore follows that they should also be helped to maintain it, with their own schools, their own government-subsidized community groups, and even their own system of legal arbitration. This is the kind of romantic primitivism that the Australian anthropologist Roger Sandall calls 'designer tribalism.' NonWestern cultures are automatically assumed to live in harmony with animals and plants according to the deeper dictates of humanity and to practice an elemental spirituality.
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― Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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