The wall that separates the Wesley Center and the prayer room used by the Muslim Student Association is metaphorically and literally quite thin. But an unusual thing occurs at the United Methodist building on Kincaid Street: different religions dwell together in peace.
The prayers of Muslims and Christians in the same building meld together, proving to the world, student congregates say, that different religions can coexist peacefully side by side.
Ahmad Alrashidi, a student in the American English Institute, has been using the prayer room for seven months.
Alrashidi said the Muslim prayer room in the Methodist building works to “create an understanding between Muslims and Christians.”
Soteria Moli, a student intern at the Wesley Center, said the fact that a Christian group can meet together in the same building at which a Muslim group is praying, “signifies the true meaning of what it means to be Christian.”
Although the Methodists own the building, they allow the MSA and other student organizations to use space as an interfaith sanctuary.
Warren Light, director and campus pastor of the United Methodist Campus Ministry, said that the MSA was invited to use the building as a place of prayer about five or six years ago.
“We’re different from a lot of Christian groups,” Light said. Surrounded by the brightly colored pottery and tapestries in Light’s study is a stack of literature, with one book entitled “Why Christianity Must Change or Die.”
The purpose of a Methodist church “in today’s world is to find a common ground,” he said.
Rashed Mubarak, a member of the MSA and a frequent participant of the Muslim prayer room in the Wesley Center, believes that there is a comfortable relationship between the two religious groups. Mubarak said the MSA members and the Methodist group share not only a building, but also the occasional meal.
Every Tuesday night, the Methodist campus ministry hosts a dinner. The food is free and all are invited. The dinner, like the building, promotes a welcoming atmosphere and free exchange of ideas.
“The meal serves as a time to share differences with each other and to find our commonalities,” Moli said.
Alrashidi believes the successful Methodist-Muslim relationship at the University of Oregon can be projected to a larger scale, showing governments and religious leaders that different beliefs can coexist in harmony.
“My choice to be a Christian shouldn’t inhibit the right for another person to practice the ways of their faith,” Moli said. “If other countries could realize this, it would dramatically change the ways in which we interact with other.”
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