"In the past, students have asked professors to be excused [from the exam] to pray," Khan says. "Many students take the time to pray somewhere in the building."

Muslims have also been trying to find a place to hold daily and Friday prayers on campus. Up to 150 students are currently squeezed into the two approximately 15 square foot rooms in the basement of Canaday E, surrounded by water pipes and dorm noises.

"You've got to pray in a basement," Jamalludin says. "That's not very nice. It's definitely not big enough."

"The room in Canaday E is almost impossible to get to," adds Siddiqi, who says he has been locked out several times.

"We'd like a permanent space, or at least someplace we have some attachment to," says Islamic Society vice president Mohammed Asmal '95.

Asmal says the society would like a space that could comfortably hold 150 students for prayer, along with office and library space and an ablution facility.

"We've been working towards [this goal], but the process has been very slow with the University," Asmal says. "The worst trouble we've had has been with the administration, in fact."

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III says that while the University will work with the Muslim group, it will be the organization's responsibility to find a new facility with their own funds.

"The Islamic Society faces the challenge of increasing population," Epps says, "and typically the way religious communities have met that challenge is to find space off campus to rent."

Epps says the space in Canaday E is too small for the crowds at Friday prayer.

"For the moment it is [sufficient], but not in the long run," Epps says. "We've been discussing a larger space and at the moment they're working with the University Committee on Religion to address that proposal."

Dietary Concerns

Muslims have also been trying to get Harvard Dining Services to provide meals that meet their dietary needs.

"I spent most of my first year eating at Hillel," Khandekar says. "In effect, all of my board money was going to waste."

Siddiqi says he persuaded Dining Services to prepare Halal food for him at the Freshman Union this year.