Asalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh (May Peace, Mercy, and Blessings of Allah be Upon You),

Rockville Muslim Student Association is organizing this petition concerning the need for a larger serenity space in the Science Center; located at Montgomery College, Rockville.

The serenity space provides a safe environment where students can relax, reflect, meditate, and pray–giving respite from the fast-paced college life.​ This space is utilitzed daily by the large number of Muslim students on campus that have five daily prayers to perform. With the current season, which the prayer times depend on, many Muslim students pray 2-3 of their daily prayers on campus. The times of the prayers also coincide or occur during the time most afternoon classes are in session.

The current serenity space is very small in size, that at most two students can use it at the same time. This causes issues when multiple students are in need to use the space at once. Furthermore, in accordance with Islam, men and women are not to pray next to each other. Therefore, a male and female student are not able to use the serenity space at the same time. This leads to students having to wait their turn to use the space and in many cases it has caused students to be late to their classes. 

In order to fix this issue, MSA is advocating for a larger serenity space that will be able to accomodate a larger number of students at once.