(13 March 2009)

A row has broken out at Queen Mary University, London about the use of its multi-faith centre. The National Hindu Students Forum (UK) claims that members of the Queen Mary’s Islamic Society have been physically preventing students of the university’s Hindu society from offering prayers at the multi-faith centre on the premises by standing 15 students at the door. The last Hindu prayer in the evenings is normally at 6pm, but the Muslim group who have a prayer session before the Hindus say that there is "no demand for the use of the multifaith centre by other faith communities" and they cannot therefore allow Hindus to use the premises even though they have a valid booking for its use.

“The Islamic Society refuses to move out of the room even though we have a booking to use it for this week (13 March 2009). They did not even allow security to enter the premises and we were left standing outside the room unable to offer our prayers,” explained Kajal Valani, Chair of the National Hindu Students Forum. “The men who stood barricading the door issued verbal threats to us. We are going there again this evening, and we await to see if good sense will prevail.”

“This kind of incident should not be tolerated,” explained Kishan Bhatt from the National Hindu Students Forum. “We feel that the diverse culture of Britain is being violated.”

"It is important that students from every faith community are allowed to co-exist peacefully on university campuses," said Ramesh Kallidai, secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain. "A multi-faith centre must be exactly that - multi-faith. If one community believes that other communities cannot use a multi-faith centre and use physical and verbal methods to prevent their entry for legitimate use, then something is seriously wrong with our model of cohesion and good-relations. We hope university authorities, multi-faith leaders and the Home Office can come together to resolve this issue amicably."

"Education Institutes should be ensuring rights of other faith groups in universities and colleges to equal use of multifaith centres, instead of allowing them to become centres of preaching misguided hatred and extremism," said Sudarshan Bhatia President of the National Council of Hindu Temples UK. "The Islamic societies must show solidarity and respect to other communities."

The National Hindu Students Forum (UK) has given assurances that it will work peacefully and tolerantly with the Queen Mary’s University to resolve the situation peacefully.