By Kayla Cockrel Staff Writer
Over 50 years ago, the U.S. government passed a law to prevent mandatory prayer in schools. In 1962, the United States decided to reinstate the option of practicing spirituality in public schools to students. Students still have the choice to learn with a focus on their personal faith in educational settings.
The State of Michigan currently has 49 privately operated Roman Catholic high schools, where students are exposed to religious study classes. Cass Tech may not offer religious studies but students can still learn and develop their faiths. Muslim students at Cass Tech assimilate daily in the north lobby alone or in groups to do just that.
The Muslim faith calls for prayer and worship five times a daily, therefore each day many CT Muslim students set aside a time to pray with each other at school. Mahir Sharir, a senior at Cass Tech, appreciates school for time he gets to worship and the ability to gather his thoughts.
“Praying at Cass give me a sense of peace, but it also gave me an opportunity to experience and learn things from other people of my faith. At the end of the [school] day the praying really serves a stress reliever for me.”
Another participant in the daily Muslim prayer services is sophomore Shojib Miah, he sees the opportunity to worship on the school’s campus as a great amenity.
“It’s nice to know that the school can provide this type of setting in which we can pray.”
As a public school in a culturally diverse environment, CT finds itself with an array students and just as many varying meditations from religious views.
Christian senior Brianna Taylor exercises her same right to faith as well. It is not uncommon to find her and others saying a quick prayer before a test, or a thank you for a little boost in school.
“I'm very active in my church and I pray at school, mostly before test and quizzes,” she said. “Everyone needs a form of comfort in stressful times so they can collect themselves and for me, it’s my religion.”
Maisha Hossain, Kulsuma Fahima, Krishana Castro and Dana Session contributed to this report.
