MSU Dubai melds different cultural values on new campus

As MSU is venturing overseas with the opening of the MSU Dubai in the fall, the university is making adjustments that are needed to fit into a different set of cultural values — values Muslim Students’ Association members understand well.

Kris Hammond, senior project coordinator for MSU Dubai, said the university is focused on maintaining an atmosphere of inclusiveness in the country which holds Islam as its national religion.

“As a faculty we want to hold to MSU’s traditions, but still uphold Muslim culture,” Hammond said.

“We’re in a different setting and a different culture, where even the work week is different, which means changing things like the school calendar.”

While MSU does not allow students time off for religious observances, the MSU Dubai calendar will be adjusted with breaks for holidays like the Muslim Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan.

Other changes due to religion on the new campus may include the number of female attendees, as Jim Cotter, director of admissions at MSU, made some predictions for the MSU Dubai enrollment.

Though the application pool is still developing for the inaugural class, Cotter said through mixing and matching data from past and present classes at the East Lansing campus, some early indicators of MSU Dubai enrollment can be seen.

“The male-to-female breakup from last year was 44.2 percent to 55.8 percent, obviously more female,” Cotter said.

“International student attendance from this year is looking like 54.3 percent to 45.7 percent, more male attendees. From the two, we get the sense that at MSU Dubai, the gender split will be somewhere in between the two.”

Cotter said he predicts that 63 percent of students will be from other Middle Eastern countries and 1 percent will be from the U.S.

With a diverse group of students, Hammond said rules relating to women’s rights in Islam will be similar to those at MSU.

Zain Shamoon, a psychology senior and former outreach chair for the Muslim Students’ Association, said this goes along with the teachings of Islam.

“From an Islamic standpoint, we promote respect for all people in the world,” Shamoon said.

Despite this standpoint, traditions like the wearing of head scarves as an act of reverence to Islam have long been in debate amongst Muslims across the world.

On June 12 the Constitutional Court, the top court in Turkey, ruled that head scarves are not in accordance with secularism and cannot be allowed in secular institutions like universities.

“In the U.S. it’s much more of a personal choice whether to wear the scarf or not — the girls who don’t wear it still have a respect for it, and those who do have many different personal reasons,” Shamoon said.

“There’s not the same tension.”

Shamoon said even though many women believe they have to wear the scarf, this ruling is “quite ridiculous.”

“People see the head scarves as oppressive, but Islam and its beliefs actually promote women’s rights,” Shamoon said. “But you never see that today.”

Shamoon said many Muslims practice Islam in different ways, some seeing a promotion of a male-dominated culture through women wearing the head scarf, while others taking a more secular view.

“The problem is the debate between whether to have a secular or a religious government, where people think a religious government would be too conservative,” Shamoon said.

“But either way it’s oppression, making people fit into a code they’re not comfortable with.”