A Muslim community center is planned to open on West Bank in September to give Muslim students at the University of Minnesota their own space near campus. 

The center, Salam Community, will be open by the first week of classes in September, according to Salam Community co-founder Shaykh Saifullah Muhammad. 

Muhammad and his team signed a purchasing agreement in January with the current building occupant, the Corner Bar, to purchase the space and the two floors above it.   

The deal is set to be closed by the end of March to give ample time to raise money to renovate and maintain the space, Muhammad said. He added there will be a focus on fundraising through March to raise the funds. 

Muhammad said the center’s inspiration came during the encampments when the University told Muslim students they could not have access to the Al-Madinah Cultural Center (AMCC). Muhammad said this made him realize that Muslim students need their own space. 

AMCC is located on the second floor of Coffman Union. During encampment protests in spring 2024, the University closed Coffman Union along with 11 other buildings to ensure the safety of community members, Vice President and Provost Rachel Croson said in a statement last spring.  

Muhammad participated in the encampments last spring and said he was the only Imam to stay overnight. He added that he and a few others needed to grab things from AMCC but were denied access by the University, which inspired the need for having a Muslim space on campus. 

“Us Muslims, we don’t really have a fully dedicated Muslim space, and for me, that just didn’t sit well,” Muhammad said. “I felt that we should have a space for Muslims to be able to come and interact with other Muslims and get to know other Muslims and have a gathering space like a center, community space, where everyone feels comfortable coming.”

AMCC is the only space currently on campus that is strictly for Muslim students. However, Muslim students pray in the basement of the Grace University Lutheran Church every Friday due to limited space in the AMCC. 

Mateen Ali, the co-founder of Salam Community, is a University alumnus and said there was not a space for him to pray when he was a student. Ali’s son, who graduated from the University in 2021, used to attend Friday prayers at Grace Lutheran. 

Ali said seeing Muslim students pray in a small space in a basement made him realize Muslim students ought to have their own space. 

“We need to have a place for our Muslim students to go and practice their faith,” Ali said. “We wanted to make sure that we have services and a place where they could hang out on a Friday night and have a game night and just hang out.” 

Ali said he is very excited to provide this space for Muslim students and to give back to the community. Ali said the Salam community is not just about offering services to students but about giving back to the Muslim community. 

“I want people to feel welcome, and I think that’s the biggest thing,” Ali said. “I want them to make friends too and meet people, so a lot of things, but I want people to at the end feel like it’s the place for them too.”

Buthaina Asamarai, AMCC’s co-public relations officer, said it is great there will be a bigger space for Muslims near the University.

“AMCC is really great, but it also has limitations because we don’t get to do everything that we want to do because, at the end of the day, we’re answering to people who are not Muslim,” Asamarai said. “We’re not a religious room, we’re a cultural room that serves a Muslim community, so to hear that we get not only one space, but the entire building is really amazing.”

Asamarai said it feels refreshing to finally have something for Muslims.

“We’re finally getting what other religions have and a space where no one can tell us what we can and can’t do because it’s our space,” Asamarai said. 

Asamarai said she felt a sense of relief knowing tefforts are being made to help the future generation of Muslim students. 

“I would feel a lot more comfortable with my younger siblings coming here knowing they actually had a space where they’re protected,” Asamarai said. 

The space has three floors the center plans to make use of, according to Muhammad. The bottom floor will be transformed into a coffee shop, the second a Muslim youth center with a dedicated prayer space and the third a Salam seminary to help produce the next generation of Imams, chaplains and Islamic teachers. 

Muhammad said the coffee shop, Salam Coffee, is the heart of the project. He said he hopes it will be up and running in May or June, with halal food options provided. 

Salam Coffee will be the public square of Salam Community where Muslim and non-Muslim students can interact, Muhammad said.

“The most important thing for us was to get the coffee shop up and running to have good coffee and good food as well,” Muhammad said. “We wanted there to be a constant flow of people coming into the building, but then naturally feeling comfortable to come up(stairs).” 

Ali said the center wants support from the entire University community, with all students welcome, regardless of religion. 

“Once we open, we want you guys to come here and make this your community, your place to hang out,” Ali said.