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Catholic University opens prayer room for Muslim students

St. Ambrose University allots the prayer room to Muslim students in honour of Joe DeFrancisco, who died in 2017.

A Roman Catholic-owned institution in the United States of America, St. Ambrose University has reportedly allocated a room for Muslim students to observe their daily prayers.

The room according to Naijachurchnews was dedicated on Tuesday, May 8, 2018.

The dedication was reportedly done in honour of a world religious professor, Joe DeFrancisco who died a year ago.

Speaking on the new space given to Muslim students for their five daily prayers, the Student Government Association President, Matthew Mahoney,  he approached the Saudi Student Association following Joe’s death to work out a space for Muslim students.

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He said: “I happened to be in the chapel one evening when Joe was meeting with the Saudi Student Association,” he explained via the university announcement. “Joe was so welcoming to them and brought them a ton of food and then started talking about how they really didn’t have very much space to pray,”

“After Joe passed away, I thought, ‘Why don’t we do something about this?''

The prayer room was dedicated however to  DeFrancisco as a monument.

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According to one of the Muslim elders who attended the dedication, DeFrancisco's openness to all members of the Quad Cities faith community was a living example of the Catholic intellectual tradition.

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