Duke University on Thursday rescinded its decision to sound the Muslim call to prayer from its chapel bell tower two days after approving the measure, much to the disappointment of local Muslim officials.
The reversal comes after the prestigious North Carolina university was bombarded with calls and emails denouncing the plan to sound the prayer call- the adhan- from the Duke Chapel bell tower, WRAL reported.
A university spokesman said a "credible and serious security threat" was the reason for the decision change. Instead, the Duke Muslim Student Association will be permitted to chant the call in a quad outside the Chapel.
"Duke remains committed to fostering an inclusive, tolerant and welcoming campus for all of its students," Michael Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs and government relations, said in a statement. "However, it was clear that what was conceived as an effort to unify was not having the intended effect."
Perhaps the loudest critic, Franklin Graham, son of noted evangelist Billy Graham, said allowing Muslims to broadcast the prayer call from chapel bell tower was "a slap at the Christian faith."
After slamming Duke on Facebook for approving the adhan, he told WRAL Thursday he stands by his position.
"I don't feel I owe an apology to anybody. I think Duke University, they owe an apology," he said. "They're the ones who owe the apology to Christian students and the ones who donated money for the chapel."
Out of Duke's 15,000 undergraduate students, over 700 identify as Muslim. The 177-year-old university also has Hindu and Jewish students that practice religious services on campus.
Thursday's reversal is a "terrible shame," Khalilah Sabra, executive director of the Muslim American Society in Raleigh, North Carolina, told WRAL. Though there are groups that carry out violent acts to enforce extremist ideals, the world's Muslims should not be punished for it, Sabra said.
"Duke took a coward's way out and cannot pretend to be advocates of diversity. This was primarily because it caved into the fallout nourished by racism," Sabra told WRAL. "A huge gap could have been bridged; now it may remain broken."
Rolin Mainuddin, professor of political science and Western religion at North Carolina Central University, noted that a private school like Duke has to keep in mind the effect its actions have on efforts to raise money.
"It's a private university, so the pressure will be stronger than a public university," Mainuddin, who is Muslim, told WRAL.
