Like any other Northwestern student, Omar Jaffer spends each day balancing schoolwork, extracurriculars and his social life. But as a Muslim, Jaffer also prays five times a day, an activity that doesn’t always fit easily into his schedule.

“Whenever I end up being in Tech a lot, I end up praying in one of the rooms there,” said Jaffer, a McCormick junior who also often prays in his single at Ayers College of Commerce and Industry. “I’ve never had a problem with someone coming in and disturbing me, but it would be really nice to have (a prayer room) in Tech.”

Jaffer is not the only Muslim who is concerned about the lack of a North Campus prayer space. Muslim-cultural Students Association leaders have gathered more than 100 student signatures for a petition to set aside a North Campus prayer room and plan to meet with administrators, said McSA co-president Hazem Tabahi.

Islam requires five prayers each day, with the earliest session before dawn and the latest around 10:30 p.m.

On campus, Muslims can stop at Parkes Hall or the Multicultural Center between classes to pray in special rooms. But students such as Jaffer spend most of their day on North Campus.

“There really is a need for (a prayer room) on North Campus for students who live up there and study in Tech,” said Faiz Mirza, Weinberg junior and McSA public relations vice president. “A lot of times, students will be studying and prayer will come, and they have to go somewhere in the library. (A prayer room) would make it easier for them.”

McSA currently has three prayer rooms on South Campus. Two of them — a room in the Multicultural Center and a converted storage closet in Parkes — hold five to 10 people and are used for daily prayers.

The third room is used for congregational prayer meetings on Friday afternoons. Muslim students formerly met in the choir room of Parkes, which could accommodate about 35 people.

But attendance has grown over the past four years. So at the end of Fall Quarter, McSA members obtained the former registrar’s room in Parkes, which fits the nearly 100 people who now come to pray each week.

“It’s a lot bigger and it allows more people to come from the (outside) community,” said Tabahi, a Weinberg senior.

McSA member Ali Toft said the organization’s leaders have stepped up outreach efforts to let new students know about the Friday congregational meeting and the availability of the South Campus prayer rooms.

And in the last few years, Tabahi said he has seen a greater need for a prayer room on North Campus.

“A lot of our members are Techies and they live up there,” he said. “It’s very difficult — people are praying in stairwells or behind shelves in the library.”

Kulsum Akbar, who lives in Lindgren Residential College of Science and Engineering, usually returns to her single to pray, but she said it would make her life easier if there was a room in Tech.

“It hasn’t been a problem,” said Akbar, a McCormick sophomore. “But when I’m in Tech and I have a class that’s really long, I wish I had a room in Tech.”

While North Campus students have been finding their own quiet nooks for prayer time, McSA members say a room reserved for prayer would guarantee a proper environment for their times of reflection.

On the occasions where Jaffer is unable to go back to his dorm room, he adapts to whatever room he can find.

“I don’t feel too uncomfortable praying in a classroom,” Jaffer said. “(But) it is nicer to have a cleaner place.

“Normally in prayer rooms, you take off your shoes before you go in, but in a classroom, you can’t do anything about that. In religion, you kind of have to make do.”