McMurry University in Texas opened a prayer room for Islam in one of its residential dorms to accommodate the religious needs of its Muslim students. The Methodist-affiliated school has around 1,000 students including 85 foreign nationals, about 60 of them Muslims, mostly from Saudi Arabia, which encourages its citizens to study abroad and even pays for the tuition.

Joe Yousef, president of the Saudi Student Club, welcomed the establishment of the prayer room, saying it makes it easier for them to meet both their religious and academic obligations. "On Friday, we get together and sometimes we have to go home to pray and we need to be in university so we don't have time to go home," he told College Fix.

The prayer room's size is enough to accommodate 30–50 worshippers. Before it was opened, Muslim students met in a nearby hotel for prayer. "This is part of our identity, we just pray as people do in other religions," freshman Sultan Albogami said, according to the same news outlet. "I think what people hear about Islam is different then what Islam is," he added.

University chaplain Jeff Lust helped establish the prayer room in the spirit of inclusion. "I think it's a step in the right direction, we anticipate over time we'll have students from a variety of countries and possibly different religions," Lust told KTXS, adding, "We need to learn to live and work together in this world that is increasingly diverse and then we can truly become better together."

The room will serve as the meeting place of a new interfaith club that will bring together students of different faiths to foster understanding. The club will convene for the first time on Feb. 21. Yousef shared with College Fix that they will hold discussions on different beliefs, explaining, "Some people have their own bias. We want people to get together, so we can help each other out."