With a feast laid out behind them, Izzat Alsmadi and Abdu Bashir pray together in Alsmadi's north Fargo apartment.
Facing Mecca, the two Muslims thank God, offer praise and ask for forgiveness.
It's the second day of Ramadan, and they have just broken fast together with dates and small cups of dark, Arabian coffee.
Alsmadi, a graduate student from Jordan, is president of the Muslim Student Association at North Dakota State University.
Bashir, originally from Sudan, has advised the student group at Minnesota State University Moorhead.
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The organizations help connect Muslims at the universities, perhaps no better illustrated by the two men sharing the evening meal, known as iftar.
Alsmadi says the student members helped him adjust when he came to Fargo a year ago, for example, by pointing him to an ethnic food market and the local mosque. Bashir and Alsmadi met through the mosque.
But the associations are more than a network for Muslims new to the United States. They provide a public face of Islam on the campuses.
Educating non-Muslims is a relatively new focus for the NDSU student association, said Dr. Akram Salah, assistant professor of computer science at NDSU and adviser to the group there.
It became important after 9/11, and as misconceptions about Islam were perpetuated by media, he says.
This semester, NDSU's group screened two movies about Islam and organized a panel discussion. More events are in the works.
Last year, the association sponsored an on-campus Ramadan celebration. More than 150 students, friends and area Muslims attended.
Ramadan is a month of heightened devotion and individual reflection and purification. It began Wednesday.
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The ninth month of the Muslim calendar, Ramadan is when the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
Muslims fast each day of Ramadan, abstaining from food, drink and other sensual pleasures from sunrise to sunset. Each evening, they break their fast with iftar, the evening meal.
The five daily prayers, a pillar of Islam, are more meaningful for the individual during this time.
That's why both the MSUM and NDSU organizations would like to have a prayer room on campus.
Alsmadi, a graduate teaching assistant, says he often prays two or three times a day in his office. Prayers are said prostrate, so privacy and a clean floor are needed, he says.
This request is an example of how the groups can stand for Muslim's needs on campus, said Saqib Sheikh, president of MSUM's Muslim Student Association.
"It's a comfort to know you have a certain representation on campus," Sheikh says.
Sheikh, a senior studying mass communications, was a freshman at MSUM when the association became active again. He describes it as a "second incarnation."
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Its main objectives are to organize events for Muslims and cultivate understanding about the faith's beliefs and cultures, he says, two goals the group struggles to balance.
Even within the groups, there's much diversity and opportunity for learning, as members hail from different countries.
"As a student, it's a chance to learn about different cultures. When we talk about the Muslim Student Association, it's not just the basic Islamic religion, it's different Muslim cultures," Sheikh says.
The associations also provide a link between the campuses and Fargo's mosque, says Mohamed Fakhr, president of the Fargo-Moorhead Islamic Society and a researcher at NDSU.
This may be more important during Ramadan, as Muslims gather together socially to eat, drink and celebrate.
"I would say it's very important for such Muslims who are a minority in the area to feel at home, to feel they are sharing this experience with others," he says.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Sherri Richards at (701) 241-5525
