Nueces Mosque

2 weeks ago

“Indeed, Allah enjoins justice and the doing of good, and giving to the kindred; and forbids indecency and evil, and wrongful transgression.” (Surah Al-Nahl 16:90)

Dear Valued Community Members,

We write in response to the recent news about an incident of sexual assault in the UT Austin community. We unequivocally condemn all acts of sexual assault and sexual harassment, and take all such allegations extremely seriously. Nueces Mosque stands with all survivors of sexual assault. We realize this is a broader issue within the Muslim community, and we are committed to addressing these concerns.

We encourage all survivors of sexual assault to report any incident(s) directly to law enforcement. However, we recognize that many survivors -- for a variety of legitimate reasons -- elect not to involve law enforcement. In such instances, we encourage survivors to seek the appropriate resources and suggest this list of community organizations as a starting point: bit.ly/ResourceList1

As society at large is coming to grips with identifying and effectively addressing the ills of sexual harassment and sexual assault, we too understand the need to tackle this issue head-on within the Muslim community. Change does not occur overnight, but we hope to take steps in the right direction to prevent future incidents. We recognize that this is an extremely difficult time for everyone and we sympathize with the pain that is being endured. We are committed to developing appropriate policies and procedures to better equip our institutions and leadership to handle such situations in the future. We have been working towards creating a culture of safety and support where no one feels discouraged to come forward with their stories.

We are currently collaborating with The University of Texas at Austin to obtain a letter of absence for anyone needing more time to prepare for their classes and midterms as they go through this difficult process. More details for this will be available in the coming days. In the interim, we advise students to use the “Class Absence Notification Request Form” available at deanofstudents.utexas.edu/emergency/absencenotificationrequest.php

InshaAllah, we will follow up with updates on our action plan in the very near future. Nueces Mosque is here for the community. Feel free to contact us directly at [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

JazakAllah Khair,
Nueces Mosque, Executive Committee
Islamic Center of Greater Austin, Board of Trustees ... See MoreSee Less