A national group wants prayer spaces for Muslims removed from the University of Iowa, but that doesn’t necessarily echo on campus.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national umbrella organization for those committed to the separation of church and state, challenged the UI to close down the two rooms in a March 25 letter on its website, which was later sent to UI President Bruce Harreld.

The prayer spaces, one for men and the other for women, was opened in the IMU on Feb. 4. The organization also called for the removal of all Christian iconography and the Latin cross on the altar of Danforth Chapel, which has been at the UI for more than 60 years.

The letter cites violations to both the state and federal Constitutions, contending providing spaces for students to pray on campus is a form of religious entanglement and thus creates the potential for free-speech violations.

“There are ample tax-free lands surrounding almost every public university where ministries have set up shop using private funds,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, the co-president of the foundation. “There’s no shortage of spaces for students to go to find religion and pray near campuses. It’s the job of the religious sector to set aside prayer rooms, not the job of the university. It’s an inappropriate use of public property because taxpayers pay for this.”

However, prayer spaces on public university campuses are not uncommon. Other Big Ten schools confirmed they also have public prayer spaces available to students on campus, including University of Nebraska, Northwestern University, Michigan State University, and Ohio State University.

The UI has not shown any sign that it will yield to the foundation’s complaints.

Anne Bassett, the media-relations manager in the UI Office of Strategic Communication, said in a statement that it is the IMU’s policy to provide space for registered student organizations, regardless of the mission of the organization, whether academic, political, or religious.

“The new temporary space for prayer and meditation in the Iowa Memorial Union was requested by students of the Muslim faith but is open to all students,” she said.

Amanda Redlinger, the campus minister of the Campus Christian Fellowship, disputes the foundation’s claim that the prayer rooms are unconstitutional.

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She said the prayer spaces do not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment because no one is being forced to use them. The First Amendment’s establishment clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”

“[The clause] is not saying that religion in general should be discouraged,” she said. “Indeed, it was written to encourage all forms of religion and to ensure that the government does not enforce any one particular religion.”

Ian Wold, the public-relations coordinator of Secular Students at Iowa, said his organization supports the UI prayer space.

“The prayer rooms are not Muslim-only,” he wrote in an email. “They were made to fit the requirements of Muslim prayer, but anyone is welcome to peacefully use the space as they want or need. In fact, the rooms reflect this university’s dedication to improving the quality of the lives of its students.”

Wold called the foundations’s statement “hasty” and “misinformed.”