MONTREAL (CUP) — After more than two decades of paying for Muslim prayer space near its downtown campus, Concordia University says that it can no longer foot the bill.

Along with providing a smaller prayer space in one of its own buildings, Concordia has been paying $15,600 a year to rent a room at the nearby Masonic Hall for Friday congregational prayer. Nearly 800 students attend the prayer weekly.

“The university has done its best to provide them with space for a number of years, going back to the ‘80s, but the sheer number of people has kept growing,” said Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota. “We’ve gotten to the point where, financially, we can’t do this any longer.”

Concordia’s Muslim Student Association said if the funding is cut, they will consider filing a public grievance.

“If they do stop providing that space we might file with the (provincial) human rights commission or the Quebec court as they are legally bound by their contract,” said Abdullah Husen, the association’s president.

Husen said that a decade-old contract with the university stipulated that space would be provided for all Muslim students to pray on Fridays. In September 2009, the Muslim Student Association was given a one-year notice that the university would stop paying for the space.

“It is definitely within the financial capacity of the university to provide this,” Husen said he believes. “It makes no sense that the university would stop accommodating Muslims and push that responsibility on the MSA.”

The university said the allotted prayer space was only a temporary measure.

“We would like to accommodate them on campus but we just don’t have the space,” said Mota. “The university decided for a short period of time that we would rent space downtown, with the understanding that this was a transitory solution until they organized themselves on a permanent basis.”

Husen said that the MSA did not have the financial or human resources to maintain a plarger rayer space for the university’s Muslim population, nor have they begun to look at other options.

No other religious group on campus has asked for similar space.

The prayer can hold only 100 practitioners at a time, leading to cramped conditions.

“During Ramadan we pray there every night,” said Aoub Muntasar, vice-president external of the Concordia Student Union. “When the room is full it is beyond sweaty, it is nasty.”

The Friday sermon could not be held in shifts at the space, Husen said, as there would not be enough time and it could represent a fire hazard.