These days, tensions are running high at Middle East Technical University (METU), a reputable institution of higher education in Ankara, over the right of Muslim students to pray at the institution.

A group of students in a prayer room at the university were targeted by an Islamophobic group last week, with the attackers claiming that praying students are supporters of DAESH. The students had attempted to pray at a nearby basketball court when they were interrupted by the group of attackers and forced to go to the prayer room, located far away from their dormitory. METU President Ahmet Acar defended the attackers, saying they were simply voicing their opposition to the praying group.

The Board of Higher Education (YÖK) which oversees universities in the country has formed an inquiry committee to investigate the incident and anti-Muslim sentiment at the university. YÖK President Yekta Saraç said in a statement that students have the natural right to pray and that university administrators are supposed to enforce that right. "It is a crime if one's basic freedoms are violated and it should be investigated," Saraç said in his statement, pointing out that the recent violence overshadows METU's accomplishments as a prominent university of internationally renowned studies.

Saraç said that YÖK officials have conducted interviews in an ongoing effort to meet the needs of their students and learn more about the challenges students face. "The METU campus is a large complex and students are in need of spaces for "praying in peace." Saraç said in a meeting with the university president earlier this week in which concrete steps to help students were discussed.

The attack on religious students has sparked protests across the country with crowds denouncing both the assailants and university administrators for not providing facilities to Muslim students and letting the attack happen. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on YÖK to investigate the incident after he condemned the attack in a speech. "They have no shame. They claim they are proponents of freedom but they do not give [students] freedom," he has said after the attack.

Despite there being no additional reports of violence at the university since the prayer room attack, Muslim students at the university are complaining that Islamophobic groups continue harassing and even mobbing them.

Just three days ago, a trio of students filed a criminal complaint against the president of the university for alleged abuse of authority by allowing the attack to take place. Students claimed that security guards at the university failed to protect them and that university administrators did not let the police onto the school's campus.