May the peace, mercy and blessing be upon you,

We are a group of Arab Muslim students who have been sent to study in America. Currently, we are studying at an English language institute here, and recently, due to the large number of students studying at the institute and the lack of classrooms, the administration decided to have some of the lectures inside the church next to the center.

The question is: What is the ruling on going into churches in the first place? Then, after that, what is the ruling on the classes we took inside the church? Note that we can refuse and send the cultural attaché from our embassy, asking them to put pressure on the institute.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful,

All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessing be upon the Messenger of Allah, upon his household, his companions and true followers. To proceed:

There is no blame in going inside a church when there is a need for it, and there is no blame in using their facilities for public purposes if one is safe from weakness. In fact, it is common in these countries to rent churches for the performance of formal prayers and the like when there are no mosques available for that, so long as statues, images and anything of the sort are avoided. Ibn Qudamah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

It is alright to perform the prayer in a clean church. Al-Hasan made this allowance, as did Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, Al-Sha`abi, Al-Awza`i and Sa`eed ibn Abd al-Aziz. It was also related from Umar and Abi Musa, although Ibn Abbas and Malik disliked praying in churches because of the images.

Of course, it is well-known that it would be better to avoid this when other alternatives are available, because avoiding places of shirk (idolatry) and the worship of anything or anyone besides Allah is one of the definitive rulings [in which the preferable opinion is the stronger one]. In addition, anyone who frequents a church would be subjected to seeing crosses, religious images, indecently dressed women, and more, and perhaps his heart would become attached to something of that; he could be tempted by the women or otherwise. I believe that people like you who were sent abroad by their countries and who pay them huge amounts of money could request that the administration of this institute provide alternatives which would not offend your religious sensibilities. If you are successful in that, it would be better for you, and if not, there would be no blame in using these classrooms for this purpose when it is necessary and you are safe from any weakness or temptation.