Credit: Ahmadiyya Times.
Human beings are resilient, there’s no doubt about it. Since the dawn of time, we have stood up together to fight injustice, intolerance, hatred, and bias in ways that make us more united. In this great nation of ours, while Muslims have been discriminated against by some, they have been assisted by many. While some have vilified them, many more have praised them. And when a few have attempted to demonize an entire religious group, countless others have stood by their Muslim brothers and sisters. Because that’s what Americans do. For this reason, I was excited to read an article in the LA Times this week about the recent growth of mosques in this country. Despite efforts to intimidate mosque goers through surveillance and harassment, it seems that Muslims remain optimistic about their public life.
After all, the mosque is the center of Islamic community. Religious requirements for men to pray in congregation five times a day, Sunday schools for children, women’s discussion sessions, breaking fasts together in Ramadan – all lead to the mosque being an essential and beloved part of a Muslim’s daily life. Even the less devout drive hundreds of miles to join religious celebrations like Eid if the closest mosque is not too close. A 2012 media project called 30 Mosques highlighted this centralized part of Muslim life by visiting a different mosque each day during the month of Ramadan. Emphasis was not only on worship but also cuisine and culture.
This critical role of the mosque aside, or perhaps in spite of it, there has been vocal and insistent opposition to the building of new mosques in America. The Ground Zero mosque was undeniably the most high-profile of these protests, but it wasn’t the only one by any means. In the last few years, according to the Pew Forum, controversies over building new mosques have flooded almost every state of the nation. For a faith that can hardly function without the close proximity of a worship center, these obstacles loom as death tolls for the American Muslim way of life.
Of course, protests against the construction of new mosques aren’t the only time American Muslims feel targeted for their faith. Typically, many Muslim communities face backlash whenever a terrorist attack occurs anywhere in the world. The ACLU has recorded incidents of these hate crimes, euphemistically termed anti-mosque activity in most cities that Muslims call home.
Yet the LA Times reports a new surge of mosque construction… which takes me back to my original point. Human beings in general and Americans in particular tend to be generous in their help and support of each other despite religious, ethnic, or racial differences. Leaders of other faith communities speak out whenever a mosque is vandalized, because together we can give the message that extremists of any religion don’t speak for the rest of us. So the changing tide of mosque growth is not just interesting, it’s in fact hopeful and indicative of better things to come.
I look forward to he 1st synagogue opening in Bagdad, Damascus, Mecca, Medina, Cairo, Amman, Karachi, Teheran, Islamabad, Dubai and Doha.
The US is where immigrants from every corner in the world arrived for experience religious freedom.
Sammy, you must be mistaken. Except for Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia all other Muslim countries have synagogues (if there are Jews living there of course). Similarly they all have countless churches. For instance I grew up in Karachi, I studied in a convent school run by nuns, my mother taught in another catholic school and there were at least 5 other schools and churches run by Christians just in that city. A couple of years ago a brand new church St. Peters was built in Karachi as the largest church in the country able to accommodate 5,000 worshippers. As for synagogues, while there are almost no Jews living in Pakistan, I personally knew of one synagogue Magen Shalom in Karachi that’s been there since 1893.
When populations of minority religious groups dwindle to a great extent, it could be that their place of worship are sold, demolished or something else. And of course religious extremism in some Islamic nations lead to destruction of these sacred grounds, but they do the same with mosques of minority Muslim groups as well. It’s sad but I refuse to have hope that someday we’ll all be able to live together peacefully.
If you’d like to read more, here’s an article by PolitiFact refuting some Christian and Jewish claims that Muslim countries do not allow the building of churches and synagogues: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politifact-most-muslim-countries-allow-churches-synagogues/1126477
There are few if any Jews living in the Arab world. They were forced out or fled in fear. A synagogue that had been preserved in Tunis was blown up.
“When populations of minority religious groups dwindle to a great extent,”
You mean flee
Since the dawn of time, we have stood up together to fight injustice, intolerance, hatred and bias in ways that make us more united. In this great nation of ours”
Did you people read this sentence? What a bunch of crap.We started genocide with the American Indian,
the freed slaves, the illegal immigrants from the south, and we are still a racist country. I don’t care what you say, I see it every day. Prayer has helped few victims of racism. Most people that are religious, are religious
when it is convenient or beneficial, very seldom in a 24/7 basis. Hypocrites for the most part.
Just my personal opinion.
tj
We? Not “we’. My family came from the Ukraine in 1917/24, where where they were chased around because they were jews.
But that aside, the US was one of many countries in the world that struggled with many moral issues. You really think there was anyone better back in the 1800’s. If yi say ye, then yo ignore the great British, French and Belgian empires and the crimes that were committed in their name. You ignore the countless acts of genocide by such nations as Turkey, Japan, Germany, Serbia, Rwanda and Sudan, to name a few.
BTW, can you please tell us about genocide against freed slaves and immigrants?
What do you se everyday?
I really hate to tell you, the US is still the most accepting country of people.
Did anyone tell you the part about the bolsheviks, the assassination of the Romanoffs, Trotsky, Lenin and the things Jews did to the Christians in the Ukraine and elsewhere? Have you ever heard of the Homolodor? Of course not. Because the JIDF makes sure you don’t.