Opening up like this, letting people know Muslims bring these community benefits, is a good move. American Muslims, and Black American Muslims in particular, can't let others shape their image if they're going to survive.
Black mosque to offer openness
Sunday, February 15, 2004
By Ervin Dyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
When a congregation of African-American Muslims cracks the soil on a mosque expansion project in the East End later this year, more than ground will be broken.
For a faith group that has spent much of its 84 years misunderstood and separated from the Pittsburgh black mainstream, the new worship space will symbolize a new openness.
A largely working-class community, African-American Muslims are gaining visibility here as more professionals appear among their ranks. With these physicians, teachers, attorneys and scientists comes a desire to reveal more of who they are and what fuels their faith.
One of those lifting the veil and pushing the community out of the shadows is Rashad Byrdsong, a former Black Panther. With his roots in community and social reform, Byrdsong, 54, and others are in the midst of a seven-year plan to build an expanded mosque on the site of the existing one on Paulson Avenue in the city's Lincoln-Lemington section.
The $1 million project upgrades the Masjid Al-Mu'min ("believers" in Arabic) and promises to bring adult care, help for ex-offenders re-entering society and technology training to a long-neglected neighborhood.
Al-Mu'min's plan coincides with development efforts by the nearby Mount Ararat Baptist Church and the new construction of a Kingsley Association community center, which turns 100 this year.
The mosque's ambitious goals include housing and work force development and creating a commercial corridor that offers Islamic garments and hilal meat, which requires a special process for Muslim consumption.
A key element is a cultural library that documents the long history of Muslims in America.
"We've been here for centuries," said Sarah Jameela Martin, a first-generation Muslim and local educator who made Pittsburgh her home in the early 1960s. "We're just looking at ourselves differently." Pittsburgh's African-American Muslims are an orthodox group, subscribing to the traditions and practices of Sunni Muslims. They are distinct and separate from believers in the Nation of Islam, a more nationalist faith begun in 1931.
Posted by P6 at February 16, 2004 02:01 PM
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Comments
Opening up like this, letting people know Muslims bring these community benefits, is a good move. American Muslims, and Black American Muslims in particular, can't let others shape their image if they're going to survive.
In almost every community, Muslims are opening up like this. Unfortunately, it usually only gets reported in the local media and is often ignored. Still, we've got to keep on trying.
Posted by Al-Muhajabah at February 17, 2004 04:26 AMI'll keep helping. Islam has been a positive force in the Black communities.
Posted by P6 at February 17, 2004 06:37 AM