Muslim community thriving in area
Sunday, July 15, 2001
By Kathleen A. Shaw
Telegram & Gazette Staff
The Islamic Society of Greater Worcester is facing a happy kind of pressure these days.
Membership has increased significantly over the years, with many Muslims moving into the area or deciding to stay after completing college. In fact, the society has more than 250 families as members, compared to a mere handful 30 years ago, according to Dr. Saleem Khanani, the group's president.
To cope with such growth, the organization intends to build a new mosque in the Shrewsbury-Westboro area while also keeping its Worcester mosque open for students and others for whom the city location is more convenient.
The Worcester mosque on Laurel Street is usually quite crowded on Friday, the Muslim holy day.
And in recent years, Muslims have rented a large room at the Worcester Holiday Inn to accommodate the 1,200 to 1,500 people who come for prayers on the two Eid holidays.
Now, society leaders are looking at land near Route 9 in Shrewsbury and Westboro as they plan for the new mosque, according to Dr. Khanani, a physician and assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. A large number of Muslims live in that area, he noted.
“The mosque is the center of our social life,” said Dr. Hussien Farraq, vice president of the society's executive committee. Driving into Worcester to attend functions or prayers at the Laurel Street mosque, the doctor added, isn't practical for many Muslims who live in the suburban communities east of the city.
He pointed out that plans also are being made to open a second Muslim school, to be called Alhuda Academy, in rented space at the Fountainhead apartment complex in Westboro. Dr. Farraq said the only other Muslim school in the area, Al-Hamra Academy in Northboro, has become so crowded with students that 24 applications for admission this past year had to be rejected.
Dr. Farraq said the society plans eventually to move Alhuda Academy out of the Fountainhead complex. It hasn't been determined yet whether the school will be located next to the new mosque, he said.
Adherents of Islam worship God through prayer, observing the five pillars of their faith and striving to live productive and moral lives. Muslims band together in societies to support their mosques, which serve both as houses of prayer and social centers.
The religion forbids borrowing or lending money for which interest is charged, which means that area Muslims must raise in advance all the money -- an estimated $1 million -- that is needed to build the new mosque and open the school.
The society sponsored its first fund-raising event for the new mosque in May and now is collecting pledges.
Dr. Farraq said the loan prohibition is one issue that Muslims cannot reconcile with the beliefs of the rest of American society. Muslims have been able to assimilate in many other ways, he added.
The doctor said he expects that in the coming years, Muslims will find creative ways to finance their homes and religious institutions that are compatible with their religious beliefs.
But for now, there is some uncertainty as to when all of the preparations for the Central Massachusetts project will be completed.
Dr. Khalid Sadozai, former society president and a current trustee, said there is no timetable for construction of the new building.
“It will happen when we get some land and collect all the money,” he said.
The society founded its first mosque at 57 Laurel St. in Worcester in the mid-1970s, in a former church building.
Since then, members note, many Muslims have arrived in the area.
“We are highly educated and are physicians, engineers and computer workers and teachers,” Dr. Farraq remarked. He said he commutes 70 miles each day to his job in Springfield, but prefers to live in the Worcester area because of its thriving Muslim community and because it offers Islamic schools for his children.
“We believe in quality education, and we want to teach our faith to our children,” Dr. Farraq said.
Central Massachusetts is not alone in becoming a Muslim center. Other emerging communities can be found in Boston, Springfield, Sharon, Quincy, Boston, Hartford, and New Haven.
The local community does not yet operate a high school, although Dr. Farraq expects one in the future as the children currently in grade school get older. The Muslim community in Sharon operates the closest Islamic high school, he said.
Dr. Khanani said that Worcester had a thriving Turkish immigrant community at the turn of the 20th century, many of whom likely were Muslims.
“They seemed to disappear, and we do not know what happened to them,” he said.
The current Muslim community in Central Massachusetts grew as members decided to remain here after having come to attend area universities.
The growth of the computer, medical and biotechnology industries also has been a factor.
“A lot of us who are doctors came because of the area hospitals,” Dr. Khanani said. He added that while some area Muslims are American-born, others came from Syria, Kuwait, India, Pakistan and Lebanon.
He said area Muslims have been well-received by Christians and Jews and have not suffered discrimination. The society has worked with Christian and Jewish groups to help resettle refugees coming into this area from Eastern Europe.
“We are a very open group and we find Americans to be very open,” Dr. Khanani said.
He acknowledged, however, that Muslims in America continue to be challenged by stereotypes.
“We are not terrorists or extremists,” he said. “We are productive members of society. Our women work and they even drive alone. We have friends and we socialize.”
Dr. Khanani said that Muslims are beginning to move into American political life.
He cited as an example Muslims' strong support of Republican George W. Bush's candidacy for president.
The doctor also pointed to the work of Tahir Ali, a society member and Westboro resident, who as Massachusetts chairman of the American Muslim Alliance works to get Muslims elected to office around the country and to become players on the national political scene.
©2001 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.
