By Aman Ali

This morning Bassam and I linked up with Wayne and Robert of CNN.com, who are tagging along with us for the next few days to document our adventure through the southeast region of the country.

Wayne Drash and Robert Johnson are blogging about us on CNN.com

We hit the road in Atlanta to start our six-hour drive down to Florida and I turn on the radio. The song from the Rocky movies “Eye of the Tiger” comes on and immediately I begin belting out the song while I drum my hands against the steering wheel. Today is going to be a good day, I say to myself.

My singing continues a few minutes later when Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” comes on the radio. Then I realize it’s Ramadan and this is probably the last song I want to be singing right now while I’m fasting.

Driving through southern Georgia, we pass by sequential billboard patterns of porn shops and churches.

Then on the opposite side of the highway in Chula, Georgia I see a colossal confederate flag waving over 100 feet in the air.

Confederate flag. Welcome to the south.

Everyone in the car mutually agrees the flag is too racistly awesome to pass up without posing for a photo next to it. The flag off the highway exit stands next to a Confederate souvenir shop by a mosquito ridden pond. Three men sitting at a bunch in front of the shop begin staring at us as we pull into the place’s gravel parking lot.

“Let’s not go in,” Robert says, afraid of what might happen if two brown guys walk inside a Confederate shop.

Anyone who knows me knows when someone tells me not to do something, it just makes me want to do it even more. It’s the reason why my mother blames me for all her gray hair.

“I’m going in,” I said laughing at everyone else’s hesitation.

“Welcome!” said one of the men sitting at the bench to our surprise. “Great weather today, ain’t it?”

The name of the store is Lollygaggers. I walk inside and meet the owner, Robert. He’s a tall man that’s big on hospitality and apparently not as big on visiting a dentist.

Robert, owner of Lollygaggers off I-75 in southern Georgia

I ask him where the name of the store came from.

“You don’t know what lollygaggin is?” he asks with bewilderment. “When you sittin around havin a good time and you aint doin sh*t, you be lollygaggin!”

To our surprise, Robert was incredibly friendly. He talks in detail about how he’s frustrated with how Confederate flags get a bad rap and how he condemns all the racist connotations people associate with the flag. He said everyone is welcome in his shop regardless of where they come from. The guys at the shop turned out to be some of the friendliest people I’ve met on this journey. I expected them to be all prejudiced towards me, and here I was being prejudiced towards them.

The guys and I pose outside the shop for another picture and I upload it on the 30 Mosques Facebook page.

We get into Jacksonville shortly after 5 p.m. About a mile from the mosque I see a sign for this fast food restaurant, which we all once again agree is too hilariously racist to pass up for photos.

“We HAVE to go inside,” I say as I dodge oncoming traffic and U-Turn into the restaurant’s parking lot.

Wayne isn’t fasting so he decides to go inside and order this place’s infamous Camel Rider sandwich. He walks outside showing me what’s the sandwich: ham, salami, and American cheese.

“I think this is probably the most American sandwich that you could possibly eat,” Wayne says.

Wayne Drash, taking a bite out of racism

The place has pretty much nothing but ham and sausage on the menu, making me laugh because apparently the owner of the place is Palestinian (he wasn’t there).

Robert the photographer is hungry too and asks me what he should order, since he’s a conservative Christian that doesn’t eat pork. Our conversation is interrupted by a guy who pulls into the parking lot in a rusty white BMW.

“You guys wanna come to my party?” he asks as a woman walks out of the car and adjusts her pants as she walks into the restaurant. Robert and I walk up to the guy in the car and he hands me a CD-R with “Chokehold Records” written on it in a Sharpie marker.

Chokehold Records for life.

I take a look past the man’s stained wife beater and survey the gutted interior of his car filled with crumpled papers, Cheetos wrappers and a Marshall Field’s shopping bag (because thugs like pleated khaki pants on clearance).

He invites Robert and I to an album launch party at the arcade center Dave and Busters. Because when you’re releasing a thug rap record, make sure it’s at a place where you can play Dance Dance Revolution.

I then notice the man is repeatedly drinking shot glass rounds of vodka. Nothing is classier than getting tipsy parked outside of a fast food restaurant in the mid afternoon.

Bassam then walks up with his camera and begins snapping pictures furiously at him. The man is alarmed about why he’s taking pictures and gets slightly irritated.

“Oh God, we’re gonna get shot,” I think to myself.

Bassam and Robert calm him down after explaining we’re on a road trip and the photos are for our blog. He then explains he got caught off guard because he thought we were reporters and the last thing he wanted to see were headlines saying “Rapper gets caught drinking and driving.”

He agrees to photos and scornfully tells the woman with him to strike a seductive pose for Bassam.

“She’s one of my rappers,” he said while trying to bring back up the subject of his Dave and Buster’s party.

He says to get into the party, I need to get on his guest list. His guess list was a tattered binder he pulled out from under his seat that had crumpled up coffee stained pages in it. He hands me a pen and asks me to sign my name. I’m allowed to bring two people.

Are you on his guest list?

I have no interest whatsoever to attend the party, but I decide to sign it anyway. I sign using the name “Armando Valenzuela,” the standard alias I used to use as a kid when doing prank calls. I’m allowed to bring two people to the party, and the man says Robert and Bassam are allowed to come.

He then tries charging me $10 for his “Chokehold Records” CD. I politely say no and he tells me I can’t get into his party unless I buy the CD. We decide not to and walk away.

I see Wayne standing nearby with an angry look at his face.

“What, you won’t let me come to the pimp’s party?” Wayne said. “I see how it is, the white guy isn’t invited? What am I, chopped liver?”

We all laugh and head over to the mosque. Immediately we’re taken back by how beautiful the building is as the sun begins to set.

I look up and see the building’s minaret, the tall towers attached to the the mosque’s building. Immediately I ask someone there if we can climb to the top, so Bassam can get a photo of me doing the “King of the World” pose from the movie Titanic.

A Bosnian man and his son walk up to me asking if I’m the guy who wants to climb to the top of the minaret. The son walks with me telling me how dangerous it is to get up there.

I look at the 10 rungs of the minaret’s ladder and laugh thinking it’s no big deal to get up to the top. “You think that’s it?” the son says while trying to taunt me.

He said the at the top of the ladder is a hatch that I have to push open to unveil about 100 feet worth of more ladder rungs to climb. Never willing to back down to a challenge. I begin climbing with no hesitation. The kid begins mocking my lanky chicken legs going up the ladder’s rungs.

Thank Allah I have a good health insurance plan

“Wow, you climb like that and you expect to get to the top?” the kid says with another taunting laugh. I want to confront this kid, but I cant deny the fact that I’m intimidated by this ladder climb. I try heaving the hatch open but I don’t have enough strength to push it all the way back.

“Come on man, just push it open!” the kid says continuing his taunt.

At this point, I give up. It’s time to break my fast anyway. The Islamic Center of Northeast Florida is incredibly diverse. I look around and see a mix of Arabs, South Asians, Bosnians and African Americans sitting together and feasting on tonight’s meal.

After dinner, I then meet Shauib (pronounced Shoe-aib), He’s in charge of the mosque’s security and talks about the how someone tried to throw a firebomb at the mosque in May. It was all over the news if you didn’t hear about it. He then shows me what the damage looked like in a photo he took with his camera phone while standing at the top of the minaret.

“You’ve been to the top???” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s easy to get up there,” he said. “I’ve done it in my chappal (sandals).”

Now I feel like even more of a sissy. I need to go up there. Now.

“Want me to take you?” he said.

I grab Wayne and Shauib takes us to the base of the minaret. He climbs up the ladder and shoves open the hatch and guides us to the top.

The climb is tough but a lot more manageable than that Bosnian kid tried to make it out to be. I stand at the top to check out a breath taking view of the mosque. I see Bassam hundreds of feet below me and I shout for him to come over and snap some pictures of me.

Echoing through my head as Bassam is taking pictures is that “Eye of the Tiger” song I was singing earlier today. I felt like a champion.

By Bassam Tariq

Reading time turns into photo time.

Growing up in the public school system, I’ve always been curious on what a full-time Islamic school looks like from the inside. I decided to do a small photo essay on the Mohammed Schools in Atlanta, Georgia. The Mohammed Schools consists of an elementary, middle, and high school. It is said that 100% of the seniors from the school go to college after graduation to prestigious institutions like Harvard. The girls basketball team, the Lady Caliphs, has made it to the state championships and was featured on ESPN not too long ago.

For more information on their school visit their website – The Mohammed Schools

Sister Jamillah Bouchta leads her first grade Arabic class in Quran recitation and translation.

Girls in middle school look up difficult words in dictionaries.

After the midday prayer, dhuhr, high school girls come out to play a short game of basketball. The Lady Caliphs basketball at the Mohammed School made it to the state finals two years ago. The story was covered beautifully by ESPN.

Safiyyah Shahid, the high school principal, watches the Lady Caliphs basketball team warming up.

Pictures of Shareef Abdur-Rahim, a former NBA player for the Sacromento Kings, plasters the walls of the gymnasium. Abdur-Rahim donated the money to build the gymansium for the school. He is also a graduate of the Mohammed Schools.

Seniors discuss the Park 51 mosque in their “Quranic Thinking” class. Led by the former Imam of the mosque, Plemon T El-Amin, students are being taught how to engage in a constructive discourse on this sensitive issue.

The Mohammad Schools building is in close proximity to the Atlanta Masjid. Though the school is its own entity, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Atlanta Masjid.

Students kill time before iftaar, break fast, watching YouTube clips on an iPad in the lobby of Atlanta Masjid. Today’s clip: “Charlie bit my finger.”

A sudent sends a Facebook message to a friend on his iPad. The message reads,”Are u coming to iftaar…Need some stuff on my iPad….Like movies and songs…Nd sum apps.”

A family plays a game of trouble before iftaar, the break fast, at the neighboring fish restaurant.

Like most mosques, the Atlanta Masjid community breaks their fast with dates and water.

Two boys prostrate in the mosque during salaah, the Islamic ritual prayer that is performed five times a day. Prostration during salaah is considered to be the moment that one is closest to God.

A boy takes a shot at the basketball court. Students regularly play basketball after the break fast dinner.

By Bassam Tariq

Xavier is ten years old and attends KIP elementary. He devours a watermelon slice sitting next to me and talks about his school. “I’m in fifth grade.” he says, “the school I go to is called Knowledege is P…” He pauses and realizes he doesn’t know what the P stands for, but swears it’s not Power.

Xavier and I are sitting together breaking our fast at Masjid Mohammad, but Xavier isn’t fasting today. “I didn’t feel like it.” He said to me earlier when I first ran into him, “but I did fast yesterday.”

Xavier and I met outside of a corner store near the mosque. These two boys were posing for the camera in front of Masjid Muhammad and I followed them here to this store. Most of the kids that loiter around the mosque aren’t Muslim. Some of them were buying gatorade, others were just sitting by the curb. One kid with a water gun began spraying some of the older girls.

“You like taking pictures don’t you?” One of the girls who got squirted with water gun said to me. She was irritated by me snapping away as she drenched in water.

Xavier was probably the youngest of the crowd, he saw me with the camera and started barraging me with questions.

“Are you Muslim?” He first asked.

“Yep.” I reply.

“Then why aren’t you wearing a kufi?”

I began to laugh and knew that I had struck gold with this kid. The time had arrived for us to break our fast and made sure little Xzavier came along with me back towards the mosque. And that’s where we sit now.

“Give me a minute.” I tell him.

I get out of the seat and walk to the corner of the cafetorium. Al Jazeera is back today and the reporter is ready with a few pointed questions. I’m in a daze and a little tired by the interviews. Aman Ali is the interview guy. He looks better on camera and gives news guys succinct sound bites that are easy to chew. I, on the other hand, ramble, don’t stay on topic, and sometimes make off color comments – and Al-Jazeera today is no exception.

The reporter sees me looking back and wonders what I’m looking for. Before walking back to the mosque with Xavier to break our fast, I told all the neighborhood kids to come to the mosque. They all said they would be there. And, now, as I’m being interviewed, I constantly glance at the door hoping that the kids will show up. The reporter asks for my attention, smiles and continues with the questions. I joke with him saying that this would be a lot easier if we didn’t bring any cameras with him.

The interview finally ends and I lose sight of Xavier. I sit down to finally eat some food and meet with the Imam of the mosque, Tariq Najiullah. Tariq is twice my height and wears a nice suit. If he wasn’t as hospitable as he was, I’d be intimidated by him. But since he is a nice guy, I cut straight to the chase.

“Why aren’t any of the kids that loiter around the mosque here to break their fast?”

“Many of them just hang around the area,” he says, “they don’t come inside much.”

A lot of the kids in the neighborhood have accepted Islam on their own. According to Tariq, kids under the age of 15 seem to be coming through the mosque by the dozens to embrace Islam, for a myriad of reasons.

Masjid Muhammad has a fascinating history. The community was founded by the late Elijah Muhammad and carried on by his son the late Warith Deen Muhammad. Imam Warith Deen helped transition a large portion of the Nation of Islam towards mainstream Sunni Islam after his father passed away. A lot of the mosques around the Northeast used to be temples for the Nation of Islam, but as the congregants slowly began to transition to mainstream Islam so did the temples.

(UPDATE: Thanks to Z, one of our readers, for correcting our originally written info that the mosque was founded by Imam W.D. Muhammad)

A little while later, I see Xavier walking around the cafeteria.

“Where’d you go?” I ask him.

He shrugs.

“So where are your friends?”

“They are outside.”

“Are they not coming here?”

“I don’t think so.”

“But they said they would come.”

He shrugs again.

“Well, then lets get to them.”

Xavier and I leave the cafeteria together. As I walk out of Masjid Muhammad, two of my friends who live around the area join us on the quest to find the elusive neighborhood kids.

“Hey dude, didn’t your bike get robbed here?” My one friend asks the other.

“Yeah, it was in broad daylight. And these kids were trying to steal my bike.”

“Oh, did it happen over there?” Xavier asks pointing at one of the corners of the street.

“Uh, yeah.” My friend who had his bike robbed says.

“Oh yeah. I was there.” Xavier says laughing.

“Really?”

“But I wasn’t stealing the bike. I was just standing on the side and laughing. I didn’t want to get in trouble with the police.”

Thankfully, my friend ran out with a bat in his hand and scared the kids off. It was broad daylight after all.

Xavier takes us four blocks away from the mosque.

“So where are these guys?” I ask him.

“I don’t know, this is where they usually hang out.”

We wait a while in the silence, kicking the dirt and playing with our plastic cups. Out of nowhere, the kids finally appear on bikes.

“Hey guys!” I scream.

They ignore me and continue biking forward.

“Whats wrong? I thought I’d see you at the mosque for break fast?”

“Man, you just love taking snaps with your camera.” One of the kids says laughing as he bikes passed us.

I stand still watching them fade into the distance. A lot of the questions I had for these kids will be left unanswered.

“They are headed out to Q street. That’s the projects.” Xavier says.

I turn around and start walking back towards the mosque.

“Will you come back?” Xavier asks.

I nod. Next time it will probably be without a camera.

photos by Bassam Tariq

By Aman Ali

I looked at Feroz Mahal, a tall and burly Punjabi man with an “I Love Canada” lanyard around his neck, from across the room and slowly gravitated towards him.

He drove a tractor trailer thousands of miles from Vancouver, Canada and somehow wound up here in the mosque to be among the congregants of Masjid Ash-Shaheed, a predominantly African American mosque that is so inviting to anyone that comes inside that the hospitality is practically intoxicating.

Feroz, 35, is a jolly guy that spends his days driving trucks, oftentimes alone on the road for days, to provide a stable life for his wife and three children – two boys, 10 and 4, and a girl, 7.

“I miss them, but I do this because I’m able to provide for them a good education and a good house,” he says as he takes off his baseball cap to scratch his head. “Plus how else am I going to afford the Cadillac in my driveway?”

Masjid Ash-Shaheed is nestled on a huge parcel of land in a quiet part of Charlotte. The mosque follows the teachings of the late Imam Warith Deen Muhammad and everyone is eager to make you feel at home the moment you step inside. But as I was sitting at the table enjoying my dinner among the mosque’s congregants, I paused to look across the room again to see Mahal cracking jokes with people he was sitting next to.

Feroz has been in the trucking business for over 15 years. He was driving his truck from Canada all the way down to North Carolina, when the trailer he was hauling filled with electronics broke down right outside of Charlotte. There aren’t many Muslims in his line of work but he met one at a highway truck stop who told him about Masjid Ash-Shaheed a few highway exits over.

Speaking to Feroz made me constantly think about my father. My father for many years worked as a sales manager for a baking company, and would often be on the road 5-6 days a week traveling to meet with clients across the country. He never enjoyed a single minute being away from us, but my brothers and I always knew he was making that struggle so we didn’t have to.

I had to ask Feroz more about his lifestyle, because echoing in my mind was the daily grind my father put himself through to provide for me and my four brothers growing up. Mahal said what gets him through his job is his loving family. His wife and kids are incredibly supportive of what he does, and sometimes they tag along with him on his long ventures across Canada and the United States. I begin to think about the times I would spend my summer vacations as a kid sitting shotgun next to my dad as we explored the countryside and played dumb word games along the way.

Feroz said being away from his family is always tough, but the perks of his job validate the sacrifice. In a given month, he can rack up anywhere between $12,000-15,000. Plus, he typically will spend 7-10 days on the road, followed by a week or two where he’s at home doing nothing, but spending time with his family. In a given year, he probably spends 8 months on the road and 4 months at home.

After prayer, Bassam and I asked if we can check out his truck, which was parked outside of the hotel he was staying at near the mosque. He invites us inside the rig as he starts the truck’s engine that roars in the empty parking lot. I open the door and grab onto a rail to pull myself up inside to chat with Feroz some more.

Feroz gives me the “MTV Cribs presentation” of his truck as he pulls open a curtain behind his driver’s seat to showcase a bunk bed inside. Typical trucks he drives can come equipped with bathrooms, full size kitchens and televisions to pass the time on those long grueling hauls on the road.

I sit on the bottom portion of the bunkbed as Bassam sits shotgun snapping pics of Mahal as he talks about his truck. He’s a little camera shy, but quickly warmed up to the photos. His eyes quietly lit up when I asked him more and more about his truck.

Mahal seems like a man at peace with his own lifestyle. When you love your family, he told me, you are willing to do anything to give them a better life. I paused again to think about my dad, because the life that blessed me with this opportunity to chat with Feroz during this road trip, was in more ways than one facilitated by my dad.

photos by Bassam Tariq

By Bassam Tariq

We arrive in Coatesville, PA around 5:30 PM at the East Fallowfield farm. It is cold and cloudy. I get out of our Chevy Cobalt and walk towards something called the “Bawa Garden.” The stop here is supposed to be a short one. We are scheduled to be at United Muslim Mosque in Philadelphia for break fast. We are greeted by a man named Chuck who meets us with three hugs and a firm handshake. I look over at this beautiful white building and ask Chuck what is that building. “Oh, that’s the mazhar, the burial area of a saint.”

A Mazhar in Pennsylvania?

Chuck mentions it’s the first Mazhar in the Americas. It was built in 1986 to honor the Sufi Saint, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. Aman and I get a small tour with Chuck around the Mazhar and the prayer area.

Thirty minutes pass and it’s time for us to hit the road towards Philadelphia. There is something special about this place and I feel it would be criminal to leave. I tell Aman to give my salams to the people in Philly and decide to stay back.

The following photos are taken at the East Fallowfield farm branch of the Bawa Muhaiyadeen Fellowship.

The entrance to the Bawa Garden, a small farming grounds where the congregants were encouraged by Bawa to farm.

Noah places flowers near his grandfather’s grave at the burial site by the Mazhar. Noah is a third generation member of the fellowship.

The headstone of a fellowship member. Bawa bought the East Fallowfield farm land because the difficulties they faced in burying through the government. This land gave them the autonomy to bury the dead with the dignity they deserved, Muslim or non-Muslim.

A picture of Bawa Muhuaiyadeen inside the center. Pictures of Bawa can be found throughout the center. Except for the prayer areas of course.

A picture of Bawa Muhuaiyadeen from the photo book, “The Mirror.” Bawa’s short time in Pennsylvania was well documented and photographed by the fellowship members.

Khalida supplicates at the tomb of Bawa. People from all over the world come to visit Bawa’s Mazhar.

Chuck, our guide at the East Fallowfield farm, takes a minute to meditate at the Mazhar. Unlike most Mazhars in South Asia, Bawa’s is a quiet and tranquil place. No singing, music or speaking is allowed.

Tayba, left, and her sister, Khalida, cook vegetarian dishes for iftaar. Both sisters are from Peshawar, Pakistan and have been a part of the fellowship for more than ten years.

A Pakistani family traveled two hours from Virginia to pay their respects to Bawa and break their fast with the congregation.

The women of the fellowship line up for the maghrib prayer.

A small group supplication takes place after the prayer in the outdoor mosque.

Mohammad Abdullah, the caretaker of the mazar, leads the congregation in supplication.

Nina and Sohaiba, two veteran members of the fellowship, clean up after the break fast dinner.

Two congregants embrace each other after the Ramadan night prayer in Philadelphia. The masjid behind the congregants was the first masjid to be built in Pennsylvania that resembled a mosque. Bawa designed the complex.

By Aman Ali

Apparently it’s not an uncommon sight in Philadelphia to see female parking meter attendants that cover up their faces in full niqab.

It’s that kind of “I’m Muslim, so you’re just going to have to deal with it” attitude that’s so refreshing to me.

Before coming to Philly, I asked many of my friends there which place I should check out when I come. Every single one of them pointed me to the United Muslim Masjid in central Philadelphia.

This place was founded by Kenny Gamble, who’s a major music legend in Philadelphia (I didn’t even know he was Muslim). He opened this mosque in 1994 when prostitutes, pimps and drug dealers ran the neighborhood. Now Gamble owns properties on most of the block and built a certified charter school and even a Muslim barbershop nearby.

I walked into the mosque and found this word etched in the driveway (“Salam,” which means “peace” in Arabic) that reflects the atmosphere that welcomed me into the building.

One of the cool things about Philadelphia is how strong the Muslim presence is here. Even some of the gangbangers and drug dealers unknowingly have adopted traditional Muslim styles of dress such as long beards and rolled up pant legs as some kind of fashion trend. This boy in the mosque was wearing an izaar, or as I like to call it “The Muslim Man Skirt.” He was telling me that it’s not uncommon to see several non-Muslim kids in school rock the same outfits. I woulda worn one too tonight, but I didn’t get a chance to shave my legs.

I spoke at length with Carlin, who heads the mosque, about some insight into the Muslim community here. What I find so fascinating is how strong the presence of Muslims is here. He explained many of the Muslims here, including himself, were deeply rooted in the Nation of Islam movement in the 1960s, before embracing a more mainstream and less militant Islam in the 1970s. I asked him and other former Nation of Islam members at the mosque what motivated them to embrace the mainstream. He and others said it was an easy transition because the more he studied Islam, the easier it was to reject the Nation of Islam’s aggressive black-centric views.

But I still didn’t understand why Philly Muslims have such a strong presence here, compared to Chicago, DC or New York where there are plenty of Muslims too. One of the guys there explained to me a lot of it has to do with the Nation of Islam. In the 1960s, the Nation of Islam in Philadelphia got respect from just about everyone on the block because they cleaned up the violence and drugs in the neighborhoods. So when the Nation of Islam transitioned into mainstream here in Philly, they held onto those views of demanding respect and having no tolerance to things like drugs and violence.

Plain and simple, I was sitting among some certified Muslim badasses. Maybe if I ever get to their level of toughness, I could pull off wearing a man skirt too.

photos by Aman Ali

By Bassam Tariq

The Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center

I am sitting at a table poking the dessert on my plate. Not sure what it’s called, but it’s probably not good for my already troubled stomach.

“Dude,” Aman whispers to me, “I think that dude right there is Yusuf Qaradawi.” Aman points at a man wearing a white cloth over his head. I don’t know who he is talking about, but nod anyway. Aman goes back to staring and googles the man’s name on his Palm Pre.

We are at a fundraising dinner at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) in Boston and, just like many people who attend fundraisers without any money, I feel a little out of place and, quite frankly, am bored. My mind is focused on taking pictures of something riveting but alas speakers at a podium do not make for interesting photos.

“Look,” Bilal Kaleem, the Executive Director of ISBCC who was emceeing the dinner, says, “we’ve come a long way here. Just four years ago we had a lot of opposition just for building this mosque.”

Doesn’t seem like much has changed since then – case in point.

Bilal continued, “Did you all forget when the Boston Herald ran the two page spread in their paper? One side had a picture of Osama Bin Laden, the other had our planned mosque. The headline read, ‘Al Qaeda has landed in Boston.’ ”

I look around the other tables and there are close to two hundred people here and it’s hard to pinpoint one dominant ethnic group. Around my table are Somalis and Indians. On the adjacent table is an Asian man with a Caucasian wife. The walls are plastered with different youth programs available and the back of the mosque has a pretty slick coffee shop (which is closed during Ramadan). No doubt, the community has come a long way in the four years. Someone even said it’s the second biggest mosque in the states. All this is pretty cool, but none of it helps me figure out what I’m focusing on for our post tonight.

Aman googles on his phone as the fundraiser continues behind him.

“Maybe we could go back to Mohammad’s place [our host family] and write about him and his wife?” Aman suggests. Clearly, fundraisers do not make for a fascinating posts.

“Well, what if we stay here and talk about the mosque, the troubles the community has faced and parallel that with the fundraiser? So we have a little about their history and then a hopeful story about their future?” I counter.

Aman nods. He goes back to his quest on figuring out if Yusuf Qaradawi is really sitting across from us.

“So how much money do you think we should be raising tonight?” Bilal Kaleem poses to the attendees.

“250,000!” “No, no, we should raise 150,000″ “300,000″

The audience begins to laugh at all the numbers being thrown. I begin to count the number of Ramadans I’ve fasted through in my life – not more than 15. I recount all the fundraisers during Ramadan I’ve attended. Without pakoras and fundraisers, there is no Ramadan.

I look around and start taking pictures. At this point, the volunteers begin passing out tiny pledge forms. A man sitting next to me fills one out. I point my camera at him and snap away.

“Hey!” the man filling out the form says.

“Yes?” I reply

“Don’t take photos of me.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“No, no sorry. Do you not know you should ask before taking photos?”

“I was going to ask you, but it was rude to speak over the ..”

“..No! You delete the photos right in front of me.”

I turn the LCD of my camera towards him and slowly delete the photos one by one. These were actually pretty good photos.

Frustrated, I bark back, “What’s your problem anyway?”

“What do you mean my problem?”

“I was going to ask you later. They are just photos. What did you think I was going to do with them?”

“No! You don’t take photos without asking for permission.”

We stare each other down. I make sure not to blink. His eyes have to be the first to retreat.

Good.

He is a stunning looking Somali man and he filled out the form with such class. It was a decent shot of him folding and about to lick the envelope. But here again, our community flips so quick. It is easier to get snaps of the conservative Pathaans in Karachi than it is to get of the educated Muslims of America. It’s frustrating since there is very little diversity in my photo collection — in this trip especially. I feel like I’ll have to be okay with my ever increasing collection of bearded brown men.

After two speeches on the importance of fundraising, Aman finally finds a photo of Yusuf Qaradawi on his phone. “Dude, that’s him!” He points at the man sitting in front of us and then at the small unflattering photo of him on his phone.

Bilal, the Executive Director of the ISBCC, comes back to the podium. “I have great news…”

Turns out two people gave checks of $10,000 and then a third person pledged 250,000.

“Takbir!”

In unison, everyone happily screams, “Allahu Akbar! God is great.”

The chairs begin to fold and everyone begins to leave the eating quarters. Aman puts his Palm Pre back in his pocket and asks, “so did you get any decent pictures today?”

Chairs folded

I shrug and we head out towards our car.

As we walk towards our car, I see a chubby kid on a bicycle twice his size trying to pop a wheelie by the mosque. The kid is screaming and laughing. I bolt back towards the mosque in hopes of getting some nice shots in hopes of getting a powerful closing blog post shot.

I creep up the stairs of the mosque and start snapping away..

“Whoa whoa!” the kid interrupts me. He stops his bike and stares me down, “don’t you dare take a photo of me!”

Here we go again.

no chance

photos by Bassam Tariq

By Aman Ali

Before heading out to Boston today, Bassam and I wanted to stay in Maine a little bit longer and visit the community in Portland.

We learned there was a fairly large refugee population from Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and Sudan. Why Maine? The United Nations helps refugees relocate to the United States and often sends them to Maine because it’s a state with a slow growing population that’s known for having welcoming and friendly communities.

One of the men who immigrated to Maine recently was Faisal, an Iraqi who runs a halal meat butcher shop downtown. Faisal came to Maine about three years ago after his life was too dangerous in Iraq working as an interperter for an American contracting company. Now he and his colleague (pictured below cutting meat) make a living running Sindibad Market, aptly named after the Sinbad the Arabian folktale sailor.

The Sindbad Market in Portland, ME

Mishan, an Iraqi refugee, cleans the meat cutter before the start of the day. Mishan arrived in Portland less than a month ago.

I looked around the store and got a chuckle after finding a shelf of Fair and Lovely cream. It’s a skin bleaching cream that’s popular among the South Asians and other cultures. It’s sad but many foreign cultures view people with lighter skin tones to be more beautiful than people with darker skin, and some people will go to the ridiculous length to use this cream to bleach their skin.

Oi gori gori

Faisal left Iraq because he said criminal militias are runng the streets. He and his wife would take turns escorting their kids to school because it was just too dangerous for them to go alone. So in that sense, he’s relieved his kids can go to school in Maine in a safe and welcoming environment.

Faisal, the owner of Sindbad Market, leans on the counter while speaking with Aman.

On the other hand, Faisal faces the struggle that many immigrant parents face – trying to get their children to appreciate the culture they come from. His kids have been in the country for less than three years and already they’re forgetting how to speak Arabic. While he wants his kids to assimilate in American society and do well here, he worries they may forget about their homeland.

Faisal also talked about how there’s a pretty active mosque in Portland, which because of time we unfortunately didn’t have time to visit. The mosque is populated primarily by Iraqi and Somali refugees. So I said “Wow, I’m sure you guys have the best food at Ramadan dinners.” Sadly, no. Like many Muslim communities across the country, the groups are segmented. The Somalis have their own meat shop and get their groceries there, and the Iraqis come to Faisal’s.

We were getting ready to drive out to Boston when we passed by a playground. Turns out it was a community center catered to the needs of refugees living around the housing projects. Here, most of the refugees are from Sudan. The group the Catholic Charities of Maine works with the U.N. to bring families from war torn countries to the states. I spoke Alfred Jacob, a Southern Sudanese refugee who runs the center, while Bassam juggled between taking photos of the kids playing soccer and trying not to get kicked in the head with a ball.

Sudanese refugees play soccer in a playground of a housing project in Portland.

Many of the Sudanese children have households where both the parents are constantly working, primarily in Portland’s factories. Alfred said many of the children don’t have problems feeling welcomed at school, but they often have trouble learning to adapt to an American learning environment. So the community center comes in and helps them ease that frustration. Alfred said he dealt with the frustration of adjusting when he came here too, so he works with the kids from firsthand experience and tries to instill hope in them. “Because without hope,” he said, “what else can you have if you want to succeed?”

A friendly push-up competition in the playground.

Smile

By Aman Ali

I live in New York City among 800,000 Muslims where I can get awesome halal cuisines on just about every major block. But sitting among the 12 families that make up Augusta’s Muslim community, where the nearest halal restaurant is 45 minutes away, made me forget all about New York.

Bassam and I hopped in our car today for a 5-6 hour trek up to Maine. It was our first official stop on our road trip so we were excited to meet the people up there and check out the spectacular scenery in the state’s capital city, Augusta.

Capitol building in Augusta

Along the way I was trying to find something other than country music to listen to so I settled on Taylor Swift. But I guess me saying that I “settled” on listeing to Taylor Swift would be remotely believeable if I secretly didn’t know the lyrics to just about every single one of her songs.

We arrived into the city of Augusta mid-afternoon and stopped at a grocery store to stock up on stuff we forgot to buy for our trip. Coming to a predominantly white town, I assumed I’d have everyone in the store running away from me screaming like a Japanese Godzilla movie. But it was the farthest thing from the truth. I dont think I’ve even seen a stranger smile and wave to me in years. Then again, if I saw me in a grocery store, I wouldn’t smile and wave to me either 🙂

This sign has nothing to do with our fast tonight, but I saw it in a downtown storefront and it made me laugh. I’m still not sure why.

Coming to Augusta, I knew very little about the town, let alone the Muslim community. To schedule this trip, I basically googled a bunch of mosques in the state and Augusta was the first group to get back to me. I feel lucky now that they did.

A man named Ather was waiting for us in the parking lot of the mosque, a cozy single family unit home turned place of worship. A typical Friday prayer, which in just about every community gets the largest turnout during the week, gets around a dozen people. But what this community lacks in size, it makes up in heart. I took a walk with Ather through the city’s downtown and was fascinated about how much this tightly knit community works together to practice their religion. There are basically no halal meat markets nearby, so each week the family’s here designate someone to drive 4 hours down to Boston and pick up halal meat there.

The Augusta Mosque is on the right side. The rest of the space is a medical clinic.

Ather explained most of the Muslim family’s in Maine are pharmacists. For the past 10 years or so, the state has been booming in jobs in the health care industry, prompting many of them to seek opportunities here.

Now on the surface, hearing about a bunch of Muslim pharmacists living in a community makes you want to yawn. But there was something about the charm of these people that makes them stand out from the rest.

Take Ather for example. He was born and raised in India and his wife is a convert that grew up in Maine. He met her here while he was working as a pharamicist and she as an intern at the same place. One day she noticed him praying and asked him about it. The rest is history. Another person we met, Chadi, is an American who converted to Islam about six years ago and married a Morrocan woman. But after hearing so many horror stories about what kind of tension interracial couples have to endure, it’s always refreshing to hear stories about happy couples whose ethnic backgrounds don’t matter when it comes to love.

Ather and Aman stand in downtown Augusta. The town shuts down around 5 PM, even on Fridays.

For Ramadan, the mosque brings in students from Dar Ul Uloom – a reknowned Islamic school in Buffalo, NY – to lead the prayer. Both students are hafizes, people who have memorized the Quraan. Bassam and I peeped into a room they were sitting in by themselves as they intensely tried to prepare for what Quranic verses they were going to recite for tonight’s Taraweeh prayer. I think often times we as Muslims take hafizes for granted. While we feel relaxed and at ease praying behind them, they must feel the intense pressure of basically performing for an entire group of people. I can’t even imagine the stress.

Mikael Smith and Mohammad Umair sit in the back of the Maine mosque preparing for the night prayer, Taraweeh.

A slight pause.

To complete our daily fast, one of the people at the mosque welcomed us into their home. After prayer, we feasted on some of my favorite clutch South Asian dishes, haleem (a thick soup made of minced meat), chicken curry and rice. I really shouldn’t be eating that food considering all the traveling I’m doing, but hey I’m willing to take the punishment lol. The haleem had a really nice citrus taste that really brought out the flavor of the meats. No doubt the community’s four hour trip to Boston to get that meat was worth it.

Food porn #2

This trip has been an incredible experience so far, but no doubt it’s been stressful. During the drive up here, Bassam and I were furiously trying to catch up with all the work we had to do like coordinate interviews with TV networks and radio stations and figuring out ways to improve the site. I’m not complaining about it because to this day I feel lucky fate decided to put us on this journey, but it is no doubt an enduring blessing.

So with all the work I had to do bouncing around in a frenzy in my head, there was nothing more relaxing than sitting among my new Muslim friends in Augusta. Just seeing a bunch of happy children running around and people laughing among one another was enough to bring me comfort.

Kids at the iftaar

Maybe next time they head to Boston, I can leave New York and meet up with them there, because it would be a drive well worth it.

Chadi, a local of Augusta who embraced Islam six years ago, tends to his daughter and a dish of haleem.

By Aman Ali

Dude, it’s just a mosque.

Bassam and I walked into Park 51, the site of the so called “Ground Zero Mosque,” expecting to feel transformed, knowing the fact that I was praying inside the place that’s practically been mentioned in the news every 20 minutes.

But all it felt like – was praying inside a mosque.

The imam takes a gander at some notes before getting ready for the next round of prayers

Bassam and I spent days debating whether or not we should visit Park 51, because we didn’t want to get sucked into the bickering over the building that’s dominated the news cycle for weeks.

But at about 8 p.m. tonight, we said to each other “Whatever, let’s go for it.” Since we broke our fast at the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem, we decided to pray Taraweeh, the Ramadan night prayer, at Park 51.

We hopped in our car and drove about 100 blocks to the place and found a security guard standing outside the building. In light of all the protests and animosity towards the mosque, I guess you can never be too careful.

Excuse me sir, can I see some ID?

I asked the guard if this was the right building for the prayer, and he asked me to wait by the steps while he went inside to check if I could come in.

I said to myself “Wow, security is this tight in here?”

Turns out I was a moron trying to go through the women’s entrance and he went inside to see if there was a path where I could walk around to not disturb any of the women.

I walk inside and see a group of about 30 men and women, mostly college students, already in prayer so I jump in and join the congregation. Most of them were familiar faces that I have seen at the Friday prayers on New York University’s campus.

An announcement is made that the toilets are broken and people should go across the street. You can’t have a community prayer without the standard hilarious housekeeping announcements

I’m standing in prayer expecting to feel something considering I’m inside the Ground Zero mosque. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel, but for some reason I’m confused why I’m not feeling some mythical sensation.

Then I realized, it’s just a mosque, just like any other place of worship in the country. So the only thing I was feeling was an earache from all the screeching on the microphone from the sound system — just like every mosque in America. 🙂

After the prayer, I walked outside and said goodbye to the security guard. His name was Rohan and he spends his days working security outside the building on a regular basis. I asked him if there’s been any kind of problems outside the building, considering all the protests. He said there hasn’t been any incidents at all, except for a random homeless guy that walks by asking people for marijuana. He joked “Yeah but it’s New York City, if I didn’t see a homeless guy walking by asking for weed, I’d be surprised.”

Rohan said the only thing he really sees outside the building are random people that walk by taking pictures. He said several people come by every day snapping photos. He said they have every right to, but he’s just got to take precuations and keep a careful eye on them.

After we finish chatting, I begin walking to the car. Then Bassam comes running out of the building snapping photos in a frenzy. I made eye contact with Rohan from across the street and laugh. I pretend like I don’t know Bassam and head inside the vehicle.

By Bassam Tariq

Imam Talib smiles with the welcolm back poster outside the entrance of Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood

It was nice to be welcomed back to the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood (MIB) with its trademark green cement. We visited this mosque last year during our NYC trek. It was one of the most hospitable and historical centers we visited, so it made sense to start our 30 States adventure from here.

For those who don’t know, the green sidewalk marks the territory of the mosque — a safe zone — and, back in the day, when this neighborhood wasn’t the safest (“when crack was king”), it was the sidewalk where folks knew not to mess around. As the infamous tale goes, a drunkard was stumbling around the streets of Harlem. He was about to pass out when he saw himself on the green cement and dragged himself to the gray part – where he did pass out.

The divide between the green and gray concrete.

Today, Al-Jazeera was scheduled to meet up with us at the mosque. I reached MIB around 7 p.m. and the camera crew was already waiting.

Khalid, the reporter from Al Jazeera, sat outside of the stairs with his camera man waiting for us to arrive. One of the additions of this trip, that I’m not sure how I really feel about, is the extra media attention this adventure is getting. Of course, the ground zero fiasco and the numerous conflicts on mosque constructions around the US has added another dimension to our project. And that’s exactly what the direction Khalid, bless his heart, was trying to go into. And how can you blame him?

Khalid, the Al Jazeera reporter, waits patiently for iftaar outside the steps of MIB.

Imam Talib wasn’t able to join us for long as he had to go to the downtown prison to lead Taraweeh prayers. But he did put up a nice poster outside welcoming us. (top picture)

Aman and I finally came together a little bit before prayer. Less than six weeks ago, there was no real plan for traveling around the country. I was overseas, while Aman was holding down the fort ironing out the project’s logistics. I got back into the country last weekend and it was only two days ago that Aman and I reunited under the kind company of dosas and samosas.

After prayer, we broke our fast with dates. For dinner, there was fried fish, yellow rice, string beans and salad. Khalid, the Al Jazeera reporter, packed up at this point and began to head out.

Food porn, the first of many shots.

Khalid with congregants during dinner inside the prayer area.

Before heading out, I had to grab some CDs of Shaykh Alama Tawfeeq’s Quran recitation. I shared this story last time we visited MIB, but I think it’s just as relevant now as it was then. What makes this recording of the Quran so important is that it’s said to be one of the first recordings of an American Muslim reciting the Quran. Shaykh Alama Tawfeeq wasn’t known for his recitation nor was he a haafiz, one who has memorized the Quran. But instead, he did it because he wanted to show that it can be done.

I understand that it would be ridiculous to channel Shaykh Alama Tawfeeq for our 30 States trek, but maybe we are trying for something that is equally important and ridiculous. Why else do anything?

By Aman and Bassam

Hmm, I should print t-shirts that say “30 Mosques 2010 Road Tour.” Actually, I’m still single, so I should probably not.

We’re a little more than two weeks away before we start our journey and many of you guys have asked us where we’re going.

Here’s the official list and we hope to meet a lot of you guys if we come through your neck of the woods. Above is a sophisticated visual arrangement of those dates that you can click on (aka I forced my little brother to print out a map from Google Image Search and draw the route with a pen). To all you guys who have given their support for our fundraising efforts, thanks so much and make sure you tell everyone you know about it too!

The actual dates are subject to the official moon sighting that starts the month of Ramadan. We’ll be posting the specific mosques we’re visiting soon.

8/12 New York, NY
8/13 Augusta, ME
8/14 Boston, MA
8/15 Philadelphia, PA
8/16 Washington DC
8/17 Charlotte, NC
8/18 Atlanta, GA
8/19 Jacksonville, FL
8/20 Birmingham, AL
8/21 New Orleans, LA
8/22 Houston, TX
8/23 Oklahoma City, OK
8/24 Wichita, KS
8/25 Denver, CO
8/26 Santa Fe, NM
8/27 Phoenix, AZ
8/28 Los Angeles, CA
8/29 Las Vegas, NV
8/30 Salt Lake City, UT
8/31 Boise, ID
9/1 Bozeman, MT
9/2 Fargo, ND
9/3 Minneapolis, MN
9/4 Milwaukee, WI
9/5 Cedar Rapids, IA
9/6 Chicago, IL
9/7 Memphis, TN
9/8 Lexington, KY
9/9 Columbus, OH
9/10 Dearborn, MI

The following post was written by Nzinga Knight, a New York based fashion designer who grew up attending Masjid Khalifa in Brooklyn.

Becoming an eveningwear designer evolved out of me wanting to have the right dress for Eid.

At my mosque then people go hard for Eid. The cooks put their heart into the food, we have an entertainment program that is unrivaled, and people come out dressed in their best. That is, those who can and those who planned. When I began my fashion path then I didn’t imagine that I would become an eveningwear designer. But little did I know that my subconscious yearnings to be glamorous whenever the moment called for it would soon permeate into my reality and culminate into me becoming the eveningwear designer that I am today.

Up until I was a teenager my parents were able to simply buy me a dress that was kid appropriate and we’d go out for some family fun. As I grew older then I realized that simply going shopping was no longer an option. So getting ready for Eid; the dress, the shoes, and the scarf was a frustrating experience. As a teenager then I’d come to the mosque looking business chic at best while the other ladies had dresses on that had been planned out with their seamstress from weeks before. I’d ask my dad if he could get a dress made for me and he’d reply “Well then that would mean that I’d have to do the same for your other five sisters”.

By the time I reached my 3rd year at Pratt as a Fashion design major I’d figured out how to turn $150 bucks into something really fabulous, and include some shoes and a beaded scarf into my budget too. So with my new ingenuity I convinced my dad to give me $150 bucks towards my Eid dress fund.

I thought, “this time I’ll show up to Eid looking the way that I want to look… fabulous!” But little did I know that what began, as a vanity pursuit would end up feeling more like second rites of passage.

The Eid program at Muhsi Khalifa tends to begin at about 5pm and end at 9pm. It was my senior year at Pratt at I had 5 designs that I was working on for my thesis. They were a bit complicated as every new design is an adventure. I’d decided that I’d duplicate the prototype for one style, a fuchsia and bordeaux red dress into my Eid 2004 dress. So with the budget that my dad gave me I purchased the fabric, and beads and proceeded to create my dress. After 50+ hours of altering my patterns and cutting and sewing, my dress was ready. My twin sister had been filming my senior year for months and so we figured we’d jump in a cab and head to the mosque for me to have my moment.

After 10 minutes in the cab we finally arrived. Up the stairs I went and into Akbar Hall I entered… at 9:05!

The program was O-V-E-R and there were scatterings of people. But that wouldn’t stop me. I finally looked like a million bucks and I was extremely proud. So whoever was there was going to be the audience for the debut of my dress. With about a half hour left until the hall would completely shut down I greeted the people who were there and received tons of compliments on my dress. My 50 plus hours of work and my dads $150 culminated in a half hour of extreme happiness and personal gratification.

I’ve had many happy days but this was different, I had created something that was able to alter my entire experience, even if for only a half hour. I imagined what a full evening of glamour would be like. I realized that I have a talent that can change a mood and enhance an experience. This was a pinnacle moment for me. I was able to go from a girl scrambling for clothes to a well-put together woman. At that moment then I was being the glamorous woman that I always wanted to be.

Nowadays, my Eid timing is much better. I’m usually able to start the day in a dress. This year then because I was grasping for extra sleep in the morning then I had to leave the house dressed casually in order to catch the Eid prayer and brunch. I felt like I was in black and white while everyone else seemed to be in Technicolor. But of course I knew that blocks away there hung my beautiful dress and my fancy shoes. So as soon as we could break out I went home (at around 11am) so that I could attempt to look as lovely as the day was.

During Eid day then there’s music all day long including R&B Nasheed’s and old school classics, Michael Jackson and a whole bunch of other stuff… basically whatever the resident DJ feels like mixing up. When I arrived back at my mosque there were the sounds of children enjoying their carnival in the Cultural enlightenment center on one side of the complex and the sounds of live jazz playing on the other side of the complex in Akbar Hall. Between 11-5 then the teenagers traditionally go roller skating or bowling.

When I entered Akbar Hall I checked with one of the older women to report to my volunteer duty of the day. I was famished so I decided that I’d eat first and give my taste buds a whirl. The food was great! The talented cooks offered an array of African American and Caribbean food. For the next few hours then I and several other volunteers assisted in serving the food to hundreds of people.

By the time most people had finished eating it was time for Magrib. After we prayed then I joined my family at a table and the show really began. While the audience enjoyed the show I understand that this show is not for every one. At the same time anyone who I have invited to come to Eid non-Muslim and Muslim, European, African or American has really enjoyed Eid day at Khalifa and felt welcomed.

I’ve been to other mosques Eid celebrations where people pray, exchange gifts and their only form of entertainment is conversation and that certainly would not be the kind of celebration we’d aspire to at this mosque. Within the 1billion plus Muslims in this world and all of the cultures that we cross then Muslims have various temperaments and ways of cultural expression. And the show at Muhsi Khalifa is certainly not an attempt at some imagined generic Islamic celebration.

It is definitely culturally appropriate and catered to the African American audience at Muhsi Khalifa who enjoy it and anyone else who enjoys high energy Barry White, James Brown, Tina Turner and The Supremes, performances and wouldn’t mind seeing 50+ year old (probably post-menopause) women and men do it. See, the folks at Khalifa fully embrace their blackness, being American and Islam and the cultural expression is a fusion of the two.

Each year’s program is a bit different. This year then there was a Barry White impersonator, a live jazz band and a very energetic female duo. With modest clothing on, the lead singer began Tina Turners “Proud Mary”. During the beginning add lib she said “cause around here we do Karate” (we do have Karate classes at Khalifa) and did a very high kick (she obviously takes classes). She sang and performed both on stage and in the midst of the crowd as other women (over 50 and probably post menopause) got up and danced with her. The one niqabi (face veil) woman in the room gave the others a run for their money as far as who was hypest. She had a bunch of cute bopping dances and steps that made her fabric sway. The audience fully enjoyed the show and they received roaring applause.

One of my favorite moments from Eid night was when as the singer ended “I feel good” then in her best James Brown inspired voice she said “Hit Me!!!… Now lets go make salat”

To finish off the program we had a young African American brother do some recitation. That was the best music of the night. The room was silent as everyone was being attentive to the blessing that the moment was and the day had been. We finally ended the program with one of the MC’s leading us in cleanup. As the resident DJ played the house music song “Come with me” the MC rhythmically said, “All right ya’ll, we messed it up, so now we’ve got to clean it up”. So with everyone now out of their seats and cleaning to the beat we had the hall back in order within the time span of a song.

Eid is a celebration! It’s a day to look good, feel good and do good things. I pray that I nailed it this year. The Eid celebration signifies the general feeling of this community. And I am inspired in many ways by how we come together on this wonderful day. We eat together, we pray together, we celebrate together and we work together. And while we have leaders it’s never just the burden of one person or a small group of people to make things happen. It’s families and friends coming together as a community. Everybody’s got to look beautiful, feel beautiful, and be beautiful in order to make an Eid celebration on this level happen.

By Aman and Bassam

I’ve seen many spectacular sights in my short lifetime and tonight I have come up with the top four:

1. The ka’bah in Makkah, Saudi Arabia

2. Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia

3. Masjid Al-Aqsa in Palestine

4. Seeing a niqabi in Brooklyn get down on Eid

After tonight, I have to bump the birth of my nephew down to number 5. I hope my brother doesn’t mind.

Bassam was out of town today spending Eid Al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday celebrating the completion of Ramadan, with his family. Eid is typically a holiday to celebrate among friends and family. But since my family is spread out all over the country, it becomes harder to do that as I get older. Luckily for me, my little brother Zeshawn lives in New York now, so it wasn’t too bad celebrating Eid today.

Zeshawn tagged along with me to go to the Eid prayer held by the Upper Westchester Muslim Society. This is a congregation of mostly Arab and South Asian doctor families about 30-45 minutes north of where I live. They held the Eid prayer in a hotel ballroom and you can tell by the photo it was a packed crowd:

My buddy Sharaf Mowjood (who took many of the pics in this post) went to Eid prayer at NYU instead. Shoutouts to them for mentioning the 30 Mosques project during the Eid Khutbah, the short talk after the prayer.

Eid is without a doubt one of my favorite times of the year. It’s a day Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said is for rejoicing. So considering that most of my family wasn’t with me this year for Eid, I set out on a mission last week to find the most crunk celebration possible that could fill the void of them not being here.

If you listened to the NPR story on 30 Mosques on Friday, you would have learned that I was eager to re-visit Masjid Khalifah in Brooklyn for Eid. It’s the mosque Bassam and I visited on Day 24 and we were told the place has an AMAZING live entertainment show during Eid. I was compelled to find out if it was true.

I met up with Sharaf later that afternoon and we rolled through Masjid Khalifah at around 6 p.m.. As soon as we stepped inside, all we heard was Michael Jackson music BLASTING through the entire building. I looked across the room I was standing in and saw little kids doing the “MJ kick” and moonwalk. At that moment, Sharaf and I knew we were in store for an interesting evening, so we grabbed some food and sat down at a table in the community hall.

For dinner, I had beef tips, barbecue chicken, baked chicken, lamb, goat and catfish. For sides I had corn, lentil rice and spinach. Masjid Khalifah seriously came correct tonight, I was joking with one of the people that they must have had trouble figuring out what dishes to serve because it looked like they were offering every single halal animal imaginable.

As we were eating, we saw a live band come in and set up on the mainstage. I joked with Sharaf that this band must be legit because some of them were walking around with bookbags to hold their guitars in.

The band started off with some funk instrumentals, to warm the crowd up since people were still coming into the buildings. That’s when three Muslim women took the stage to lead the crowd in one of my favorite Motown records, “Stop in the name of love” by the Supremes. THE CROWD WENT NUTS.

The singers were walking up and down the aisles trying to get the audience hyped. All of a sudden I see a women in black niqab get up and bust out moves that I didn’t even think were humanly possible.

As soon as I saw that happen, Sharaf and I looked at each other realizing not a single one of our friends would believe what we had just witnessed.

The band continued nailing cover song after cover song from artists such as Tina Turner, Chuck Berry, Barry White and they even busted out with some James Brown.

We decided not to take pictures of most of the evening celebrations because Eid is a time to celebrate comfortably among your friends and peers. I’m sure many of the people there would have been self-conscious of cameras flashing in their face, let alone uncomfortable with us posting their pics on our site for the entire world to see.

I think it’s safe to say that just about every mosque I’ve been to, the celebration that Masjid Khalifah had tonight would never fly. Then I started thinking, why not? Let’s put the women singing and dancing thing aside, whats wrong with cranking out a few tunes for people to enjoy on one of the most special days of the year to celebrate?

But I don’t want to turn this into an argument about the right way vs. wrong way to celebrate Eid. I’m not even remotely qualified to make that argument. But what I saw tonight was spectacular. To see Muslims spend the day of Eid with their friends and family completely energized from head to toe is a sight I haven’t seen in a long time.

Most Eid celebrations I have gone to growing up are enjoyable, but fairly routine. You grab a plate of food, sit down with friends and family and talk for a few hours. Still fun to do, but I’d take some James Brown tunes over that any day of the week.

After the celebration, the show’s emcees asked everyone to help clean up. They even managed to turn the cleaning instructions into a catchy song. I was like “Wow, they can even get crunk while cleaning.”

I helped stack some folding chairs and when I was done with that, I carried over some tables to a nearby wall. As I did that, one of the elderly gentleman in the community shouted at me not to move the tables.

That’s when I ran into one of the women I met when I visited Masjid Khalifah on Day 24. She said “You’ve prayed with us, had our food, and now you’ve been yelled at for doing something wrong. Congratulations, you are officially a member of this masjid.”

Driving back home to Manhattan after the celebration, I started telling Sharaf how hard it was to believe that the 30 Mosques project was coming to an end. That’s when we were driving through midtown Manhattan and noticed the green lights coming from the Empire State Building.

Green is a color heavily associated with Islam (Can someone tell me the exact significance of it, I’ve heard close to 30 different explanations). During the Eid holiday, the city of New York shines green lights on the Empire State Building to let the entire community know its Eid.

If you ever wondered how strong of an impact Muslims have had on New York City, all you have to do is come visit during Eid and look at the sky.

No person on this Earth could ever replace my family. But tonight I finally realized, the people I’ve met in this city, especially during this 30 Mosques project, are the next best thing.

The following is a post written by Musa Syeed, a close friend of the 30 Mosques project who did itikaf during Ramadan. Itikaf involves spending the final nights at the mosque during Ramadan secluded in worship.

After a few thwarted attempts, my plan was at last finalized. And it seemed pretty tight, I had all my supplies. I would make my getaway on the R train, and ride it straight out of midtown, out of Manhattan, and if I was lucky—out of this world.

Every Ramadan I tell myself that I’m going to do itikaf, a spiritual retreat where one tries to seclude himself in a mosque for any period of time. The Prophet Muhammad (s) recommended spending the last 10 days of Ramadan, an especially blessed time, in itikaf. Other years, I sometimes get around to spending one night. But this year, I finally one-upped myself—I was able to do 2 nights in a row. With itikaf the hope is to escape the dunya, this temporary world, long enough to imagine—and if you’re really lucky to taste—what spiritual excellence might be like.

After reading good reviews, I decided to do my itikaf at Masjid Hikmah in Queens. As I rode the train in, I checked the contents of my bag. I wanted to make this a good itikaf experience, so I came prepared. My long black kamees was folded in one corner. Although I resisted for a long time that there are some clothes that are more ‘Islamic’ than others, I know that my kamees is modest and comfortable and doesn’t distract me when I’m praying. I thought that when I wore it tonight, I would disappear, like some big Sharpie had just scribbled me out of this world, and I could move around the mosque unnoticed, fitting in. Quiet isolation is said to be key to a good itikaf.

In another pocket, I packed a few energy bars. Besides just not eating during the day, I was intent on eating less during the night and to eat more simple, healthy food. Whatever the mosque might serve, I was intent on making these energy bars my only meals. This I hoped would further the will power we develop during Ramadan, so that I could have the will to cut down on the junk I eat during the rest of the year.

Finally, there was my pocket-sized copy of the Qur’an and my dhikr beads. These I hoped would keep me busy through the night, so I wouldn’t be tempted to just turn this into some all-night hangout with whatever brothers I would meet there.

I got off the train, and I decided to change into my kamees before I even got into the mosque. I did this quickly on a dead street, and then entered the mosque. It wasn’t long before I realized my plans weren’t quite so perfect.

Allah plans, and we plan. But He is the best of planners.

For iftar, there were dates, fruit, cake, and soup. I was able to restrict myself mostly to just dates and fruit. But then when dinner came, and they laid out a buffet of Indonesian food, my energy bars became a distant memory. The peanut sauce, the coconut milk curries, the noodle salad were all too tempting. As I finished my first pass at the buffet, I realized my plate was a lot more full than I had planned.

Although the mosque is known as an Indonesian mosque, I had heard that the community is very diverse there, and indeed it is. But after most of the congregants left after tarawih prayers, I looked around me to see who else would be spending the night. I was the only non-Indonesian guy, and my black kamees stuck out against their colorful sarongs and floral print shirts.

And because I stuck out, I was the object of that great, overwhelming cultural force: Muslim hospitality. While I usually welcome this, tonight I was wary of it. I didn’t want to make friends, I wanted to spend the night in quiet meditation. But the men of the mosque, who also seemed to do most of the kitchen and cleaning work, wouldn’t leave me alone. Worst of all was Zam Zam, a young brother who seemed to be in charge of making sure things run smoothly. To make things worse, he seemed extremely interesting. While we made wudu, I realized that under his large black-green-gold knit cap were dreadlocks that fell to his mid-back. He was the main muezzin of the mosque, the person in charge of making the call to prayer. The teenagers seemed to look up to him. The children seemed to like him, even when he was gently reprimanding them for making a mess in the basement.

Early in the evening he turned to me and asked if I planned on staying the night at the mosque. When I said I would stay, he responded with a gleeful “All right!”, as if we were both 8 years old and my mom had just allowed me to sleep over at his house. I choked back a laugh. He piqued my interest, and although I avoided any extended conversations with him, I couldn’t help but continually make observations about him and guess at what his story might be.

As the evening came to a close, I wanted to evaluate my progress. I thought about my coconut curry-stained kamees, my full stomach and my uneaten energy bars, my burgeoning man-crush on Zam Zam, and the bookmark in my Qur’an that marked my sorry progress. I felt like I had failed.

From my lonely corner, I looked at Zam Zam thumbing his beads in his corner, and I finally felt like I knew him. There was something familiar in his unpretentious honesty and energy, the ease with which he communicated with both children and adults, and his quiet confidence. I realized why I recognized him. He is the believer I used to wish I could be, the image of a better me that I used to carry around. Before I let big-city cynicism seep into my heart, he’s the kind of guy I wanted to be like.

After an evening of being constantly pulled back to reality, I was tired and defeated. I wondered if I had this whole itikaf-escape-the-world thing wrong. This world is the only arena I have to prove myself, to live up to the ideals I claim to profess. So even though I lost this round, I have to stand my ground, here on this Earth.

Maybe instead of trying to get me out of the world, it’s about trying to get worldliness—its negativity, its short-sightedness, its littleness—out of me.

I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll ask Zam Zam when Ramadan is over.