Muslims and Jews Helping Each Other

Abundant Faith, Shrinking Space
Mosques Turn to Synagogues, Ballrooms to Accommodate Growing Membership

By William Wan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 22, 2009

They stream in through the doors every Friday -- a sea of Muslims pouring into a synagogue in Reston.

The men roll out long prayer rugs on the synagogue floor. An imam stands up front and praises Allah. And as the faithful begin whispering their prayers in flowing Arabic, their landlord, a rabbi, walks by to check whether they need anything.

This unlikely arrangement between a burgeoning Muslim congregation and a suburban synagogue is what happens when you combine the region's rapidly growing Muslim population with a serious shortage of worship space.

As area mosques prepare for the start of Ramadan this weekend, many are simply bursting at the seams. Every available inch -- even in lobbies and hallways -- is being used. Parking is impossible. Traffic afterward is worse than postgame gridlock at FedEx Field.

Nobody knows how many Muslims are in America -- estimates range from 2.35 million to 7 million -- but researchers say the population is growing rapidly, driven by conversions, immigration and the tendency for Muslims to have larger families. One study by Trinity College in Connecticut shows the percentage nationwide having doubled since 1990. In the Washington area, the increase might be even sharper, local Muslim leaders say.

A building boom has brought new mosques to suburbs such as Manassas and Ellicott City, but many have been full from the moment they opened. So, desperate for room, Muslim communities have started renting hotel ballrooms, office space and, yes, even synagogues to handle the overflow.

"We say our prayers, and a few hours later they meet for Sabbath and they say their prayers," said Rizwan Jaka, a leader at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) mosque in Sterling, which added services at two synagogues last year. "People may think it's strange or odd, but we are simply grateful for the space."

The extra room will prove crucial this weekend with the beginning of Ramadan -- a month of fasting that often draws hundreds to mosques in addition to regular members. Anticipating the throngs, many mosques have hired off-duty police and rallied volunteers to handle the traffic.

"Just like you have Easter Christians, Hanukkah Jews, we have what we call Ramadan Muslims. They just come out of the woodwork on the holy days," said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, outreach director at the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church.

Last year at the height of Ramadan, Abdul-Malik had to turn many away to avoid violating occupancy rules, which limit his mosque to 2,000 worshipers. When asked how many he expects this year, the imam chooses his words carefully: "I'd rather not say because of the fire marshal."

Things weren't always so tight.

The ADAMS mosque -- which now rents space in two hotels and a wedding hall along with the two synagogues -- began in 1985 in a Herndon school cafeteria with a handful of Muslims. But since 2000, its numbers have swelled from 300 people to 4,000 attending services throughout Northern Virginia on Friday afternoons, a sacred time for prayer and sermons.

At first, leaders tried adding two Friday prayer times at the Sterling mosque. Then they created overflow rooms upstairs and downstairs. They designated choice parking spots "HOV-only" to encourage carpooling, expanded the parking lot and constructed a second entrance.

But none of it was enough.

As they looked for a place to expand in Reston, members of Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation learned of their plight. Although some in the congregation had reservations about leasing space for Islamic services, longtime members recalled that a Catholic church opened its doors to them years before they had built their synagogue. Their rabbi weighed in with biblical support.

"The prophet Isaiah said our houses would be houses of prayer for all people," said Rabbi Robert Nosanchuk. "Now, I don't know if Isaiah could have imagined us hosting Ramadan in the synagogue, but the basic idea is there."

It turned out to be relatively easy. Their new Muslims friends didn't need much: wide-open space, carpet to cushion the floor and a place for their shoes. The synagogue's social hall suited them perfectly.

The arrangement has led to the unexpected benefit of cultural exchange. There have been pulpit swaps, with the imam and rabbi preaching to each other's congregation and interfaith visits as well.

David Fram, 72, who sings in the synagogue's choir, was recently invited to the Sterling mosque for daily prayers. It was an amazing, if somewhat awkward, experience. "I didn't know quite what to do; there was a lot of bending and kneeling in their prayers," he said.

Standing quietly in the back of the prayer hall, Fram decided to simply bow his head in reverence. He ate lunch ("some kind of spicy meat and rice") afterward. And a few weeks later, he found himself at Barnes & Noble buying a Koran, out of curiosity.

"It's not like the U.N. here. We're not looking to draft some final settlement agreement between Israel and Palestine," Nosanchuk said. "But we're learning from each other, and we're trying to give them the space they need and make them feel at home."

ADAMS and other congregations are unlikely to solve their space problems anytime soon because of the long lag time usually required for new mosques. Because the Koran prohibits borrowing money at interest, congregations don't use bank loans for construction. Instead, they fundraise over many years and then pay in cash.

The process can be excruciating.

It took Muslims in Prince William County 10 years before they accumulated enough money for a new home. While they waited, they crammed into a one-story house off Route 234. Each week, they somehow fit 50 cars into a space meant for 20. When services got too full, people knelt outside and prayed on the grass.

Women working minimum-wage jobs donated their family's jewelry to the new-mosque fund. When construction finally began in 2004, families often drove out to the site just to watch and dream about a future of plentiful parking and prayer space.

But it wasn't meant to be.

Almost as soon as the new mosque, Dar Al-Noor, opened three years ago during Ramadan, the building was packed with 1,200 people. So this year throughout Ramadan, members will continue praying and fundraising for further expansion, said the community's president, Mohammad Mehboob.

"We are a community with many people but not so much money," Mehboob said. "But Allah has always provided for us. It's amazing we have this mosque now, and, inshallah, we will continue to build and grow."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

Palestinians pay price for army action

IN the farmlands between the Jewish settlement of Qedumim and the Palestinian village of Imatin, the struggle for the West Bank is visible. On a hill, broken chairs are strewn where the Israeli army tried to demolish an illegal Jewish settlement. In the fields, 70 olive trees are scorched after settlers took revenge - not on police but Palestinians.

It is a new and effective settler tactic known as the "price tag": if the government sends police or soldiers to dismantle an outpost, settlers make the Palestinian population pay.

"It's quite simple and smart but evil," said Michael Sfard, a lawyer with the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. "They attack Palestinian property, people, and blockade roads every time the Israeli security forces do something they don't like."

Many settlers in the West Bank are religious hardliners who believe that they are fulfilling a biblical prophecy. They are playing a game of cat and mouse with the government, which is trying to stop unauthorised outposts from being built while it pushes the international community to allow it to continue building its established West Bank settlements. Israel considers the larger towns to be completely legal and has agreed only to dismantle unauthorised outposts built since March 2001.

The more radical settlers, who are unable and unwilling to fight the Israeli army, retaliate by attacking Palestinians in neighbouring villages.

When the army dismantled the tiny hilltop outpost of Shvut Ami, an outcrop of the established Qedumim settlement, this week it was the Palestinians of Imatin who suffered.

"While the people in the place are confronting the security forces, people in another place will start harassing Palestinians to inflame the ground," Mr Sfard said.

This has the double effect of forcing commanders to split men from their first objective, and making them think twice about launching operations.

Bible Burner

It seems like there are also Christian Pastors who believe that the bible is changed or all bibles except one.

A church leader in North Carolina is burning versions of the Bible he doesn't agree with.

Pastor Marc Grizzard of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton is building a bonfire on Halloween to destroy Bibles that aren't the King James Version.

His reason for burning the holy books?

"What we're doing is we're burning books that are satanic. I believe the King James version is God's preserve, inspired, in erect, infallible word of God."

The pastor also says well-known Christian ministers like Billy Graham and Rick Warren are heretics whose books belong on a long list of negative influences and should be thrown to the flames.

Funny thing is the King James version has more mistakes than others.

The God Debate, Evolution and “Who Designed the Designer?”

Click It!

Dawkins No Longer Darwinist

DAWKINS IS NO MORE DARWINIST! HE CONVERTED TO SPACE RELIGION!

Unable to deny the existence of 250 million fossils proving the existence of Creation, to explain even how a single protein came into existence or how life initially began, to give an example about a beneficial mutation, and seeing the glory of the fact of Creation, Richard Dawkins established a space cult for himself in an effort to cope with the profound dilemma he faced!

Richard Dawkins was urged to admit the irrationality of his claims of “chance” and realized that Darwinism is in a great dilemma. Unable to resolve these issues and find a way out, he had to admit that all beings were created. However, because he found it difficult to withdraw all his claims all of a sudden, he considers aliens as deities. (Surely Allah is beyond that) Surely even this is enough to see that Dawkins had to abandon his claims of "chance" and is no longer a Darwinist. Now it remains for Dawkins to answer the following question: Who created the aliens?

Dawkins will probably give the right answer also to this question, because after admitting that beings are created and seeing the falsity of Darwinism, it is impossible for a person to deny that all the glorious Creation in the universe belongs to Allah. Indeed, in one of his interviews Dawkins confesses that life was created somewhere in the space by a SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE. ^[1]

The appearance of a scientist with an incognizable claim suggesting that a wonder of Creation with an extraordinary complexity such as chromosome is made by "aliens" is surely pathetic for the Darwinist world of science. However, rather than advocating "chances", which is a far more irrational claim, suggesting that living beings were created by a superior intelligence is also a sign of Darwinism's end. Indeed, still being in defence of Darwinism despite the evidences of Creation is impossible for a person of sound mind.

Indeed, Dawkins' avoidance from a debate with Adnan Oktar is an obvious manifestation of his indecision. As it is known, Mr. Adnan Oktar gave an announcement to The Times, one of the most circulated newspapers in Britain, and invited Dawkins to a face-to-face debate. Dawkins once again remained silent to this proposal which has been repeated continously for the last two years. This is nothing but another confirmation of Adnan Oktar's rightfulness in his arguments. The Creator of all beings is All-Mighty Allah. Each superstitious explanation brought against Allah's All-Mighty existence is doomed to disappear, rot and fall into disgrace.

The announcement calling Dawkins to debate, given by Adnan Oktar to the Times newspaper on 13.10.2009

From Mr. Adnan Oktar's interview dated 30 October 2009:

ADNAN OKTAR: We invite Darwinists to science. They evade science, they do not use science, they have turned their backs to science. We, on the other hand, encourage them to use science. For instance they evade paleonthology, which is a science that lays Darwinism to waste. There are 250 million fossils that prove Creation. If a person feigns ignorance about these fossils and avoids to examine them, and simply says, "I do not want to see them", this means he evades science. What does science dictate? It dictates, "A protein can not come into existence by chance." If one avoids to examine the molecule structure of proteins, and is unwilling to examine the probability of its coming into existence by chance, this simply means avoidance from science. People examine the structure of chromosomes under the electron microscope. We see its structure. Avoiding to examine them and attributing the formation of chromosomes to aliens, saying, "Aliens hurled chromosomes to the Earth through the athmosphere", then this is one of the worst examples of nonsense and it is avoidance from science. We invite them to science, that is, to the truth and righteousness. That is to say, a man like Dawkins, the foremost protector of Darwinism in the world... We gave an announcement to one of the most circulated newspapers of Britain, the Times, to invite him to debate. He insistently avoids. If he is a scientist, then he should come so that we can debate. He goes and debates with secondary-school students, with evangelical clergy and rabbis. But he should come and discuss this matter with those who have information about it. We won't take too much of his time; only half an hour. We will host him in the best manner in Turkey. We show utmost respect and kindness but he intensively avoids because here he will face scientific facts, fossils. He will face the facts revealed by paleonthology and other disciplines. Look do you know what Dawkins, in whom everyone trusts, says? He "Aliens sent chromosomes from the space to the Earth." Is this science? This is dishonor. He used to advocate pagan religion and now he has started to advocate the pagan religion. That is, this is sheer fallacy.

ADNAN OKTAR: One can not attain anywhere with impossibility. That is, this is something impossible because it is a theory whose invalidity has been certified by 250 million fossils. Creation has been clearly established by the examination of the structure of proteins and chromosomes and even a man like Dawkins started to say that this is done by aliens. He says that human beings were created by aliens. In other words, Dawkins says that there is some sort of Creation. There is a Creator but they are aliens, he says. When you ask who created aliens, he remains speechless.

These are words uttered out of desparation. That is, they have nothing to do in the face of faith. They are in panic.

ADNAN OKTAR: This shows that they essentially have faith. But out of pride, egocentricity and arrogance they find it more appropriate to submit themselves to aliens, since they do not want to submit themselves to Allah. With the mindset they have, they consider it better to see aliens like Allah (Allah is beyond this.)

1 Ben Stein, Expelled “No Intelligence Allowed”, Documentary , 2008

Nov 09, 2009