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Ledger – January 7, 2006
Muslim presence in Mississippi growing
By Jean Gordon, Clarion
Everyday around noon, Shaheed Muhammad, a 55-year-old African American, finds a private area inside the Jackson-Evers International Airport, lays a small rug on the floor and begins to pray.
At the same time, Turkish-born Sabri Agachan, 27, performs an identical ritual inside his office at Jackson State University.
Muhammad and Agachan represent the metro area's diverse and growing Muslim community, which some observers estimate to include between 2,000 to 4,000 people.
"It verifies Islam to me," said Muhammad, a skycap at the airport for 17 years. "There are people from every corner of the globe."
The region's Muslims will gather early next week to celebrate Eid ul-Adha, the Muslim holy day commemorating the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Drawing some 800 people last year, Jackson's Eid celebration reveals the global nature of Islam. Local believers from countries including Pakistan, India, Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, the Sudan, Turkey and the United States transcend cultural differences through their common beliefs.
"God says in the Quran that he made us different tribes and nations so that we may know one another," Muhammad said. "When I attend the mosque, it's a reminder of the universal oneness of mankind."
More mosques
The two largest mosques in the metro area are Masjid Muhammad in north Jackson and Masjid Omar in the southern part of the city.
Founded in the early 1970s, Masjid Muhammad got its start when Islam began attracting more African Americans.
Once located in inner-city Jackson, the mosque first affiliated with the Nation of Islam, a movement that combines Islam with black nationalism.
"The history of the African-American Islamic movement here began as more of a social movement," said Okolo Rashid, co-founder and executive director of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson.
But after the movement's leader Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, Masjid Muhammad's leadership voted to join the American Muslim Mission, which teaches orthodox Islam.
The mosque's membership has historically been African American, but it started a formal push in 2000 to attract members from the faith's international community.
"It was always our desire as we learn more about the religion to make it more reflective of the diversity of Islam," Rashid said. "We openly established a policy to be inclusive."
It now includes members from close to 10 different cultural groups including Arabs, American blacks and whites and people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Sudan. (MORE)
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060107/FEAT04/601070321/1263
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