Tag: Mosques

  • Islam In America: Mosques See Dramatic Increase In Just Over A Decade, According To Muslim Survey

    Islam In America: Mosques See Dramatic Increase In Just Over A Decade, According To Muslim Survey

    DEARBORN, MI - APRIL 21: The Islamic Center of America, site of a planned Good Friday protest by the Florida koran-burning Pastor Terry Jones is shown April 21, 2011 in Dearborn, Michigan. Jones burned a copy of the Koran, the religious text of Islam, last month.  (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
    DEARBORN, MI – APRIL 21: The Islamic Center of America, site of a planned Good Friday protest by the Florida koran-burning Pastor Terry Jones is shown April 21, 2011 in Dearborn, Michigan. Jones burned a copy of the Koran, the religious text of Islam, last month. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

    First Posted: 02/29/2012 12:20 pm Updated: 02/29/2012 12:58 pm

    In the decade since 9/11, American Muslims and mosques have come under a close lens, from congressional hearings on radicalization to campaigns against mosque construction projects and anti-Sharia legislation proposals in dozens of states.

    Despite such difficulties, a comprehensive survey of American mosque leaders released Wednesday reveals that the number of mosques in the country has grown tremendously, with more than 900 new centers being established since 2000. Another finding from the survey reveals that compared to the turn of the millennium, less Muslims see America as “hostile” to Islam today.

    The nation’s largest Islamic groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America and the Islamic Circle of America released the survey that asked hundreds of mosque leaders about the demographics and theological and political leanings of their congregation.

    Researchers counted 2,106 mosques in the United States, mostly located in or around big cities, with New York state and California alone having 503 mosques. As more Americans have moved to the suburbs, so has the growth of new mosques. While many mosques have historically been established by South Asian immigrants, the study found that newer immigrant groups such as Somalis, Iraqis, West Africans and Bosnians have began to establish their own mosques since 2000.

    “The continued growth of the community is amazing,” said Ihsan Bagby, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky who was the primary researcher of the study. Bagby, who is Muslim, did similar surveys of mosques in 1994 and 2000. “It’s remarkable the amount of mosques that have been built in the last 10 years. It’s kind of counter-intuitive to factors working against them.”

    Bagby, who worked with researchers from Hartford Seminary and the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, counted Sunni and Shiite mosques, which represent the two main Islamic denominations; leaving out smaller groups, such as the Nation of Islam, Moorish Science Temple, Isma’ili and Ahmadiyya centers. Many Muslim groups, such as those on university campuses, do not have permanent spaces, so only those with a physical building or permanent room that they control were counted. Mosques also had to hold services on Fridays, the main Islamic congregational prayer day, to be counted.

    More than 98 percent of mosque leaders, which includes imams or heads of operating boards, said in the survey that Muslims should be involved in American society, while 91 percent said that Muslims should be involved in politics. The survey also found that 87 percent of mosque leaders disagree that radicalism is increasing among young Muslims. Six percent agreed that it was increasing.

    Researchers also asked about how Muslim leaders approach their religion. The majority — 56 percent — said they believe in a flexible interpretation of the Quran and the Sunnah (the way the Islamic prophet Muhammad practiced the religion) that isn’t always literal and takes into account modern life.

    On the more conservative end, 21 percent of mosque leaders said they look toward more traditional interpretations of Islam, and six percent said they are Salafi. Salafi is a conservative tradition that sees the early generations of Islam after the religion was established in the 7th century as the most authentic, and shares similarities with Wahhabism, another conservative tradition that is dominant Saudi Arabia.

    Bagby’s previous survey, conducted a year before 9/11, found that a majority of mosque leaders — 54 percent — thought America was hostile toward Islam. Today, a quarter of those surveyed said they feel that way.

    The survey was done via phone in English with a sample of more than 500 mosques from across the country and based on self-reporting from mosque leaders. The margin of error was plus or minus 5 percent. It’s the first of several surveys Bagby will release through the summer. The others will look at the role of women in mosques, the role of imam’s at mosques, and educational and social programs offered at mosques.

    The survey results are meant for a broad audience, but Bagby says he hopes Muslims will gain insight from them, especially the upcoming surveys.

    “The ultimate goal is to bring some introspection and understanding so mosque leaders can improve mosque life,” he said.

    Bellow are some findings of “The American Mosque 2011: Basic Characteristics of the American Mosque, Attitudes of Mosque Leaders.”

    • The average number membership of an American mosque was 1,248 in 2011, which counts Muslims who at least pray for Eid-al-Fitr, one of two major holidays, at the mosque. That’s down from 1,625 in 2000 and is likely because of a growth in the number of mosques.
    • The total number of mosque participants or “mosqued Muslims” has increased from 2 million in 2000 to over 2.6 million Muslims in 2011. In his study, Bagby writes that “if there are 2.6 million Muslims who pray the Eid prayer, then the total Muslim population should be closer to estimates of up to 7 million.” That contrasts with other surveys, such as a 2010 one by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which said there were 2.6 million Muslims in the country. A Pew report from last year said there were 2.75 million Muslims.
    • Seventy-six percent of mosques were established since 1980.
    • Shiite mosques are growing. Around 44 percent of all Shiite mosques were established in the 1990s. Approximately 7 percent of mosques identified themselves as Shiite and 37 percent of those are in the West, especially California. Most Shiites at American mosques are South Asians, Arabs and Iranians.
    • A minority of mosques (3 percent) have just one ethnic group that attends. South Asians, Arab-Americans and African-Americans are dominant ethnic groups among mosque members, but significant numbers of Somalis, West Africans and Iraqis now worship at mosques nationwide.
    • The number of mosques in urban areas is decreasing, while the number of mosques in suburban areas is increasing. In 2011, 28 percent of mosques were located in suburbs, up from 16 percent in 2000.
    • The conversion rate per mosque has remained steady over the past two decades. In 2011, the average number of converts per mosque was 15.3. In 2000 the average was 16.3 converts per mosque.
    • The average Friday prayer attendance was 353 compared to 292 in 2000.

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mosques-in-united-states-study_n_1307851?utm_campaign=022912&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-religion&utm_content=FullStory#s740147&title=44_South_Dakota

  • Turkey: to help with reconstruction of mosques in Gaza

    Turkey: to help with reconstruction of mosques in Gaza

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    Palestinians in Gaza pray on Friday on rubble of mosque destroyed by Israel [ARCHIVE MATERIAL 20090123 ]

    (ANSAmed) – ANKARA – Turkey will help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip repair the mosques that were damaged in the Israeli attacks and rebuild those that have been destroyed. The announcement was made by the head of the Turkish directorate for religious affairs, Mehmet Gomez, after a meeting with his counterpart from Gaza, Salil Alreqed. The newspaper Hurriyet reports that Alreqed has thanked Turkey for his support against the blockade imposed by Israel. Turkey, a Muslim country, is in a diplomatic crisis with Israel. One of the reasons is Israel’s blockade on Gaza, meant to keep out weapons from Hamas. Turkey sees Hamas as a legitimate organisation, not a terrorist organisation as the U.S. and EU say.

    Early last month a request for assistance was issued from Gaza, to restore the damaged (161) and destroyed (34) mosques. The buildings were hit in Israeli air raids in the 2008-2009 period.

    The operation, the Turkish agency Anadolu specifies, will cost 15 million USD, more than the Gaza administration can afford.

    Turkey has also announced to help with the construction of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip and a children’s home in Jabalia, which contributes to the already high popularity of Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Gaza. Erdogan has often said that the inhabitants of Gaza are ”desperate” people, who conduct a ”resistance” against the Israeli ”occupier,” part of Turkey’s strategy aimed at making it a leading country in the area based on historic-cultural and humanitarian relations.

    Turkey has played a role in the release of an Israeli hostage by Hamas and in October the country welcomed eleven Palestinian prisoners who had been released in exchange for Israeli soldier Ghilad Shalit.

    (ANSAmed).

  • Newt’s iffy claim: Iran hides nukes under mosques

    Newt’s iffy claim: Iran hides nukes under mosques

    Explosive charge appears to be pure speculation

    BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT

    gingrich mosque

    Is Iran hiding nuclear weapons facilities under mosques?

    Newt Gingrich says yes – but experts say there is no evidence to back up the assertion.

    Gingrich made the claim at a debate with Jon Huntsman in New Hampshire on Monday.  Here, via Michael Crowley, is the key moment:

    “They have huge underground facilities. Some of the underground facilities are under mosques,” Gingrich said. “Some of them are in cities. The idea that you’re going to wage a bombing campaign that accurately takes out all the Iranian nuclear program I think is a fantasy.”

    That’s an extremely significant charge, one made by a man who now has a real shot at being the next president of the United States.

    An extensive search of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports on Iran found no mentions of the terms “mosque” or “holy site.” We do know that some of Iran’s nuclear facilities are underground; but I found no media mentions of them being under mosques.

    (Also worth noting: it’s not a given that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, rather than nuclear power. The question of Iran’s intentions is complex and remains unresolved.)

    “There’s no evidence [for that],” said David Albright, an expert on Iran’s nuclear program and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, when asked about the mosques issue. “I don’t know where Gingrich gets this, but it sounds like he is just repeating rumors.”

    I also asked Ken Pollack, a Mideast specialist at the Brookings Institution, if he has heard of anything like Gingrich’s mosques claim.

    “Nope,” Pollack said in an email. “Never heard that they have underground facilities beneath mosques.  They do have extensive tunnels at some sites, and I guess some of those tunnels may run under mosques, but I have never heard that they purposely built them under mosques as this seems to suggest.”

    Gingrich’s spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about his source for the claim.

    It’s also at least a bit ironic that Gingrich made the iffy mosques assertion after specifically questioning the ability of the CIA to determine what the Iranians are doing.

    “This idea that somehow we have magically accurate intelligence … is baloney,” he said.

    Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustinMore Justin Elliott

    www.salon.com, 14 Decmeber 20011

  • Making Mosques a Place for Women

    Making Mosques a Place for Women

    A campaign to make Istanbul’s roughly 3,100 mosques more welcoming for women could set off a gender revolution in Turkey’s places of Islamic worship – and one that may not be uniformly welcomed.

    The "Beautification of Mosques for Women” project in Istanbul discovered sectioned-off areas that were filthy, cold and unsanitary. Istanbul’s mosques are now under strict instructions to clean up and provide equal facilities for both men and women by February 2012. (Photos: Jonathan Lewis & Constanze Letsch)
    The "Beautification of Mosques for Women” project in Istanbul discovered sectioned-off areas that were filthy, cold and unsanitary. Istanbul’s mosques are now under strict instructions to clean up and provide equal facilities for both men and women by February 2012. (Photos: Jonathan Lewis & Constanze Letsch)

    “This is about mosques being a space for women,” declared Kadriye Avci Erdemli, Istanbul’s deputy mufti, the city’s second most powerful administrator of the Islamic faith. “When a woman enters a mosque, she is entering the house of God and she should experience the same sacred treatment. In front of God, men and women are equal; they have the same rights to practice their religion.”

    As part of the “Beautification of Mosques for Women” project, Erdemli sent 30 teams to visit all of Istanbul’s mosques and report back on the facilities for women. What the teams found was shocking, she claimed. “Many of the mosques have no toilets for women, no place for women to wash before praying,” Erdemli recounted. “Most of the places allocated for women were used as storage places, and those that weren’t were usually filthy and freezing cold in winter.”

    Istanbul’s mosques are now under strict instructions to clean up and provide equal facilities for both men and women by February 2012. But it’s not only a push for cleanliness and improved sanitation that is underway. The way mosques are arranged is also being changed, according to Erdemli. “In most mosques, the women’s area was divided by a curtain or a wall, and this is not fair,” she elaborated. “They are sacred places and women have the right to take advantage of their spiritual feeling as well.”

    Unlike men, women are not required under Islam to attend a mosque; their presence is allowed, but, traditionally, female Muslim believers have prayed more frequently at home. Practices, however, can vary from country to country, and from mosque to mosque. In Istanbul’s mosques, to reflect the beautification project’s goal of equal worship space, “all the curtains and walls are coming down,” Erdemli said. “But segregation will remain; men and children will pray in front of women.”

    Starting in late December, inspections will start to check if mosques are complying with instructions. Since the program began in March, Erdemli has addressed over 5,000 of the city’s imams and religious staff to explain the theological reason for why mosques are for women as much as they are for men. On the streets of Istanbul, there appears to be broad support for the program among religious women. “Sure, it would be beautiful. It would be much better,” said one 30-year-old woman, who gave her name as Münevver. “In some places, the spaces for women are clean, but in others they are filthy.”

    The Diyanet, the state-run administrative body for Turkey’s mosques, has not only given its complete support to the project, but also provided a theological justification. In November, the head of the Diyanet, Mehmet Gomez, gave an uncompromising speech, in which he acknowledged the problem of misogyny in Islam. “There are some wrong, incomplete, biased interpretations that do not reflect the general principles of our noble religion,” Hürriyet Daily News on December 7 reported Gomez as saying.

    All are not happy with this gender revolution. “I hope all these increasing efforts are not aimed at removing the obstacles for a woman to come out of her home, and first go out to the mosque, and then to find a job; all by finding legitimacy within [the Islamic] religion,” grumbled leading Islamic columnist Ali Bulac on December 3 in the Zaman newspaper.

    The column provoked a storm of reaction. The outcry, interestingly, was louder coming from practicing Islamic women than from secular feminists. In her December 6 column for the daily Yeni Safak, Islamic columnist Ozlem Albayrak termed Bulac’s attitude a form of “persecution against women.”

    The heated polemic is just the latest example of an important change in Turkish society. Istar Gozaydin, a law professor at Istanbul’s Dogus University and an expert on the Diyanet, argues that the rise of a new conservative Islamic middle class on the coattails of the decade-long rule of the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party has eased both formal and informal restrictions on Islamic women in education and state workplaces. “We see more and more women getting educated in the universities, more women in the workplace,” Gozaydin said. “They’ve been able to become more visible in society. And they want to be a part of the mosque system as opposed to praying at home.”

    Although the percentage of women in Turkey’s workplaces and university student bodies may appear relatively low, the figures are trending upward. A 2010 World Bank report on gender equality reported that 30 percent of Turkish women work. According to official data for the same year, women accounted for 44 percent of Turkish university students.

    Erdemli has her sights on the Beautification of Mosques for Women project becoming an inspiration for the rest of Turkey. She maintains, though, that its goal is not revolution, but simply bringing the Muslim faith back to its roots. “All we are doing is taking Islam to back before it was corrupted and misinterpreted, when women and men were treated equally,” she said.

    Editor’s note:

    Dorian Jones is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.

    via Turkey: Making Mosques a Place for Women | EurasiaNet.org.

  • Turkey: Mystery Surrounds Decision to Turn Byzantine Church Museum into a Mosque

    Turkey: Mystery Surrounds Decision to Turn Byzantine Church Museum into a Mosque

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    The 1700-year-old building was a church until 1331, when it was turned into a Muslim house of worship following the Ottoman conquest of the province. (Photo: Jonathan Lewis)

    Muslim worshipers have recently returned to the former Byzantine church known as the Hagia Sophia in the lakeside town of Iznik. Like its famous Istanbul namesake, it had served for more than 80 years as a museum. (Photo: Jonathan Lewis)

    In its 1,700-year-old history, Hagia Sophia in the northwestern town of Iznik has witnessed many turning points. In 787, as a Byzantine church, it housed the Second Council of Nicaea, which restored the veneration of icons to Christianity. After the Ottoman conquest of the area, Hagia Sophia in 1331 was turned into a mosque, only to be destroyed in 1922 by the Greek army during the Greco-Turkish War.

    Then, this November 6, the building, a museum and popular Iznik tourist destination, underwent its latest transformation: It officially reopened as a mosque.

    The first call to prayer had resounded from its minaret five days earlier, on the evening of November 1. With a new wooden floor, carpets and a sound system for the minaret, Hagia Sophia was opened to Muslim worshippers during Kurban Bayrami, the Festival of Sacrifice, a four-day Islamic holiday that commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, at God’s command.

    But a day after the holidays, the mosque remained half-empty during noon prayers. Hagia Sophia’s latest transformation has created controversy not only among archeologists, historians and politicians, but also among local residents.

    “There are so many mosques in the city and around here,” said Irfan Karaman, who runs a small restaurant across from the Byzantine building. “In my opinion, it was utterly unnecessary to turn the Hagia Sophia into one as well.”

    He claimed that many people in Iznik feel similarly. “Before it was seven lira (about $3.83) to enter,” Karaman added, laughing. “At least now it’s free. It looks like our religion is cheaper than yours!”

    Historian and documentary filmmaker Ömer Tuncer, also an Iznik resident, agrees. “This is a question of respect. What would Muslims say if the Al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem] was turned into a church now? The Hagia Sophia in Iznik is an important symbol in Christian faith, a place of pilgrimage,” Tuncer said. “It is clear that a building like this needs to be protected as a museum.”

    Acknowledgements of Turkey’s Islamic heritage and beliefs have become more frequent in recent years, but the conversion of Iznik’s Hagia Sofia does not appear to stem from any government policy by the ruling, Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party. Although the changeover from a museum has sparked national debate, the decision is seen as locally rooted. Attendants at Hagia Sophia, however, declined to speak with EurasiaNet.org about the mosque opening.

    Those siding with the conversion project argue that Hagia Sophia has never been a museum. “This historical building was used as a mosque for 680 years, and has been in disrepair ever since 1922,” Adnan Ertem, head of the central government’s Directorate of Religious Foundations, asserted to Turkish media. “To hear the Muslim call to prayer in this house of worship made us all happy.”

    Apparently, the entrance fee charged to tourists in the past escaped the notice of Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç, who also maintains that the building “was never a museum.”

    “It is possible that it was used as a church in the past,” Arinç told Turkish media. “But ever since the conquest of Bursa [in 1326], it has been used as a mosque.”

    However, both the Governorate of Bursa, the administrative district in which Iznik is located, and the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism have listed and promoted the Iznik Hagia Sophia as a museum on their Turkish-language websites.

    The explanation could lie in a red-tape loop-hole, Tuncer hypothesized. “Just as with the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, there was never an official law to turn the Hagia Sophia in Iznik into a museum,” he commented. “That is why it is still listed as a mosque with the Directorate of Religious Foundations, but as a museum with the Ministry of Culture.”

    After renovation of the building was finished in 2007, the Hagia Sophia was opened as a museum, and the local governorate placed a ticket booth at its entrance. Restaurant owner Karaman fears that the decision to turn the building now into an mosque will negatively impact the tourism sector, an important source of income for many Iznik residents.

    Representatives of the Ministry of Culture were not available to comment about the changeover, but Tuncer asserts that “[i]t is up to them to veto this decision, and to protect buildings like this one.”

    “When the church was turned into a mosque in 1331, it was a mere symbol of conquest, it happened in many cities,” he continued. “But in our times, this decision seems incomprehensible to me.”

    Editor’s note:

    Constanze Letsch is a freelance writer based in Istanbul.

    via Turkey: Mystery Surrounds Decision to Turn Byzantine Church Museum into a Mosque | EurasiaNet.org.

  • Turkey to restore historical Ottoman mosque in Libya

    Turkey to restore historical Ottoman mosque in Libya

    Turkey to restore historical Ottoman mosque in Libya

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    Hilmi Ozkazanc, an executive of a construction company, said Turkey was planning to start renovating Murad Agha Mosque in Tajura hamlet, near the capital, Tripoli.

    Turkey would restore a mosque in Libya, a Turkish company executive said on Saturday.

    Hilmi Ozkazanc, an executive of a construction company, said Turkey was planning to start renovating Murad Agha Mosque in Tajura hamlet, near the capital, Tripoli.

    “We will come to Tajure again next week to see what we have to do in the mosque,” Ozkazanc told AA correspondent.

    Hilmi Ozkazanc said restoration would probably begin by the end of this year.

    Ozkazanc visited Tajure together with Turkey’s Ambassador to Libya Ali Kemal Aydin. During the visit, Ambassador Aydin said, “Libyan people will establish the country that will be a model for the region, and we will help them.”

    The Murad Agha Mosque was constructed in Tajura, some 16 kilometers east of Tripoli, in 1552 by Murad Agha, one of the three commanders who joined the conquer of Tripoli Province during the Ottoman era and who later served as a governor in the province.

    The mosque has 48 marble columns, surmounted by a series of arches, horseshoe style, supporting the vaults.

    During his visit to Libya in September, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the mosque together with Mustafa Abd al-Jalil, the chairman of Libya’s National Transitional Council, and addressed people who gathered around the mosque to see him.

    AA