Hawzah News Agency- The Meet your Muslim Neighbors panel reached to dispel anti-Islamic sentiment that might settle into this town given a terse rhetoric coming from the political arena and world affairs.
The library meeting room was filled to near capacity with neighbors who wanted to hear the local imam talk about Islam, its Five Pillars, daily customs and belief system. Questions and answers explored the role that faith holds in everyday life.
Muhammad, a lifelong scholar of Qur'an, moved to the United States from Bangladesh, coming to Saranac Lake more than 21 years ago to work as prison imam, leading prayers and study for inmates.
With him on the panel was his adult son Atuallah Abdullah and friend Miralem “Mickey” Cecunjanin, both young men who grew up here.
Atuallah attended Petrova Elementary School and then private schools in Bangladesh to study Qur’an. He is now working toward a college degree in computer technology.
Muhammad Abdullah takes daily walks around local fishing places in Saranac Lake.
There have been some racial slurs through the years, the imam told the audience at Saranac Lake Library at the recent Meet Your Muslim Neighbors event, telling how a car passed him one time, its several passengers yelling, “Bin Laden,” to him. “I never heard the name until Sept. 11,” Muhammad said.
The imam is fluent in six languages, his son Atuallah said, and has memorized the entire Qu'ran.
Cultural practice requires no food waste in Islam, Mohammed explained.
Even finding a grain of rice that fell from a plate, he said, “I would wash it and eat it.”
Muslim women wear the hijab, a traditional headscarf, to protect themselves and their family, he said.
'LET US HAVE A TREATY'
Several in the attentive audience asked questions about common misconceptions these Muslim neighbors see of their faith in larger social context.
“I would say that a lot of people think it (Islam) is backwards or uncivilized by nature; that it’s divisive. From the stuff you see in the media, (people think) everybody is radical,” Mickey answered.
“To be blunt, (people think Muslims) are savages.”
As a religion, Islam is a way of life and does not proselytize, Mickey said.
“It is unfortunate that people are trying to portray Islam on a platform. We should be assertive and show who we are.”
There is nothing in the faith or in the teachings of Qur’an that says people have to become Muslim, the imam said.
“Let us have a treaty in between us that we can protect each other.”
POLITICS, NOT FAITH
The panel members said the friction is political, not religious in nature.
Recent bombings and attacks around the world are not part of Muslim faith or religious practice, they said.
“It is a political issue,” the imam said. “It has nothing to do with Islam.”
The event, held at Saranac Lake Free Library, was organized by the Rev. Joann White, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Saranac Lake, and members of the Saranac Lake Ecumenical Council "Dreamers of the Dream" Committee.