The year was 1978. Bob Marley convinced warring Jamaican factions to shake hands. China lifted a ban on the works of Shakespeare. Pete Rose logged his 3,000th major league hit.
And in the sparsely populated town of Frankfort a small group of Sunni Muslims founded a Sunday school to preserve their cultural heritage and religious doctrine that would later become known as .
After four years of renting local classrooms and offices, enough money was raised to purchase property from a Frankfort crop duster at 8860 W. Saint Francis Rd. The farmhouse would eventually become the school. The airplane hangar would become the prayer hall.
“It was nothing but pure farm land,” AIA co-founder and vice chairman Tariq Khan recalled. “Saint Francis Road was just basically a one-lane road with an S-curve and a small bridge that only one car could pass at a time.”
The Islamic organization flew mostly under the Frankfort community’s radar for the next two decades, steadily raising money to erect a proper place of worship and dining on their property. Those who knew of the Sunday school and prayer hall, including its one and only neighbor, were very supportive, Khan said. Unlike the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, there would be no angry mob and police barricades after the felling of the World Trade Center.
“As far as I’ve heard, people didn’t even know we were there,” said Khalid Mozaffar, AIA communications and outreach director, as well as the assistant principal of its school. “There’s a long driveway. Now, of course, you can see the big dome from Saint Francis Road. Back then it was just another house.”
Isolated though it was, by Khan’s estimation the congregation has grown from its 1980s collection of 25 families, mainly of Indian and Pakistani descent, to almost 400 families today.
Mozaffar said he knows non-Muslims living in Frankfort who were asked to sign a petition against the construction of the group’s mosque, even though such opposition never turned up at the public hearings to obtain building permits in late 2002. The approved the permits unanimously and AIA broke ground in 2005, with only minor irruptions coming from a few anonymous phone-call threats and broken windows.
“We never felt like we were in danger or we were harassed,” Mozaffar said. “When we were building the new building, there were some who said, ‘Oh, we can’t have a mosque here.’ And then we said, ‘But we’ve been here for 20 years,’ and the whole argument went away.”
Not so in Orland Park.
Doctors and Businessmen and Engineers
The third and final public hearing regarding the construction of the in 2004 drew several hundred people and police, forcing the village board to relocate its meeting to the Civic Center.
“We didn't want a scuffle,” Badie Ali, a 29-year-old executive board member at the prayer center, said. “We told people to come who could keep their composure because we knew there might be some things said that they don't like.”
Several residents asked the village to deny the mosque on noise and traffic grounds, which Ali acknowledged as “legitimate.” Less diffidently, others clutched signed petitions and argued heatedly that the mosque would become a breeding ground for terrorists, and one man even declared, without irony, “If you build it, Muslims will come,” Ali said.
Nevertheless, unanimously approved construction plans for the mosque and were backed by many—but not all—of the village’s churches. Fresh out of college at the time, Ali said he isn't bitter today about the incident because the insults, slung by a vocal minority, didn’t represent the whole town. Opponents tried unsuccessfully to put the issue on a ballot.
Along with members of the Southwest Interfaith Team, a religious alliance co-founded by AIA, Mozaffar also attended the meetings and remembered the inspiration he felt when hearing non-Muslims make statements like, “You can’t call all Muslims terrorists. These people are already part of the community: they’re the doctors and businessmen and engineers. They need a place of prayer where they live.”
Leaders from both mosques refer to the incident in Orland Park as a matter of poor timing, political rhetoric and misguided fear. But they vow that their organizations are places of prayer and charity, not politics. A short list of either mosque’s charitable recipients includes Habitat for Humanity and the Greater Food Depository of Chicago, as well as local pantries.
“Whoever the skeptics were,” Mozaffar said, “they were proved wrong.”
Sister with a Veil On
Not a single resident complained to plan commissioners and trustees in 2009 when the prayer center applied for permits to erect a support building to handle the overflow of classes, lectures, mentorship programs and more. Ali estimated that OPPC draws about 1,000 mostly Palestinian Muslim families and has accommodated as many as 2,000 worshippers in a single day.
“We've been blessed, and it's to our vision of what we want to do here,” he said. “We're fellow citizens, Americans in the community. We've been here a long time. It's very hard in this area, and even the south suburbs in general, to drive without seeing a sister with a veil on. Muslims are now becoming such a fabric of society that people are used to them.”
Ali believes that Islam was the first thing hijacked on 9/11, and that it will take time and, more importantly, the cooperation of the Muslim community to mend the damage.
“Muslims … have been an exclusive group,” he said. “When it comes to their beliefs and their culture, they kind of keep it to themselves. They don't share as much as they should share with other people. After 9/11, I feel that Muslims have a huge responsibility to educate people on what Islam is.”
Ali is also chairman of the OPPC Youth and Outreach Committee and offers free tours of the prayer center. Just look for the blue brick and gold dome at 16530 104th Ave. You can’t miss it.
“That was the idea,” he said. “We didn't want to be hidden in the corner. We want to be out in front, to let people know that the doors are always open.”
Both mosques are encouraging people to attend Daley Plaza Chicago's “An Evening of Remembrance and Hope,” starting at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, sponsored by the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago and the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. Visit the American Islamic Association and Orland Park Prayer Center for more details and contact information about a possible bus trip departing from OPPC.
http://orlandpark.patch.com/articles/we-live-it-every-day-mothers-of-soldiers-find-solace-in-other-families-with-deployed-loved-ones
Before you enter an opinion that paints huge swaths of people with one brush, reflect for a moment on how you would like it if you were defined by the worst member of a group you identify with. I'm not sure many people would want Timothy McVeigh to be considered the model for their Christian or patriotic beliefs. Or that John Wayne Gacy should be considered the example of what a typical Illinois resident is like. Extremism in all its forms is the problem, and individuals are responsible for their evil actions. Condemning those who do not espouse or subscribe to the destructive, violent beliefs that are responsible for events like Sept. 11 only breeds the kind of fear and malevolence those people wanted to spread to begin with. You know what fights against that? Coming together on our similarities. You'd be surprised how alike everyone actually is when you get right down to it. Also, commenters, by invoking Hitler and/or Nazism in an argument that is not about World War II or Hitler and/or Nazism, you're giving the signal to everyone that you're not interested in having a reasonable discussion. It's called Goodwin's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law), and I think we can all rise above it. Thanks, Joe Vince Local editor, Frankfort
How can any one of us point a finger of prejudice at those who are Muslim, when every single one of us has a background where we were the object of prejudice when our ancestors arrived? At the turn of the last century, there were differing pay rates for doing the same job, depending upon whether the workers were Italian, Irish, German, or Polish. Those here the longest usually made the most, not because they were the most talented workers, but because people were used to seeing them around. In another 20 years, my children will laugh that Muslims were treated the way some of the people in Orland Park are treating them now. . . I hope.
The Muslim religion is the second largest religion in the world. America's involvement in wars in largely Muslim populated countries in the middle east, north africa, and central asia should not be misunderstood with being at war with the muslim religion here in the united states. If a mosque is being built in a suburb then obviously there are enough muslims living there to support one.
We can all be parts of the many solutions to do better, by working "shoulder to shoulder" to build a fairer and more just society. Our American history tells us we always be vigilant and pro-active inorder to reduce discrimination and sterotypes, that at least are personally and morally offensive, but also may, and often do violates our human rights, always reflecting poorly on our better, humaine capacities! One way for all of us to recommit to our fellow Americans' is to join in the work of the South and Southwest Interfaith Team, a 10 year plus old interfaith organization. You can join as an individual or a congregation and benefit greatly through dialog, forums, and social service. To learn more, begin by "visiting" www.swiftinterfaith.org. We hope to see you in person soon! Brian Zakem, Flossmoor
Since you brought it up, check back with Patch tomorrow for a feature on the history of SWIFT and how it came about in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Joe Vince Local editor, Frankfort
In case you haven't caught it yet, Dee wrote the year '1951' because that would be the ten year anniversary for the attack on Pearl Harbor, comparing it to where we are in time to 9/11. I get why some want these articles posted at this time. And personally, I see that as a jab to those who died on 9/11 and to their families. So even though the intentions may be good, it is insensitive to those who are still hurting. All over the country, I saw photos of citizens raising banners declaring 'We Will Never Forget', and it seems as though many already have. These articles should be held up until 9/12 and the week following. Not prior. The victims should always come first.
Thank you for pointing that out. The mistake was all mine, but my thoughts still stand. In response to your other point: many Muslims (excluding those on the planes) died in the 9/11 attack. Would you ask their families to wait until 9/12 to grieve?
I am saying that one group out of many should not be singled out. Why the special treatment? These were all Americans, and their ethnicity and/or religion shouldn't be the focus. What should be is the fact that these were innocent people who went to work as usual and had their lives changed forever. When people's differences are showcased, that's where the divisions begin. Keep shining the light on the fact that we are all Americans.
http://orlandpark.patch.com/articles/firefighter-pulled-from-the-rubble-at-ground-zero-captivates-high-school-students http://orlandpark.patch.com/articles/we-live-it-every-day-mothers-of-soldiers-find-solace-in-other-families-with-deployed-loved-ones Come back tomorrow and we'll have some perspective from local firefighters.
Both topics are all-American. I can appreciate that. And right at the bottom of the 'pulled from the rubble' article, a quote stood out - "Our school is so diverse and after 9/11 everyone came together,” Morlock said. “They wanted to set an example about how the rest of the country could come together as well.” What an excellent observation. Come together as Americans who love America. We need to find our similarities. We are behind the rest of the world as far as this goes. Celebrating diversity has been a tragic mistake, as Europe has learned.
In today's world christians are responsible for by far more innocent muslims being killed then the other way around. In the iraq war alone somewhere around 111,000 iraqi civilians have been killed during the fighting.
Absolutely! Are you saying that you aren't aware of the backlash? http://hotair.com/archives/2011/02/11/multiculturalism-a-failure-says-europe/ When going to this second link, please read the people's postings following the article... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100072142/germany-abolishes-itself-the-publishing-sensation-that-challenges-europes-diversity-consensus/ How does that saying go... divide and ______?
I am suggesting you should at least try not to judge an entire culture based on the actions of a few. I also think you can be patriotic without being xenophobic. And lastly, at one point or another, we were all immigrants. I wonder how many Americans' immigrant ancestors left their birth country because of some form of persecution. I know mine did. Later this morning keep your eyes peeled for an interesting list of stories we'll be posting. Then ask yourself if we've really focused our attention as narrowly as you suggested before.
Now, our children play together. Why? Because the kids are outside all the time. They have no fear of non-Muslims. Now their oldest are almost out of the house, and their younger ones are old enough to see my kids playing and want to join. Just this week, I signed up three different families who are Muslim for my daughter's girl scout troop, and all were polite, nice, chatty. The fear that they will be harassed for just "being" is starting to ebb away, and of course that affects their levels of interaction with others who are non-Muslim. Based on many of the posts I've seen, however, many seem to still harbor negative feelings. That makes me sad for all the broadened experiences people are missing out on.
I know several blacks who have moved to mostly homogeneously white suburbs in northwest indiana and will county. As much as it was there personal choice at the time to do so. They almost always seem to discuss how they did not figure in on the high level of social isolation that there family and particularly there kids have experienced. Some have experienced very rude behavior from there white neighbors, there kids have been called racist names by there white schoolmates, and have been physically picked on to the point of one black parent being forced to enroll her son in karate class. So for the most part it's not so much about diversity as it is about everyone being able to feel comfortable and enjoy living in the same community.
You asked me - "did I say I wasn't aware of the backlash?" No, which is why I asked you if you were. I wasn't comparing you running an article to what is going on in Europe. (sigh) I was showing how multiculturalism has failed in a country that had tried it sooner than we had. Wise men learn from other's mistakes. It is foolish to think we could try the same thing and have a different result. Please explain to me why people here at Patch seems to always resort to labeling others xenophobic or being judgmental?? Typically, when someone has nothing else to say, they stoop to name calling. I love this country and want to keep her strong. Someone posted below that we are a melting pot. Excellent point. And melting is the key word. We melt together to become American, not each of us keeping to our distinct traditions. It is wrong to drive around in a car, flying flags of other nations, for example. I hadn't said that you were 'only' focusing on a religious group and ethnicity, but that you had focused on them and that should have waited until 9/12, out of sensitivity. I guess that point was missed. I'm glad to hear your ancestors had made it out of a bad situation.