Religious leaders discuss harassment

The Valley Stream Religious Council hosted members of Masjid Hamza at the Baha’i Center of Nassau County in Valley Stream on July 2 to address reports of harassment against the mosque and its parishioners, and to devise a course of action in response.

“I have to tell you, I was flabbergasted — upset and very angry that that is happening to you,” the Rev. Kymberley Clemons-Jones, of Valley Stream Presbyterian Church, told the members of the mosque who attended.

Clemons-Jones learned of several incidents during a conversation with Mayor Ed Fare, she said. She immediately contacted Sister Margie Kelly, director of the Holy Name of Mary Church parish outreach and the chair of the council. The group doesn’t hold monthly meetings during the summer, but Kelly called a special session.

Four members of Masjid Hamza attended. It was the first time they were invited, and they thanked the council for its concern and said they appreciated the opportunity to get to know one another. Karim Mozawalla, a trustee and the president of the mosque’s school, Hamza Academy, mentioned incidents that happened in the past six months: a crossing guard who helps worshipers cross the street for Friday services heard remarks from passing drivers criticizing her for helping “these people”; vulgar messages left on the mosque’s answering machine; an email that included a drawing of the devil and stated that it was the Prophet Muhammad, which Mozawalla said was turned over to the police; and last week, a man in a black truck was captured by a security camera stealing cones that were set up in front of the Stuart Avenue building.

“It’s a constant thing, and we have to have our own security,” he said. “We have to be very diligent, whereas before — like I said, I grew up here in Valley Stream. I could leave my door open, not a problem, but things are changing now.”

The council members listened. There were representatives from eight houses of worship in the village: Holy Name of Mary Church, the Valley Stream Jewish Center, the Christian Science Church, Unity Church of Christianity, Temple Hillel, the Baha’i Center, Grace United Methodist Church and Valley Stream Presbyterian Church. Mozawalla explained the functions of the mosque, from daily prayers to the main congregation on Fridays, the annual prayer that attracts more than 6,000 people from the area to the nightly serving of food for the breaking of fast during Ramadan.

“We have a basketball hoop, also,” said Sarfraz Ahmed, president of Masjid Hamza. Everyone laughed.

Mozawalla said that one of the mosque’s main focuses is the character development of its youth. “They are our future,” he said. He said that there is a large influx of Muslims to the area. He estimated that 15 to 20 percent of students in Valley Stream’s public schools are Muslim. He compared that with when he was the only Muslim in the student body, and remembered there being one black student at that time, also.

“I know ’em,” joked the Rev. Philip Jones of Valley Stream Presbyterian. Everyone laughed again.

The group briefly discussed the village’s demographic evolution. Mufti Mohammad Farhan, director of Children of Adam, a Bethpage organization that serves Muslim youth in the area, translated a verse from the Koran that addresses diversity: “‘All mankind, we had made you into man and woman, and we had made you into different tribes and cultures and races, so that you may know each other and get to know each other.’ And then it says, ‘Remember, the best among you is the one who is the most God-conscious. Any of your races, your colors, your languages, your wealth, doesn’t make any difference unto the God. It’s only your consciousness and your awareness and your love for God which makes you most beautiful.’”

Rabbi Joel Buchband, of the Valley Stream Jewish Center, said that the verse’s message brought home the value of having such a diverse community. He noted the ongoing abuses of Jewish people in different parts of the world, simply for showing in public that they are members of the faith. “I must tell you that when we first heard of the terrible things happening to members of your community, I was deeply shocked and upset,” he said. “It’s just horrible for me to hear that in my own community, a few blocks from my own home and my own synagogue, that this kind of thing is happening.”

Paul Brown, a parishioner at Grace United Methodist Church, said that he believed the incidents are driven by what people see in the news, which they might interpret as violence against them. He suggested that the mosque issue a statement denouncing violence to demonstrate what it stands for.

“A meaningful statement, by you, rejecting violence, with support from the religious community, might go a long way,” he said.

The Rev. Philip Jones took the suggestion a step further, advocating for “just a statement from the Religious Council saying that we reject violence, also — towards them.”

Brown said he hears the criticism that the Muslim community does not speak out vehemently enough against acts of violence after Muslims commit them, noting the role of the pope in setting the record straight for the Catholic community when necessary. Farhan responded that the Muslim world does not have centralized leadership with the authority to do that, but he mentioned a recent gathering of more than 600 Muslim scholars from around the world who issued a fatwa, or edict, that anyone committing acts of criminal violence are only criminals and are not Muslims.

Buchband criticized the media for filtering out such messages from Muslim leaders. He said that action by the council should target adults, who don’t tend to mingle with people from different cultures the way children do in school and other venues.

Rabbi Steven Graber, of Temple Hillel, agreed. “The parents are the biggest part of the problem, I think.”

He spoke about his experience growing up as an American Jew — having pennies thrown at him and being called things like “cheap Jew” and “Christ killer.” In his yearbook, friends wrote things like, “To my favorite Jew,” thinking they were writing something nice.

“Where did they learn this stuff? They didn’t learn it from hanging around with me,” he said. “They came to school with baggage from their parents, who come from another generation.”

Graber said that a certain mystery has surrounded Muslims in American culture, and used to mean “foreign” or “not as civilized as Western cultures.” The prejudice then turned more political, he said. He lamented that headlines rarely bring news about the charity work that mosques do, because “everybody wants to hear about ISIS.” He criticized the all-too-common generalizations on which people base their opinions.

“You can’t put me on the same page in your book as a settler in the West Bank who walks around with a gun and feels that if he kills an Arab, he’s protected his child. I’m not him,” Graber said. “I’m a whole different Jew. You can’t put me in the same category as a Jew from Williamsburg who wears a long black coat. He has a whole different way of looking at God than I do. But Americans have not had the exposure. The kids are seeing it — they’re in school, they meet each other. But when people come from another country and they wear different clothes …”

He pointed to his yarmulke and said people can only see it if they’re tall enough. Otherwise, he said, he looks like anybody else.

Several ideas were tossed around. The men from Masjid Hamza mentioned a barbecue they planned to hold at the mosque in August, to which they extended an open invitation. The council decided to form a subcommittee that would plan other events to promote unity, including a Unity Day that could feature an interfaith event at the Village Green in September. The group planned another meeting for Aug. 27 to continue discussing its course of action.

At the meeting’s end, Kelly said she was pleased with its direction. “This has been very helpful, I think. Very invigorating.”

Mozawalla was also optimistic. “All of these are like icebreakers,” he said of the planned outreach events. “Even if this doesn’t go very far, I think networking alone is a good thing.”