Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque

[WilliamPitt]

(Photo: Tomas Munita / The New York Times)

Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Friday 03 May 2013

Two days after the bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, a young Palestinian woman named Heba Abolaban took her 9-month-old daughter out for a walk in Malden, Massachusetts. She was accosted on her way by a fist-wielding man who screamed, "Fuck you! Fuck you, Muslims, you are terrorists!" Heba and her daughter escaped the attack unscathed. Her assailant has not yet been identified.

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Brothers and Sisters, the Muslims of Boston and America are offended. We are sickened by the massacre of sacred human life at the Boston Marathon. Once again, the religion of Islam has been publicly distorted in the worst example: the slaughter of innocents in the name of some kind of incomprehensible Jihadist rage! Yusuf Mosque, and along with it the entire Muslim community of Boston and throughout the United States, is outraged.

- Imam Ibrahin Rahim, Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque, 27 April 2013

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Shortly after this assault, I wrote a note via email to Ibrahim Rahim, who is Imam of the Yusuf Mosque in Brighton, my home. "Peace and love in this time of trial," I wrote. A few days later, Imam Rahim wrote back: "Thank you for your support. We are grateful to have friends in the community such as yourself. We're a proud religious institution here in Brighton and we are outraged by what has happened. Thank you for being a friend to Islam and the Mosque. I am attaching this past Friday's Sermon Notes as a courtesy. They may assist you with regard to any discussions you are having."

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And now most people want desperately to know how the Muslims feel. They desire to know this because these two men have been associated with Islam. We don't know them as Muslims. They did not attend this Mosque, and they would never have been welcome here. We know them as they have been defined: two Russian and/or Chechen asylum seekers consumed by anger and hate.

- Imam Ibrahin Rahim, Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque, 27 April 2013

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(snip)

Democratic House Representative Keith Ellison has served his district and his country with distinction in the United States Congress. He is Muslim. Shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing, Fox News host Eric Bolling called for national racial profiling of Muslims, buttressing his argument by calling Rep. Ellison the "Muslim apologist in Congress." Bolling pointedly observed that Ellison "raised his right hand and took the oath of office on the Quran," before describing him as "dangerous."

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Islam would prefer that eight-year-old Martin William Richard be alive today still holding his sign that reads, "No More Hurting People: Peace!" Today, the Muslim Community lifts its voices of prayer for Martin! And we pray for his entire family that has been ripped apart. Islam would prefer that Boston University Mathematics Graduate student Lu Lingzi was alive today conducting her research at the university. Islam would prefer that 29-year-old Krystle Campbell was alive today, inspiring people with her smile and her outgoing nature. Islam would prefer that MIT Officer Sean Collier was alive today protecting and serving the MIT campus.

- Imam Ibrahin Rahim, Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque, 27 April 2013

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(snip)

There is a corner in every human heart made to be filled with hatred, fear, and violence. It is our common curse, and when we feed that space, it grows larger, stronger, and more vicious. Whoever you are, wherever you are from, whatever you believe, that corner exists within you. You know it because you have filled it, in one way or another, at one time or another, because it is there, and because you are human.

The great challenge of our common humanity, and of every individual human, is to make a void of that space as best we can. In that simple discipline lives freedom, for it is our hatreds that bind us and stagger us to ruin. Hatred of the "Other" is the puppet string upon which we dangle. When you hate someone you have never met for who they are or what they believe, you are doing the work of those whose joy is in your rage.

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Today we insist to our neighbors that we Muslims are people of Peaceful Covenant. As our neighbors, your blood is sacred, your lives are sacred: no one has a right to kill anyone of us for any reason!

- Imam Ibrahin Rahim, Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque, 27 April 2013

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When you succumb to hate, when you fill that dark and ravening space within your heart, you become someone else's fool.

Peace be unto you, and unto us all.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16150-friday-prayers-at-yusuf-mosque

[bigtree]

1. nice

k&r

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. This ranks at the top of your best works, my dear Will...

As I said elsewhere, I believe the fact that you have become a father has made your writing better. As if that were possible, but it is.

Thank you.

K&R

[WilliamPitt]

3. Kick

for the hell of it. Just curious.

[Owl]

4. K&R

[BainsBane]

5. Thanks for this