From the masjid website.
Down the street from St. Benedict – less than a full block away – is a new mosque. “Mosque” in Arabic is “masjid,” which is the word the Muslim Association of Bolingbrook (MAB) uses for its two worship centers in the Village, one on the east side (Masjid al-Islam) and now, one on the west side (Masjid al-Jumu’ah). Note the classic Bolingbrook landscape of warehouses in the background:
Masjid al-Jumu’ah used to be a church, but the congregation could no longer afford its mortgage and had to move.
The new masjid opened while I was on sabbatical last fall and frankly, I was anticipating some kind of local upheaval – especially since it’s a former church building. Protesters? Graffiti? Letters to the Editor? I was ready to be outraged and stand in the street with my handmade sign of support.
Aforesaid street, where I would’ve held my sign – with Preno, a greasy gyros shop, in background..
However, although a colleague of mine told me that there was concern expressed at a Bolingbrook Christian clergy meeting, nothing happened publicly. Maybe I was disappointed not to be able to hold my sign, but only a tiny bit – I was relieved Bolingbrook could absorb a second mosque without getting up in arms. This was probably helped by the fact that our Village government – our mayor especially – has been involved with and supportive of the local Muslim community for at least the past 25 years, especially the Pakistani Independence Day festival every August (the oldest and largest in the country, last time I checked). I went with a friend to explore it in 2012.
Lousy photo I took when I went to the “Taste of Pakistan” Independence celebration a few years ago.
The Muslim community has been a facet of Bolingbrook diversity for many years. There have been several halal grocery shops open in town since we’ve lived here, although there seems to only be one currently. Both Jewel and Meijer have generous “Middle Eastern” sections. Girls in headscarves are a common sight at the high school. We see women in headscarves working out at our gym. Bolingbrook even has a small Muslim school – Furqaan Academy.
Chicago Crescent photo.
Unfortunately, the school got some unwelcome news coverage last October when one of its graduates was arrested at O’Hare Airport. The 19-year old and his two teenage siblings had plane tickets to Turkey and seemed to have been on their way to Syria to join ISIS. His parents had no idea of their plans. They were shocked, and later told reporters, The venom spewed by these groups and the violence committed by them find no support in the Quran and are completely at odds with our Islamic faith. We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms.
Chicago Tribune, Jan. 15, 2015
I can’t imagine what they’ve been through, or families who’ve kids have actually disappeared into the war zone. The Bolingbrook kid is still in prison and awaiting trial. So much for good publicity for Bolingbrook as evidence of Islam being a normal part of American suburban life. Which for the most part, it is.
Yesterday, I got an update from the Christian Clergy Association with minutes from the last meeting. There was a note that one of the large local churches would be offering a special program on “evangelizing the Muslim community.”
WHAT? It’s not enough that we don’t invite them to clergy meetings, but now we’re going to be evangelizing them, too? While their children are being lured off to the killing fields of Syria and Iraq? While they’re being shot dead in their own homes in North Carolina and their front yards in Dallas?
While I’m waxing rosy and liberal-la-de-da about my diverse suburb (“like a Unitarian Christmas Card”) my neighbors do not necessarily feel the same way. Even the diverse ones. This is why I don’t often attend those clergy meetings – in fact, just about never – they make me crazy.
I walked around for most of yesterday feeling furious. (Not that anyone would be able to tell – good, Scandinavian-squelcher-of-emotion that I am.) How will there every be peace in the world when we’re always trying to change each other? Why can’t religious people respect one another? Does Christianity always have to live into the self-righteous, intolerant, proselytizing, your-religion-is-from-the-devil stereotype?
On the other hand, I started thinking as the day went by that wanting to evangelize people is not the worst thing, ever. I mean, from the perspective of that church, I imagine (I hope anyway), that it’s a compassionate gesture of welcome and concern that they receive the good news of the gospel. Some parishioners at St. Benedict would probably feel the same way. In addition, Muslims are as likely to be evangelizers as Christians so for all I know, the Muslim imams are planning similar campaigns to evangelize all of us Christians.
The masjids, I’ve noticed on their webpage, are actually almost comically similar to church congregations. We’re all doing our best, I like to say, at “disorganized religion”: things that work, things that are a mess, and lots of the mundane – all amidst what we hope is spiritual growth and profound experiences of the Holy.
First, the Muslim congregation is in the midst of a building campaign, of course! Churches, synagogues, and now mosques, have whole programs and consulting businesses devoted to making these things work. The masjid obviously needs a bigger parking lot – currently under construction (halted till the weather warms up, I assume):
They’d like to enhance their building, inside and out:
They have a vision statement to lead the way – this is classic religious institution boilerplate (worship, learn/grow, serve):
And they have a thermometer!!! It doesn’t get any more integrated into the American religious landscape than this, people:
I’d say Islam is, in fact, becoming a normal part of the American religious landscape.
- The masjids’ Facebook pages have reminders about Daylight Savings Time, inspirational quotes, and an announcement about an upcoming Community Potluck.
- Their community Facebook page asks women to please cook and bring pans of chicken biryani (i.e., chicken casserole) to sell at Friday Prayers to raise money for the new building and feed the crowds. There is a little bit of guilt in these posts, which will sound familiar to anyone who has ever been involved in a congregation: Ladies, we don’t have good response for this Friday 23rd so please please contribute towards and let me know today if you are willing otherwise we won’t have any to sell.
- The youth program offers basketball nights, an all-girls group, and Arabic classes (which remind me of Hebrew School). Predictably, they have a hard time finding children’s ed. teachers (sound familiar, pastor friends?): We are always looking for energetic volunteers/TAs and qualified teachers.
They also have a sense of humor. The new masjid sits on a large elbow of land that connects two major streets on each side. They have named the paved drive that crosses their property and parking lots: “Biryani Drive.”
We at St. Benedict may need to copy this idea and name our parking lot turnaround “Meatball Way.”
Diversity and community are often at odds. But diversity and community can work when we give one another the benefit of the doubt, trusting in the ways we are similar rather than allowing ourselves to fear the ways are different.
