Kindgo
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Friday, September 6, 2002
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Zaid Malik, imam of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida, holds a Bible given to him by the Rev. Rick Marks of Jacksonville's First Baptist Church. Muslims have been scrutinized since the Sept. 11 attacks. "It's been a very busy year for us in Islam," Malik says.
-- Will Dickey/Staff
By P. Douglas Filaroski
Times-Union staff writer
After lunch, youngsters at Al-Furqan Academy bump noisily in the hallway as they remove their shoes for the afternoon prayer.
On the wall is a plaque with names of the Muslim school's honor students, including Zubair Qurashi, who learned to read the Quran by age 5.
In an hour, students would strap on their bookbags and crowd the front walk outside to wait for parents to emerge from a line of minivans and SUVs.
On the surface, life at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida seems as normal as before Sept. 11, when the terrorist attacks drew a critical focus on their faith.
Outside the Jacksonville complex, relationships between Muslims and other religions have either been strengthened or stretched near breaking this past year.
Rashad Shahid (left), of the University of North Florida's Muslim Student Association, and John Young, a Unitarian pastor at the school, discuss Christian-Muslim relations at the school's Campus Ministry office.
-- Will Dickey/Staff
There has been curiosity as well as hostility, and almost always tension over the perception Islam was to blame for the horrific events that day.
"It's been a very busy year for us in Islam," said Zaid Malik, the center's imam, or leader. Malik's father was assassinated months later in Pakistan.
He collapsed twice this year from stress he said was brought on by his father's death and the scrutiny he and other Muslims have faced this year.
How we feel about Sept. 11
One year later, how has Northeast Florida reacted to Sept. 11, its aftermath?
The Times-Union and its news partner, First Coast News, commissioned a random telephone survey of 500 adults in Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties. Conducted on Sept. 3 by SurveyUSA, the results will be published through Tuesday in the Times-Union and broadcast daily on First Coast News.
In general, would you say civil liberties in the U.S. have or have not become more restricted as a direct result of Sept. 11?
Have 52%
Have not 33%
Not sure 14%
In general, do you support or oppose restricting some civil liberties in order to protect the country?
Support 65%
Oppose 27%
.
The Sept. 11 attacks pushed Christians into two camps. One has moderates who favor dialogue and co-existence, and seek to find common ground between the faiths.
Moderates don't blame most Muslims, whom they consider peace-loving people, said Tom Borland, a Presbyterian pastor who leads an interfaith council in Jacksonville.
The other camp consists of fundamentalists, "those who have been more on the attack," Borland said. "They think Islam and Christianity are irreconcilable opponents."
The year's best example might be Pastor Jerry Vines of Jacksonville's First Baptist Church, who condemned Islam at a Southern Baptist pastors conference in June.
Vines blamed many of the country's problems on religious pluralism.
"Islam is just not as good as Christianity," Vines said. He went on to call the religion's founder, Muhammad, a "demon-possessed pedophile."
Like the reaction to Sept. 11, the comments caused two responses among local Christians. Some joined Vines in denouncing Muslims.
Others wrote Malik. "They said they didn't agree, it wasn't true," Malik said.
There were more invitations to explain Islam and jihad -- the Islamic word for religious struggle -- at churches and synagogues across Jacksonville.
"They were questioning what they were hearing in the media," Malik said. "They wanted to know how a peaceful religion seemingly turned violent. "
A microcosm of Jacksonville's religious diversity exists along St. Johns Bluff Road, a woodsy section of town between the city's downtown and Beaches.
On the north is the University of North Florida, where an active campus ministry includes representatives from the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths.
To the south is a sort of interfaith row: a B'hai temple sits down the street from the Islamic mosque, which is surrounded by several Christian churches.
The Islamic center is across the road from New Covenant Ministries. On Fridays, worshippers at the mosque often park at their Christian neighbor's with their permission.
All is quiet and congenial among neighbors, but there has been dialogue. Earlier this year, New Covenant's pastor called Malik to ask about an Arabic inscription on the flag of Saudi Arabia.
The pastor heard it might lay claims to an exclusive god. Malik said he explained that the Islamic God is the same as the Christian God or the Jewish God.
The next day, the flag flew outside New Covenant Ministries.
But it's been a rocky year between Muslims and Christians, many of whom saw Osama bin Laden claim credit for the attack in the name of Islam.
Soon after the attacks, Malik closed the Islamic center's school for a week and paid police to patrol after receiving threatening calls and hearing someone drove onto the center's grounds cursing Muslims and God.
Three Jacksonville traffic schools owned by Arabs closed temporarily after someone called in a threat. Someone shot an arrow through a window at a Green Cove Springs laundromat owned by an Arab who is Muslim.
By October, the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington recorded 500 episodes, including slayings in Phoenix, Dallas and California.
Northeast Florida was spared such violence. Incidents mainly involved intimidation and verbal assaults.
At the University of North Florida, two Muslim women wearing traditional headdresses were confronted and shouted at on campus by people who said they lost loved ones in the World Trade Center, officials in the campus ministry said.
Members of the ministry share a small office on the second floor of the Robinson Center on a campus where the dynamic probably reflected the rocky relationship between the faiths this year, officials said.
"We have not had to deal with violence," said Rashad Shahid, 25, of the Muslim Student Association. "There is just this sense in the atmosphere, this tension."
There have been no problems on campus since the early days after the attacks, Shahid said. Those days also were marked by a stream of students coming to the office to seek comfort over loved ones lost in the attacks.
The entire campus felt the loss, said Shari O'Brien, who leads a Protestant group on campus.
"They got down on their knees and prayed," she said.
The hurt faded and gave way to questions. Professors asked Shahid and other Muslims to visit classes to explain Islam.
"They were no longer satisfied with reading the text, they wanted to have that visit and hear for themselves," he said.
Still, some students complained about the presence of Muslims. They question Islamic material on an interfaith prayer table placed out on the campus green.
"If hate is nurtured, you can live right next to someone and still hate them," said John Young, a Unitarian pastor who ministers to students on campus.
Young said it's time for Americans to move forward and stop blaming all Muslims.
Shahid said Americans that he knows seem to be putting less blame on Islam, and more on al-Qaida and the extreme faction that carried out the attacks.
"I've found that the more information Americans have, the more favorably they respond," he said.
Before the attacks, there was little interest in learning about Islam. After the tragedy, many Americans wanted to know more about the possible motive.
It is a slow, steady process. Some people continue to drive a wedge between the two faiths, but many Americans are learning that Islam is not their enemy, Shahid said.
"I think there is hope," Shahid said. "It is critical for a stable environment. It'll take time. But I think there is hope."
Staff writer P. Douglas Filaroski can be reached at (904) 359-4509 or dfilaroskijacksonville.com.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
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