By Tanya Weinberg
Staff Writer, August 27, 2002

As the one-year anniversary nears, Muslim leaders are grappling with how to best mark the day that devastated the nation and left their own community reeling. The local director of a national Islamic group is encouraging all Islamic centers to participate in interfaith marches in their respective counties on Sept. 11. But some leaders feel that Muslims should concentrate on unifying their own community a few days earlier, on the Islamic holy day of Friday. Additionally, there are plans to hold open houses on Sept. 11, and also concerns that participation in interfaith prayers could violate Islamic teachings. Friday’s arrest of a Seminole County man who had allegedly stocked his home with an arsenal of weapons and a list of 50 Islamic centers underscored arguments on different sides of the current debate. Altaf Ali, the regional director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is stressing the need to show South Floridians that Muslims, like all Americans, have suffered from and regret the events of Sept. 11.”Our absence from involvement, if we do not go out and show support in acts of solidarity and establishing a day of unity and prayer, that in a sense can backfire and harm us,” he said. “There’s only benefit from getting involved. ”But some leaders profess frustration and a sense that numerous efforts to condemn the attacks and send a message of solidarity have been ignored by many in the wider community. ”They only complain about us. They don’t want to employ us. They don’t want to rent to us. If you’re Mohammed you don’t get an apartment,” said Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, director of the Miami-based American Muslim Association of North America and a recent appointee to the Florida Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. ”When you see people attacking your religion, attacking our prophet, and finally they want our apology, it shows they don’t care about our condemnation,” he said. On Saturday, Zakkout, Ali and other leaders gathered to discuss the differences in opinion, but much of the meeting was dominated by the news of podiatrist Robert Goldstein’s arrest for possession of a non registered destructive device and attempting to use an explosive to damage and destroy Islamic centers.(1) For Zakkout, the news was one more reason why Muslims should unify on Sept. 6, the Friday before Sept. 11 when he thinks it will be more feasible to mobilize large groups of Muslims. ”We have to be all together that day to give our condemnation to all kinds of terrorists,” he said. “We have to be fighting all kinds of terrorism from all different religions, not just Islam. ”The Islamic Center of Boca Raton will most likely host a lecture or some kind of open house on Sept. 11, said spokesman Hassan Shareef. But the center has yet to decide whether it will encourage the congregation to participate in outside commemoration efforts. ”For us the first question always is, is this Islamic or is this permissible to do, and then we go from there,” Shareef said. He was moved by one community leader’s questioning of whether interfaith prayer was appropriate when Islam limits a period of mourning to three days or, in the case of a deceased spouse, 40 days.”It’s going to be a very tricky thing to work out. We’ve obviously never been in this situation before,” Shareef said.The religious leader of Masjid Al-Hijrah in Miramar said despite the concerns about violating Islamic law, interfaith prayer on Sept. 11 was feasible. ”Our religion does not say we cannot extend condolences to the bereaved at any time,” Gulshair El’Shukri said. “Our religion does not say we cannot pray for the country we live in.

”Tanya Weinberg can be reached at tweinberg@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7923, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-s911islam27aug27.story?coll=sfla%2Dnews%2Dsfla