Location: Islamic Center of North Marin
Date and time of Interview: November 7, 2013 at 8:00pm
Interviewers:
Aleks Lindgren
Conni Kim
Michelle Chow
Interviewees:
Syed Ahmed: President
Khan Zafar: Senior member in the community
Jaffer Syed: Member of the community
Mudassir Syed: Member of the community
Do you hold the five prayers? Every day?
Yes, we hold five prayers a day. However, we don’t have a lot of people in the community, so people don’t come in congregation. There’s a specific time table for that, so we already have published a timetable. Most people are working people, so they can’t come some times during the afternoon, but they’ll come at noon or whatever time best suits them.
What are the positions in your mosque?
The key position is the imam, who leads the prayer, and another position is the muezzin, who calls for the prayer. We call that azan and he’ll do this five times a day, before every prayer. In the olden time, we didn’t have a sophisticated system, so it used to be that every corner in the system, someone would call and gather people to prayer. People would call “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar” -- “Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest.” Then they’ll call “come for the salat, come for the victory” and so on and so forth. And they’ll know to come to the congregation for the prayer. Before the prayer, they’ll give the iqamah, meaning that the prayer has started. In a general organization, there might be a President of the mosque, a financial person, who will take care of the finances, and other positions.
We read on the website that you were founded in a garage. Could you tell us more about that?
Initially, there weren’t a lot of Muslims in the community. There was one brother who was living here for a long time, but gradually more and more people started coming, and there was a need for a place for the five daily prayers. They had no place to pray, so he lent his garage to do that. Eventually the population started growing even more and we needed a bigger space, so that’s why we moved here.
Do you just accommodate to the North Marin community?
It’s open for all. It’s for everyone, but it’s located so that people who are close by (near Marin) can come.
When was this site founded?
I think it was like 7 or 8 years ago
What demographic do you serve?
Anyone! We have people, of all different ages, that are African American, Latino, Indian, etc. We are open to everyone!
We noticed on your site that you have events. Do you have events often?
We have events quite often; many of them are for the Marin community, not only for those who attend our mosque. We hold events for the community so that the community can become a closer and get to know each other more.
Are you affiliated with other mosques? Do you ever partner up to do events?
We have relationships with many mosques in the Bay Area, but we are particularly close with the Mill Valley mosque because they are closer to us.
Is that something all mosques do? Are you generally open to helping each other?
Yeah, that’s very normal.
Do you have any press or events that have been in the newspaper? Any articles?
We have done some very big events, but I don’t know if they’ve been in the newspaper or not. Last time an event called “Get to Know Your Neighbors”, and we invited everyone. It wasn’t just for Muslims, there were Jewish people and Christians. It was a fairly big event. We rented a place--a community center in Hamilton. We invited people from the area, and it was more than 300 people. It was a free event, and we sponsored food. People got to know each other, and it was about getting to know your neighbors, regardless of religion. We got a really good response from the people. We also informed people of what Muslims are. And it was a very good gateway to getting to know us.
Are there any projects that your mosque is involved in? Like feeding the homeless, for example.
Yeah, we have a lot of events. We have a program with Novato--Feed the Poor; it’s not sponsored by us--we go to the kitchen and help them. We started a program called “Nurturing the Young” for parents--parenting coaching, basically. We actually got a grant from the county and it’s still open for all--not only for Muslims. We got like a $10,000 grant. It’s open for everyone--but it’s mostly for people who already have kids. For instance, I have two children, a 9 year old and an 8 months old, so me and my wife go.
(Then they ask us a few questions, about where we go to school and our Muslims in America class.)
(Then the President of the mosque walks in and joins us.)
I see that you have Arabic written on the white board. Do you teach that here?
We do have a teacher. His name is Danny, and he’s British. He teaches us Arabic. People from Asian continents usually have trouble reading and writing it, so Danny helps us. He’s very good at it.
Did you guys choose this specific location because of the availability?
Yeah, just because of the caretaker. It’s like a startup.
As a community and as a mosque, have you experienced any discrimination?
Absolutely not. The person who owns this facility is a Jewish person and the subletter from earlier, named Rick, is Christian, and a very nice person. Our neighbors are very understanding and are from different walks of life. And the Get to Know Your Neighbors program we were talking about earlier--we got such a good response from that. Jews and Christians were very impressed and really wanted to know about what Islam is, what Muslims day to day life is like, etc. We have people from far away come, like all the way from Sausalito. News of us is just passed through word of mouth.
Do you offer legal help or any other services?
No, we’re more like a startup; we don’t offer things maybe bigger mosques, akin to bigger “companies.” But all our services, like our Arabic class, are open to everyone from all parts of life. The doors are open, no questions asked as long as they’re respectful. For example, if I go to a church, is someone going to stop me? Absolutely not. I’ve been to many churches, many synagogues. The classes are open to everyone. We have a parenting class that’s open to people, not just Muslims, and that’s going very well.
Do you have any plans or hopes for where this mosque is going in the future?
Same thing, we want to grow. We want to invest for the future so that people are educated and we want to work on our website. We have lots of plans and good qualified people--doctors, engineers, researchers, etc. We want to contribute to the community. We have all this energy. It’s good to see you guys so responsible, from Berkeley; I’d love to have my kids to go to Berkeley. We want the same thing to happen to the next generation--successful, educated. Offer free classes, trainings on the weekend, etc. People in high school can get distracted and can lose sight of their career so we want to help them and sponsor them to see what they can do. It doesn’t matter what religion they are or what race they are.
Anything else you want to tell us?
I strongly encourage you to come on Fridays. In the afternoon, there’s a speech, a sermon. On Friday evenings, we have a get together with family and friends. People bring a dish to share and it’s very social. We have some education workshops as well, like one coming up about will and estate planning. Our mosque is not just about coming and praying because that’s just one aspect of life, there’s also education, career guidance, legal, and whatnot.
How many people attend this mosque regularly?
Fridays are our big time. Around 70 to 80 come.
When was your site founded and by who?
We founded in 2006 initially in brother Syed Ahmed’s garage.
How did the mosque derive its name?
The name is “North Marin Islamic Center” due to our location
What kind of structure is your mosque (a storefront, converted house or building, corporate space, strip mall, former church, built from the ground up)? Is their any information they can offer about the location and prior occupants? Is their historical information you can research on the address? What is the area like (residential, commercial. etc?)
Converted small building in a business park (so the area is the commercial, versus residential). It is therefore next to other small stores/offices, and they seem to very welcoming.
Date and time of Interview: November 7, 2013 at 8:00pm
Interviewers:
Aleks Lindgren
Conni Kim
Michelle Chow
Interviewees:
Syed Ahmed: President
Khan Zafar: Senior member in the community
Jaffer Syed: Member of the community
Mudassir Syed: Member of the community
Do you hold the five prayers? Every day?
Yes, we hold five prayers a day. However, we don’t have a lot of people in the community, so people don’t come in congregation. There’s a specific time table for that, so we already have published a timetable. Most people are working people, so they can’t come some times during the afternoon, but they’ll come at noon or whatever time best suits them.
What are the positions in your mosque?
The key position is the imam, who leads the prayer, and another position is the muezzin, who calls for the prayer. We call that azan and he’ll do this five times a day, before every prayer. In the olden time, we didn’t have a sophisticated system, so it used to be that every corner in the system, someone would call and gather people to prayer. People would call “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar” -- “Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest.” Then they’ll call “come for the salat, come for the victory” and so on and so forth. And they’ll know to come to the congregation for the prayer. Before the prayer, they’ll give the iqamah, meaning that the prayer has started. In a general organization, there might be a President of the mosque, a financial person, who will take care of the finances, and other positions.
We read on the website that you were founded in a garage. Could you tell us more about that?
Initially, there weren’t a lot of Muslims in the community. There was one brother who was living here for a long time, but gradually more and more people started coming, and there was a need for a place for the five daily prayers. They had no place to pray, so he lent his garage to do that. Eventually the population started growing even more and we needed a bigger space, so that’s why we moved here.
Do you just accommodate to the North Marin community?
It’s open for all. It’s for everyone, but it’s located so that people who are close by (near Marin) can come.
When was this site founded?
I think it was like 7 or 8 years ago
What demographic do you serve?
Anyone! We have people, of all different ages, that are African American, Latino, Indian, etc. We are open to everyone!
We noticed on your site that you have events. Do you have events often?
We have events quite often; many of them are for the Marin community, not only for those who attend our mosque. We hold events for the community so that the community can become a closer and get to know each other more.
Are you affiliated with other mosques? Do you ever partner up to do events?
We have relationships with many mosques in the Bay Area, but we are particularly close with the Mill Valley mosque because they are closer to us.
Is that something all mosques do? Are you generally open to helping each other?
Yeah, that’s very normal.
Do you have any press or events that have been in the newspaper? Any articles?
We have done some very big events, but I don’t know if they’ve been in the newspaper or not. Last time an event called “Get to Know Your Neighbors”, and we invited everyone. It wasn’t just for Muslims, there were Jewish people and Christians. It was a fairly big event. We rented a place--a community center in Hamilton. We invited people from the area, and it was more than 300 people. It was a free event, and we sponsored food. People got to know each other, and it was about getting to know your neighbors, regardless of religion. We got a really good response from the people. We also informed people of what Muslims are. And it was a very good gateway to getting to know us.
Are there any projects that your mosque is involved in? Like feeding the homeless, for example.
Yeah, we have a lot of events. We have a program with Novato--Feed the Poor; it’s not sponsored by us--we go to the kitchen and help them. We started a program called “Nurturing the Young” for parents--parenting coaching, basically. We actually got a grant from the county and it’s still open for all--not only for Muslims. We got like a $10,000 grant. It’s open for everyone--but it’s mostly for people who already have kids. For instance, I have two children, a 9 year old and an 8 months old, so me and my wife go.
(Then they ask us a few questions, about where we go to school and our Muslims in America class.)
(Then the President of the mosque walks in and joins us.)
I see that you have Arabic written on the white board. Do you teach that here?
We do have a teacher. His name is Danny, and he’s British. He teaches us Arabic. People from Asian continents usually have trouble reading and writing it, so Danny helps us. He’s very good at it.
Did you guys choose this specific location because of the availability?
Yeah, just because of the caretaker. It’s like a startup.
As a community and as a mosque, have you experienced any discrimination?
Absolutely not. The person who owns this facility is a Jewish person and the subletter from earlier, named Rick, is Christian, and a very nice person. Our neighbors are very understanding and are from different walks of life. And the Get to Know Your Neighbors program we were talking about earlier--we got such a good response from that. Jews and Christians were very impressed and really wanted to know about what Islam is, what Muslims day to day life is like, etc. We have people from far away come, like all the way from Sausalito. News of us is just passed through word of mouth.
Do you offer legal help or any other services?
No, we’re more like a startup; we don’t offer things maybe bigger mosques, akin to bigger “companies.” But all our services, like our Arabic class, are open to everyone from all parts of life. The doors are open, no questions asked as long as they’re respectful. For example, if I go to a church, is someone going to stop me? Absolutely not. I’ve been to many churches, many synagogues. The classes are open to everyone. We have a parenting class that’s open to people, not just Muslims, and that’s going very well.
Do you have any plans or hopes for where this mosque is going in the future?
Same thing, we want to grow. We want to invest for the future so that people are educated and we want to work on our website. We have lots of plans and good qualified people--doctors, engineers, researchers, etc. We want to contribute to the community. We have all this energy. It’s good to see you guys so responsible, from Berkeley; I’d love to have my kids to go to Berkeley. We want the same thing to happen to the next generation--successful, educated. Offer free classes, trainings on the weekend, etc. People in high school can get distracted and can lose sight of their career so we want to help them and sponsor them to see what they can do. It doesn’t matter what religion they are or what race they are.
Anything else you want to tell us?
I strongly encourage you to come on Fridays. In the afternoon, there’s a speech, a sermon. On Friday evenings, we have a get together with family and friends. People bring a dish to share and it’s very social. We have some education workshops as well, like one coming up about will and estate planning. Our mosque is not just about coming and praying because that’s just one aspect of life, there’s also education, career guidance, legal, and whatnot.
How many people attend this mosque regularly?
Fridays are our big time. Around 70 to 80 come.
When was your site founded and by who?
We founded in 2006 initially in brother Syed Ahmed’s garage.
How did the mosque derive its name?
The name is “North Marin Islamic Center” due to our location
What kind of structure is your mosque (a storefront, converted house or building, corporate space, strip mall, former church, built from the ground up)? Is their any information they can offer about the location and prior occupants? Is their historical information you can research on the address? What is the area like (residential, commercial. etc?)
Converted small building in a business park (so the area is the commercial, versus residential). It is therefore next to other small stores/offices, and they seem to very welcoming.