A Liberal Call To Prayer
A man of small build, easily towered over by those who he preaches to after the prayer, stands at the front, his presence heightened by his powerful speech. The congregants all listen intently as he speaks, “mix into your communities learn to know and care for your neighbors and those of different faiths but keep steadfast on your own faith and values for this is the way of Allah.”
Ali has given sermons on women’s rights in Islam, polygamy, domestic issues, and issues young Muslims in his congregation face being raised in the United States. He is also a strong advocate of interfaith dialogue, through which he feels communities can share commonalities and discuss differences.
“This is the prime program in my life—building bridges – which is very important now because of our troubled lives,” says Ali. He has worked with many pastors, rabbis and Archbishops in the area. Reverend Ebony, of the Living God Church, speaks fondly of Imam Shamsi Ali. She says, “He has forged a strong bond between the Christian and Muslim communities of Astoria, I have learned a great deal from him.”
Ali believes that the responsibilities of today’s Imam encompass far more than leading prayer and giving answers to complicated questions about Islamic law. He counsels and mediates families and their concerns and says, “We should use the mosque to talk and help people with problems at home, and with the youth.”
In addition to interfaith activities, Ali helps his congregation by holding sessions and seminars on community involvement. He arranges sessions with local Astoria councilmen and politicians. Sharfuddin Chisty is a recent immigrant from Bangladesh who frequents the Masjid al Hikmah. He speaks highly of the these sessions stating, “These meetings give people a chance to voice concerns and speak of problems that we are having, before we could never approach these people and did not know who to talk to.”
Ali also works on a number of projects with the NYPD. He has used this working relationship to bring officers and the police commissioner in to speak to his Muslim congregation on security and terrorism issues. He also holds an open forum in which members can address their concerns to the officers. Detective Ahmad Nasser works as the NYPD’s liaison for the Muslim community, which is also referred to as the new immigrant outreach unit. With Ali, Nasser has arranged a number of meet and greet sessions with the local precinct officers and the Muslim community.
“The officers drop by and break fast with mosque goers and forge a good relationship,” says Ali. Through one of the informational sessions recent immigrants that usually shy away from speaking up or reporting injustices, according to Nasser, learned of the executive order 41. “The new law prohibits any city official from inquiring of a person’s immigration status when reporting a crime or accessing city services that they are entitled to receive, many people did not know of this law and so did not report abuses,” says Nasser.
“Topics such as these are a far cry from the usually strict Islamic sermons delivered in Arabic by Imams who, for the most part, do not understand life in America,” says 16-year-old Shakil Chisti, an attendant of the midday prayer.
As a religious leader of a mosque, an imam aids worshippers in fulfilling their spiritual needs by performing services and counseling them. Since there is no system of ordained clergy in Islam, the community picks a person it trusts, or one that directors hire on a yearly basis.
Most mosques in America install clerics from overseas. They choose them on their experience in their native countries and seniority. “Many of these uneducated Imams cannot speak English and so cannot speak to young American Muslims growing up on MTV and chat rooms,” says Ali. Instead, Ali uses his educational background and experience working with the UN to preach to a new generation of Muslims in America; those who can reconcile Islam and American culture.
Ali is an Imam at the Indonesian community mosque, Masjid al Hikmah. While there are many mosques in Long Island City that cater to specific ethnic groups, this one stands out due to its exceedingly diverse congregation. There are students in college sweatshirts, doctors, and limousine drivers in suits. There are immigrants from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. There are grandparents, grandchildren and great-grandchildren representing the three generations of immigrants that exist in Astoria.
Immigrants from Indonesia started the mosque in the 1980s, although today, the founders find themselves in the minority. With few Indonesians living in the neighborhood, most of the worshippers are immigrants from Bangladesh, Jordan, Egypt, and Pakistan.
Shamsi Ali immigrated to America in December 1996 to work with the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the United Nations, one of the many positions that he still holds.
Coming from an upper middle class family in Indonesia, Ali was offered the chance to study in Indonesia. He decided to pursue a master’s degree in Comparative Religion at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. After his studies he taught at the King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia. “After coming to the United States I wanted to go into politics. I had enrolled in a PhD program at New York University, but while studying, I realized I was more interested in religion and so I became an Imam,” says Ali.
Nouredine Sheikh, a second generation Pakistani that attends the mosque says, “He has gained a large following by understanding the Islamic tradition and modern American culture.”
Although Ali has received and continues to receive a great deal of praise for bringing Astoria’s Muslim community together and aiding them in living in the United States, his critics, other imams and muslims in line with stricter interpretations of the Quran dedicate chats and websites to Ali criticizing his practices and preaching. “The call me a ‘traitor’ and a ‘mouth-piece for the FBI’,” says Ali as he calmly explains, “My critics do not disagree with me to my face but instead post things on the internet anonymously, they call me a non-Muslim and don’t realize that what they are doing is against Islam, hypocrisy.”
Ali does not denounce particular scholars or schools of thought, but names Astoria’s Al-Iman and Al-Bir mosques that follow Islam’s more reactionary sects, like Wahhabism and Salafism. These sects are strong in Saudi Arabia and spread by clerics trained in Saudi Arabia. Ali explains, “Wahhabism and Salafism are often intolerant of other religions, even of other sects of Islam they don’t agree with, I interpret Islam as being open to many interpretations.” He says that Imams belonging to the stricter mosques of Astoria do not agree with his encouragement of interfaith dialogue and mixed sex discussions.
Ainul Haque, 60, has lived in Astoria for the last 20 years and recognizes the conflicting views among Muslim clerics in the area. Speaking of Ali he says, “I do not agree with what he preaches and how liberal he is but I like the fact that he involved the community and introduces local leaders that we can talk to.”
Ali believes that the other clerics are imposing their views on their congregations, who, for their part lack the religious knowledge to understand things for themselves and form opinions. According to Ali, the imams are hurting their congregations, by not allowing interfaith dialogues and meetings with community leaders, thus not allowing them come to terms with American life and merge into the neighborhoods the live in.
The Azan is called out five times a day starting around 5 am at Masjid al Hikmah. Few show up in the morning, but by the evening the hall is filled. The once unused warehouse on 48th street has now been transformed into a worshiping ground that often sees a distressed or sometimes simply grateful woman or man dropping to his or her knees with each prayer; following the liberal, albeit controversial, Imam Shamsi in prayer.
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