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“Now asylum takes anywhere between five months to four years. Until then I can work here on a work permit, I have applied for a work permit also, but will have to go for an interview in two weeks,” Alhimary said. Until he receives a work permit, Alhimary is jobless and living in Astoria with another Iraqi who arrived here in 2006.

The immigrant neighborhood of Astoria, Queens has a new immigrant population that is tricking in. This new population of Iraqis comes as Iraqi refugee commitment from the United States government has become a heavily debated and contentious topic in Washington. Refugees from Iraq that have made it into the United States are still facing hardships with legalization and their immigrant status.

To get a visa to the United States, Iraqis have to make expensive and most of the time numerous trips to the neighboring countries of Syria and Jordan. “Since the State Department announced a new resettlement program in February, the United Nations has submitted over 9,000 Iraqis to the US for consideration but so far only 200 or so have made it into America,” says Synarta Reynolds, of Amnesty International. Seeing the cumbersome and slow process of attaining refugee status and making it into the United States, many like Alhimary have opted for other options such as applying for work and having American companies sponsor them for visas or applying to education programs such as Alhimary’s fellowship.

Alhimary recounts his journey and speaks of many others like him who were accepted to fellowships and programs in the United States but are unable to attend due to visa processing that can only be described as the most difficult of experiences.

Alhimary’s journey out of Iraq began in 2005 when he went to Jordan for an interview at the US embassy, upon being accepted to the Congress on Environmental and Water Resources. Having worked and educated as a civil engineer in Iraq, Alhimary was accepted to a program bringing experienced civil engineers from all over the world to convene and focus on topics of water and environmental resources.

He went to Jordan for an interview at the American embassy, “After my two-hour long interview, and spending a whole day at the embassy, I was told the visa would take ten days, says Alhimary. However, the visa did not arrive until much later by which time he could not come to the program. “Thanks God the International Congress extended my fellowship to the congress in 2007, so I could come here now.”

However, since the visa was only for a year Alhimary had to go through the process all over again. This time he opted to go through the US embassy in Beirut. In Beirut, Alhimary faced another barrage of problems, not only was his visa delayed again but he was turned away everyday for a week with the most nonsensical of excuses. The most often used excuse being that, “Your passport is too big and we don’t have the equipment that can affix the visa.” He says this as he looks at his passport, almost mockingly. It was hard enough getting out of Iraq and traveling to and from Jordan and Beirut, where they “give young Iraqis a hard time for no reason,” but Alhimary was determined to make it out. Frustrated at the bureaucracy and the reasons he was being given, Alhimary contacted the International Congress, telling them of his troubles and here a sympathetic Dr. Rollin Hotchkiss of the Brigham Young University stepped in and urged the Congress to contact authorities here in the United States and assist Alhimary in acquiring a visa, on time for the congress. Dr. Rollin Hotchkiss was Alhimary’s sponsor for the water congress as well as his host for a week of lectures in Provo, Utah.

Alhimary finally arrived on May 17 in Tampa and attended the last afternoon of the congress. Since the conference he has moved to Astoria and decided to stay in the United States and has applied for asylum through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. He unfolds a photocopied sheet of paper and points at the application for confirmation.

While in Astoria, jobless and living with another Iraqi friend, Alhimary has sought the help of many in order to speed up his refugee status and work permit. On the local level he has contacted Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, who represents the 14th district of New York. Maloney’s office sees many situations like these, but Iraqi immigrants have been few and far between. “Usually we get Bangladeshi’s, Hispanics and recently a large Chinese population that come to us for help,” says Victor Montesinos, Director of Constituent Services at the Congresswoman’s office in New York City. He further adds, “Our office does not supply individuals with legal advice or aid them in getting citizenship or any other status they are seeking, but we do check up on the process and inform the specific departments in Washington that they are in our district and in need of help.”

Sitting in an Egyptian coffee shop on Steinway Street in the heart of “Middle-Eastern” Astoria, Alhimary waits yet again to add some level of stability to a life that has been anything but normal since 2003. Returning is not an option anymore, with friends being killed, constant threats to his life. Murder, kidnapping and a lack of jobs and resources mark his return to Iraq. But staying here is not as easy either.

The walls surrounding me are scum-infested and dirty, and the sweltering heat and dust of this desert city add to the odor of perspiring unwashed bodies of people who do not have enough water to drink, let alone bathe in.

I search frantically for a good seat because mine was usurped by a man, who like many other Pakistani’s, think that seat arrangements and reservations are a hilarious joke on those who actually believe in them! He is right. In a country where an average man cannot read his own language, it is imbecilic to write ‘EE 16’ and expect it to hold meaning. So what am I doing at this stadium? Trying to watch a favorite national game with ‘shalwar kameez’ clad 14 million other fans.

A street urchin walks over and offers me some ‘samosas’ which taste I’m sure of red chili and the distinct flavor of the sidewalk they were cooked on . I shudder at the thought and then reach out and grab one; after all I’ve only been eating them since I was young. I’m about to admit defeat, and storm off in disgust from this pulsating horde of half-civilized fanaticism, when a sticky looking hand tugs at my sleeve. It’s a little boy sitting next to me, peering into my disgruntled face. “Sister smiling no? Pakistan will the wins. I also will play the cricket” he says in broken but eager English. Suddenly the crowd roars, screaming with joy, but inside my head there is a hush loud enough to drown out the frenzied excitement around me.

In this arena of sport and humanity, I no longer see only men on the field, who are living their success everyday. In this cricket stadium standing next to a little boy who tries hard to rub the frown on my face by talking to me soothingly in broken English. I see every facet of my identity highlighted. The shalwar kameezes interspersed with western garments, show me the infrastructure of a society and the life like my own which forms around it. The man who spits ‘paan’ on the broken steps is just as much a part of me, as the teenager in an Armani shirt, who is screaming into his cellular phone in unadulterated excitement. In understanding this mélange of people, I understand myself and my aspirations. I want to come back and reverse the plague that is carving this nation into a monument of urban chaos. I want to organize my people and their environment so that a poverty stricken society’s basic need for shelter is fed along side their desire for knowledge. I may set myself up for the biggest fall of all, but the height I’ll reach in doing so, will be my saving grace.

Amidst the fluttering flags, and sweaty, dust covered bodies, I find the hope to dream and to achieve. I look to my sides and I still see the browning concrete and rusted barbed-wire walls. But they are pushed into insignificance by the charged spaces they create. I see how they can hardly contain the excitement and hope for victory that electrifies the atmosphere within. I think of all I want to achieve and I know where to start. Right here, within these harrowed walls, by allowing a young boy to dream of becoming a cricket player.

The small tree-lined neighborhood is usually quiet and does not have a history of hate crime, until now.

Vandals spray-painted black swastikas on the landings of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue and Congregation B’Nai Avraham, both houses of worship on Remsen Street. Similar sized and colored swastikas were also found on the landings of three apartment buildings and bodies of two cars in the surrounding area.

Father James Root of Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral, which is near the vandalized buildings, said, “I left for dinner at 8:00 p.m. and saw the whole street cordoned off and flashers around 11:30 p.m. when I looked out.” Father Root added, “two blocks down there were notes left on cars which attacked Israel and the Jews, calling Jews pigs and saying death to the Jews.”

The number of vandalized properties grew to 18 by Tuesday afternoon as police officers scouted nearby streets and shut off parts of Remsen and Hicks streets. A number of city officials made their way to the neighborhood and expressed anger at the crimes and concern for the Brooklyn Heights Jewish population. The swastikas on both synagogue landings were covered by makeshift mats until anti-graffiti services washed them out by late afternoon.

The district attorney’s office and the Hate Crimes Task Force continued investigations all of Tuesday, with over 20 detectives working in the area. Some of the undercover detectives spoke to Father Root who recognized them as not being from the area. “I never knew we had so many cops in the precinct, but at least they are all undercover,” said Father Root. Investigator Gregg Cherry of the Special Investigations Unit, who was monitoring the area on Tuesday, agreed, and said that while the vandals left anti-semitic symbols and messages, they missed striking all Jewish targets. “Other than the synagogues the buildings and cars spray painted belonged to people of other faiths and ethnicities,” said Cherry.

Some neighborhood Jewish leaders blamed the string of anti-Semitic attacks on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presence in New York City. Rabbi Raskin, of the Congregation B’Nai Avraham believed, “I feel that when a hate monger denies the holocaust and the existence of Israel this causes anti-Semites – who are normally silent — to come out of their holes and publicly display their anti-Jewish and biased symbols.” Rabbi Serge Lippe of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue did not want to comment on the vandal’s motives vandals’ motives, but expressed confusion. “I am more upset with what goes through people’s head that makes them desecrate a house of worship,” he said.

City officials and District Attorney Charles Hynes have promised to catch the perpetrators, but Cherry and other officers on duty expressed doubt. “We are not going to catch the person and if we do it is going to be a copy-cat who wants attention,” Cherry said.

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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Not too far from busy Ditmars Boulevard. At 19th St and 23rd Ave. one is transported into a world far away from the everyday life. Walls bedecked with ornate frescoes of Jesus’ last days, dim lamps that sway in the wind and colorful rays that fall through the intricately painted stained glass windows. This wonderful description is that of the Greek Orthodox church of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, which has been serving a large Hellenic American population as well as others of the neighborhood since 1972.

“The church sees people of all ethnicities and nationalities, they may not come for the Greek liturgy but they come to pay their respects and pray to Saint Irene,” said Priest Iavkos Fitzpatrick. He, like the many that he speaks of, is a convert to the Greek orthodox religion, a sharp change from what he calls his strong Irish catholic upbringing. According to him his faith has only strengthened over the years after seeing the many miracles he believes he has come to witness performed by Saint Irene.

Believers say Saint Irene performed miracles during her lifetime and for those that visit this church regularly, they claim that the miracles continue to this day. Many come from far of distances to pay homage to the small image and pray to her for forgiveness, health, love and even children. In order to make note of these wishes devotees tie little pieces of metal with embossed body parts such as legs, hearts and eyes under the painting. Many of the happier devotees come back to offer thanks to the saint and often times leave behind their most valuable items – from gold bracelets and necklaces to diamond rings and Rolex watches. Special showcases have been constructed for this purpose and the ornaments are hung all around the saint’s painting.

“We have become spoiled children, when it comes to miracles, here have just been so many,” says the priest, beaming with pride. Traffic keeps flowing in and out of the church, with those frequenting the icon’s painted portrait, not only Greeks or even Christians for that matter. “Hindus, Muslims, Hispanics, they all come here; sometimes even the paraplegic get cured after praying to Saint Irene,” says Archbishop Louis Elias Milazzo, pastor of Saint Lucy’s Church in Brooklyn. Although he is not from Astoria Archbishop Milazzo frequents the small Greek Orthodox church and confirms the variety of people that attend.

A few blocks and back onto Ditmars Boulevard is the house of Mike Mavroudis, who has lived near the church for over 25 years. When asked about the church he states that he never belonged to one specific church but in fact visited the many Greek churches in Astoria. However, since the death of his wife six months ago he has been frequenting the Church of Saint Irene much more, “maybe it’s because my wife really liked this church so I feel closer to her or maybe it is just how miraculous and special this church is,” says Mavroudis looking out towards the horizon – as though he is either searching for something- or just melancholy after the mention of his wife. “I know a lady who came to Astoria after 15 years to go to Saint Irene’s so that she could pray for a child, she ate the blessed apple from the church and soon after had a son.”

Stories like these are common when speaking of Saint Irene and the church of Chrysovalantou. Accounts of miracles range from child birth to those who were previously infertile, cure for ailments and finding love with the patron saint presiding over them all.

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