The Lehigh Valley's Muslim community is feeling an increase in prejudice, a local faith leader says. Watch video
Prejudice against Muslims is being felt in the Lehigh Valley, according to one local leader, but it's not too late to develop a better understanding between Americans' diverse cultures.
Toward that end, the Easton Phillipsburg Muslim Association is holding an open house 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at its headquarters and mosque, 1017 Lehigh St. in Easton.
Ill will toward followers of Islam has been on the rise since last year's presidential election, and President Donald Trump's executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries has only deepened the divide, said Rizwan Butt, president of the Easton Phillipsburg organization.
"We are seeing the results of that rhetoric that was there in the campaign and now the actions and statements that are coming out," he said Thursday. "And what we're hoping for is some sort of a statement just like the one that was released by the president about anti-Semitism, that he would say, 'Stop harassing Muslims. They are people who are living their lives in this country and are trying to be good citizens.'"
Trump's immigration order is on hold following a court ruling. A new one set to be signed in coming days will remove Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens face a temporary U.S. travel ban, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The president in his joint address to Congress on Tuesday made a point of calling out harassment of Jews in the United States. That, too, has been felt locally.
More than 40 Lehigh Valley residents, including middle school students from the Jewish Day School in Allentown, joined Thursday in a rally against hate on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro, along with Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, joined in the effort, held in response to recent vandalism at a Jewish cemetery outside Philadelphia and bomb threats that have terrorized Jewish community centers and other Jewish institutions.
Students from the Jewish Day School in Allentown join Thursday, March 2, 2017, with hundreds of others on Independence Mall in Philadelphia in a rally decrying recent vandalism at a Jewish cemetery outside Philadelphia and bomb threats against Jewish institutions. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com) Easton's mosque has been in place for nine years this month, and is all volunteer-run.
Butt is 44, a father of two boys, who lives in Palmer Township and works in information technology. Of Pakistani descent, he was born in Bahrain and immigrated to the United States 23 years ago.
The Easton Phillipsburg Muslim Association closed on the purchase of the former Faith Unity UCC in March 2008. Refurbishing the interior to convert the sanctuary into a well-appointed mosque took years. The building remains a work in progress. Thursday afternoon, work was close to wrapping up on a new women's washroom in the basement, for pre-prayer ablution consisting of washing the hands to the wrist, washing the feet and in between toes, rinsing the mouth and nose, and washing the face.
"In our faith, in Islam, we do have five daily prayers that are part of our practice," he said. "And we don't have to pray in a mosque, but if there is one close by then we should. But we can pray anywhere we want as long as we can find a clean place.
"So we do offer daily services at the mosque. They only last a few minutes. And then we have one weekly congregational prayer on Fridays between 1 and 2 and that's where you'll see the mosque will be full. We'll have several hundred people attending and on vacations and holidays it's even more than that as well."
When Butt moved to the Easton area 16 years ago, he knew of between five and 10 Muslim families.
"And since that since that time we're over 100 families, just in Easton, Phillipsburg, maybe Nazareth and Bethlehem Township, combined," he said. "And in general in the Lehigh Valley we have over 1,000 families already."
In addition to the primary mosque on the main floor, the Lehigh Street converted church has a second, smaller mosque in the basement, with a slightly older washroom for men. Separate washrooms for men and women are by no means unique, but Butt explained that Muslim's clear division of men and women is more about modesty and respect than subjugation.
During prayer, women line up behind the men. The reason is human nature: Men traditionally have a greater weakness for women than vice versa, and distraction by the female form is a distraction from praising God, Butt said.
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Local Muslim women have borne the brunt of increasing animosity from non-Muslims, he said.
"We are anxious and nervous about what's happening," he said. "The tone of the culture has changed. Even in our area there are women who have been harassed as they go to the market, and women amongst Muslims are the most visible in terms of their religion because of the way that they dress and they cover their hair, for example."
Harassment is isolated, he pointed out, and some people from outside the Islamic culture have come forward in support of the local Muslim community.
"The best thing that we ask anyone to do is, No. 1 come and talk to us, or if you know someone who has some resentment or ill will or even negative feelings or misunderstanding about the religion, ask them to come and talk to us," he said. "That's the best way to defuse the situation."
For Saturday's free open house, prayer rugs inside the mosque will be rolled up and replaced with information booths. A local scholar will be on hand to answer questions. In the basement will be international cuisine and henna tattoos for women.
Visitors will be offered a sheet with three questions that if answered will earn a free Quran or other prize.
Anti-Islamic rhetoric since the presidential election suggests to Muslims that they are less important than an agenda, Butt said.
"So what it tells us is we need to do more to reach out to these individuals who may not understand who we are, so they can relate to us on an emotional level and recognize that we, too, are human beings, we're Americans, we're humans and we have the same goals that they do, that we want to be successful in our lives and raise our kids in a safe place and not to cause any problems or do anything negative," he said.
Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.