Islamic Center in Nashville Inaugurates New Space as Community Grows
Al-Farooq moved into its new 40,000-square-foot space on Thompson Lane after purchasing and renovating an old Boys and Girls Club, celebrating the relocation at a ribbon cutting event. It was a jubilant moment for a community that amid its internationally prestigious reputation, has also experience hardship.
“Serving is what really matters and that is what we hope to establish and nurture and allow to grow and not only to benefit ourselves, but to be a benefit for this wider community,” Salaad Nur, a leader with Al-Farooq, said at the ribbon cutting event Saturday.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper, Metro Council members, Metro Nashville Public School board members and other Nashville Muslim community leaders attended the celebration. Al-Farooq is one of 12 mosques in Middle Tennessee.
“The opening is a testament to the power of faith in our community and the human spirit,” said MNPS board member Berthena Nabaa-McKinney, who is Muslim, at the event Saturday. “I believe that Masjid Al-Farooq has the potential to become a cornerstone of the community, a place where people can come together to gather, to celebrate, to seek solace and guidance.”
The story of Al-Farooq is similar to other Nashville mosques, though there are also unique traits.
The mosque opened in 1999, primarily by a group of people who attended the Islamic Center of Nashville, which is located on 12th Avenue South and was the first mosque in Tennessee. Many Al-Farooq founders and its members are Somali immigrants who resettled in Nashville.
But the mosque is not exclusively for Somalis, said Rashed Fakhruddin, director of community partnerships for the Islamic Center of Nashville.
“Not to get confused, our mosque here is for all,” Fakhruddin said.
Like Nashville’s Salahadeen Center, a mosque largely attended by Kurds, Al-Farooq’s opening was in response to an influx of certain refugees, though its membership has come to include Muslims with different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds.
Nashville's Al-Farooq mosque, community stand together
Al-Farooq was long located on 4th Avenue South.
Nur said Saturday’s event symbolizes an “affection and bond that connects us. That bond is not limited to the Muslim community. The things that feed the city is not limited to a brotherhood of one type.”
That community solidarity with Al-Farooq has come in good times and bad. Several speakers at Saturday’s event mentioned a 2010 incident when vandals spray painted Islamophobic messages on Al-Farooq’s building on 4th Avenue South. There was another incident later in 2013.
The 2010 vandalism at Al-Farooq preceded a 2011 legislative effort commonly called the “anti-Sharia bill.” Critics said the proposed legislation was Islamophobic. Tennessee Muslims and allies organized to successfully stop the bill, which led to the formation of the American Muslim Advisory Council.
“I remember the vandalism of Al-Farooq not too long ago and when this community stood up, together, all of us, Somalis, Kurdish, with all our allies who are non-Muslim who said ‘We’re not going to accept this in our town. We will stand together and be inclusive,’” At-large Metro Council member Zulfat Suara said at Saturday’s event.
Suara and other Metro Council members presented a proclamation on Saturday about Al-Farooq’s history and its new home.
Al-Farooq is well-known for Quranic recitation courses, whose students have won competitions in the U.S. and in other countries. There are 15 classes with 450 students, which the new location will be able to better accommodate.
Source: tennessean.com
