Speaking Truth at Masjid (No) Noor

By Nadrat Siddique

This Friday, New Trend's editor Dr. Kaukab Siddique attended juma'ah services at a mosque in a Baltimore suburb. Afterwards, he offered complimentary copies of New Trend to members of the congregation, while standing outside in the considerable heat in the mosque parking lot.

New Trend is one of the oldest continuously published Islamic papers in North America. Since its inception in 1977, it has supported the Palestinian liberation struggle, opposed dictatorships across the Arab and Muslim world, supported the right of Muslims to free themselves from occupation and oppression; and championed freedom for political prisoners like Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Ziyad Yaghi, Ahmed Abdel Sattar, and the innocents held at Guantanamo Bay.

The mosque administrators, with complete disregard for adaab (Islamic etiquette), accosted Dr. Siddique, accusing him of distributing "terrorist literature" (with scarcely a glance at what he was distributing). He responded to them that they ought not use the terminology of the oppressor.

Then, the accusations became even more baseless and bizarre. Surrounding Dr. Siddique, several mosque board members repeatedly called him a liar (it was not clear what he was ostensibly lying about), an "old man," a "rascal,"and possibly an Ahmadiyya. (The last charge was particularly ludicrous, and illustrated that the mosque administrators had not read North America's oldest Islamic paper, which has consistently and vociferously opposed the Ahmadiyyas.)

The relatively young (but old and sold at heart) men finally dismissed the New Trend editor with a wave of their hand, their hubris in full display. In a further attempt at intimidation and suppression of free speech, one of them photographed the license plate of the vehicle in which he was traveling.

Videos of the incident are here and here.

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The ugly incident revealed the nature of the majority of U.S. mosques: Khutbas almost never discuss issues of concern to the Muslim community, whether about political prisoners or police shootings in the U.S., or about the bombing of innocents in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, or other Muslim countries by the U.S. and its allies. Attempts are frequently made to cultivate an "American Islam," in direct contravention to the original Islamic teachings on internationalism and Islamic brotherhood/sisterhood. Mosque board members behave like egomaniacs, their advanced degrees, wealth, and position giving them the illusion of superiority over other Muslims.

Mosque administrators also frequently display overtly misogynistic behaviors towards the women in their congregation (if there are any; not surprisingly, at this mosque, there were exactly four women attendees, myself included). It is common for female members of the congregation to be relegated to servile roles in the mosque, and to be physically placed in backrooms where they cannot see, hear, or interact with the imam, or with the board members who wield authority over happenings at the mosque.

Perhaps most shamefully, such mosques welcome representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties to pitch to the congregations, distribute party literature, and much else, never mind that both parties have killed, bombed, and maimed millions of Muslims.

But, to a representative of an Islamic newspaper, an elder with a decades-long history in the Islamic struggle, and who studied directly under Maulana Maudoodi (RA), they behave with unbelievable arrogance and outright rudeness. And surely Allah (AWJ) is the Knower of all things.