Fayette: Lifting the veil on Muslim life

It isn’t two blocks from ground zero, but it is two blocks from Fayette County’s historic courthouse square. Of the hundreds of people who drive past it daily, few have been inside. But at a time when just the word “mosque” is stirring passions from Manhattan to Murfreesboro, the presence of the Islamic Community Center of Atlanta in downtown Fayetteville seems to be as placid as the saying with which members greet each other: assalamu alaykuma, “May peace be on you.”

The ICCA opened in November 2001, mere weeks after the September attacks that changed the view and treatment of Muslims in America. The building, which sits beneath the water tower proclaiming “Welcome to Fayetteville,” was a food market and a youth center before a Peachtree City physician and her husband bought it for use as a site for prayers, classrooms and events such as weddings, dinners and summer school. It has no formal membership, but is used by anywhere from several dozen to several hundred people depending on the occasion.

I felt compelled to find out more about a place I’d never seen to learn more about people I live near but don’t know well enough. After seeing Muslims being targeted in the most diverse city in the United States, I wondered how they were faring in an area designated earlier this year as the seventh-most “conservative-friendly” county in the country.

Huma Faruqi, a board member and teacher, met me there, along with board member Aicha Stoman. Anyone expecting ornate architecture or imposing images of bearded men would be sorely disappointed. The interior is quiet and plain, with several dozen folding chairs and tables. A drop ceiling covers only half the space, and a hodgepodge of basic supplies equip the shelves. The red and gold prayer rug in the center sits ready for those who stop by to pray at the five times noted on a whiteboard in the window. The center operates only with donations and cannot afford a regular imam to lead prayers, so individuals take turns.

Classes in Arabic and reading the Quran sound much like Bible study, complete with Sunday school. Although it serves a specific religious need, the center participates in many community events, including the March of Dimes, Relay for Life, and food bank drives. You’d find a similar list at the Methodist church across the street.

Overall, I was told, things are going very well. There has been no controversy about the center, no harassment of individuals. But Huma admitted, “We have to be proactive ... to remove misconceptions.”

Muslim children, in particular, are vulnerable to feeling “different.” She said Muslims are aware that everything they do reflects on the public perception of their faith, but “we cannot allow these unique [terrorism] situations to tarnish what Islam is.”