Religion and Belief | Page 16

Minnesotans in solidarity with Muslim Americans against Islamophobia event

Solidarity event held at Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque on December 14, 2015. Dar Al-Hijrah's main religious leader, Imam Sharif Mohamed, stands with hands clasped at center right. The Islamic Civic Society of America is a civic institution that seeks to demonstrate the compatibility between Islamic principles and the principles of democracy. An example of their work was experienced on a cold winter’s night in December, when ICSA hosted an event to discuss Islamophobia in America. More than a hundred Minnesotans from diverse racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds came to support their Muslim American colleagues, friends, and neighbors, who have faced increasing incidents of prejudice and discrimination in the 2010s. Several elected officials and religious leaders (including imams, rabbis, and pastors) saw Islamophobia as opposing American ideals of freedom and democracy, and vowed to help protect the rights of Muslim Americans. This type of event is one of many hosted by ICSA at Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque.

Eid Al-Fitr at Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque

Somali women pray in the women’s prayer room at Dar Al-Hijrah during the holiday of Eid Al-Fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan. Photograph by Mohamud Mumin, 2013.

Friday prayer at Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque

Interior of Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque during a Friday prayer led by Imam Sharif Mohamed, 2015. The first floor of Dar Al-Hijrah consists of two large rooms covered wall to wall in soft rugs where hundreds of Muslims, mostly Somali and Oromo, come for their daily prayers. Friday afternoons are special prayer days and attract large crowds of worshippers.

Color image of Wali Dirie, executive director of the Islamic Civic Society of America and Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque, stands outside their new entrance at 504 Cedar Avenue, 2015.

Islamic Civic Society of America and Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque, Cedar Avenue entrance

Wali Dirie, executive director of the Islamic Civic Society of America and Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque, stands outside their new entrance at 504 Cedar Avenue, 2015.

Color image of group prayer during the purchase of a building for Dar Al-Hijrah, 2006.

Group prayer at Dar Al-Hijrah mosque

In 2015, Imam Sharif Mohamed, Abdisalam Adam, and other leaders of Dar Al-Hijrah mosque raise their hands in prayer after the remodeling of their building following a devastating fire.

Islamic Civic Society of America and Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque

Islamic Civic Society of America and Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque, ca. 2015.

Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque, Minneapolis

Dar Al-Hijrah was founded in 1998 in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis and is the oldest Somali mosque in Minnesota. It signals the latest of many phases of immigration to the state, from Scandinavians and other Europeans in the nineteenth century to East Africans in the 1990s and 2000s. The congregation has a unique commitment to civic education and advocates for the idea that Islam is compatible with democracy through its sister organization, the Islamic Civic Society of America.