How can you build an Islamic Community
When you're paying interest on the Masjid?

Narrated by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud: The Apostle of Allah (SAAW) cursed the one who accepted usury,
the one who paid it, the witness to it, and the one who recorded it.

Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) sent Islam to guide humanity. The Deen defined the standards for what is good and what is evil. It was the foundation for a system designed to meet real human needs in the most efficient and dignified way.

Prophet Muhammad's message first appeared before a people living a lifestyle of vice and ignorance. Adultery and fornication were everywhere, merchants cheated their customers, the strong oppressed the weak, and the society worshipped idols.

In the USA of the 21st Century CE, very little has changed. Maybe the idols are different; but in essence, the ideas called "freedoms" reduce men and women to animals like their predecessors in old Arabia. Today, Muslims in America face a modern variation of an old challenge: how can we deliver the Message of Allah's Mercy to American neighbors who seem so convinced that their "Democracy and Capitalism" are the way and the light? How can we show them-and not just by talking-that Islam has the best solutions for their everyday social and economic problems? And won't that challenge be harder to meet when it looks like we don't really believe our own da'wah? Finally, what happens when we are caught trying to bend Islam to make it fit the American Way of Life?

An article in the May 11, 2005 issue of the Detroit Free Press was entitled "Growing Islamic Community: Building Boom." It focused on the ongoing construction of the Dearborn-based Islamic Center of America, which is costing $14 million to complete. Its Imam, Shaykh Qazwini, was said to say, "But the real challenge for us starts on the day we open the doors. We have to make sure we build a true community and not just a beautiful museum."

What did the Shaykh mean by "true community?" Was he talking about one that lives according to Islam, all of it, or in the usual "American" sense? What is the difference?

A true community in Islam is one that orders itself by Allah's law before all others. In all their affairs, its members seek and follow the rulings of Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala). Furthermore, true communities of Muslims don't let a kufr "reality" tie them in knots. Instead, they are supposed to understand that "reality" and make it change to fit the Deen-not the other way around. Will the Islamic Center of America present Islam as the universal ideology, the only one to live by, or will it establish yet another American religious pastime? Can the mosque remind its members that it is forbidden to help the State of Michigan fleece the poor by selling lottery tickets in their gas stations? Does its leadership abhor the actions of the many Muslim loan brokers in town? Will it expose interest transactions for what they really are: declarations of war against Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala)? As the Qur'an affirms, "O you who believe! Fear Allah and give up what remains (due to you) from riba (interest), if you are (really) believers. And if you don't, then know that Allah and His Messenger are at war with you! But if you repent, you shall have your principal sums back." [TMQ: Surat ul-Baqarah, ayahs 278-279].

But how can the mosque's community succeed in this when their center of operations has been financed by riba? Passers-by at the new place on Ford Road couldn't miss seeing the money-lender's proud sign right at the doorstep. What kind of message does this send to the people of Dearborn? If their mosques deal with riba, then why should ordinary Muslims even feel guilty about giving it or devouring it themselves? What a comfort for the dozens of "Muslim" mortgage officers and real estate agents who have made themselves quite comfortable within the riba system!

So what kind of true community is Imam Qazwini talking about? We fear that Washington will turn his new mosque into a tool for the assimilation and integration of local Muslims into American consumerism. This might, however, be a first step toward something much worse. "Success stories" of Believers "living the dream" in the USA-thanks to good old-fashioned capitalism and mortgages-are crafted to win the hearts of the Ummah overseas, though the heavy cost of that success is carefully hidden. And for US policymakers, what would be juicier than a tale about a local community's landmark masjid built from riba, and led by a star-quality "moderate" imam who likes "American" values!

Even so, big beautiful architecture or Arab/Muslim museums on a main street won't prove that Islam has succeeded in this far-off land. In Spain, the Alhambra was built near the Muslim-Christian frontier as a great promise, written in red stone, that Islam would endure there, in spite of so many years of decline. This happened even as the last Moorish kings of Granada had to pay tribute to Ferdinand and Isabel to keep their last shreds of independence. Nowadays, "Muslim moderates" in Dearborn extol their lovely new real estate empires, and honor the banks that finance them. Yet they say little about a local drug culture that sucks in more young Muslims daily, and even less about epidemic out-of-wedlock sex. Our young men care little about manly activities, and save their energy for removing excess hair and fixing their fingernails. Divorce is rising, and sisters are casting off the hijab once more. What success is this? Under the circumstances, beautiful Masjids only conceal the ruins of our lives!

True Islamic communities do not exist among people who drift with the pushes and pulls of a certain period in time. The very first Muslim community took control of the "reality" they faced and shaped it in accordance with Islam. Today in the US, Muslims indeed love Islam. Unfortunately, they have reduced it to a mere American "religion;" and so, Islam is wobbled to fit today's "reality" only. American secularism will let us maintain our faith in private; but if we overstep the limits set by the government and demand Islam in the public sector, we are labeled fundamentalists or worse. The palatial mosque on Ford Road is becoming a platform for Washington's politically-correct "Islam." We hope that Muslims will look beyond the fancy architecture and realize that their community is in shambles. In sha' Allah, this article will make our brothers and sisters in Dearborn reflect upon their problems and solve them according to Islam and nothing else. (Submitted 5/12/2005)