A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds

NY Times ^ | March 5, 2006 | ANDREA ELLIOTT

[neverdem]

The imam begins his trek before dawn, his long robe billowing like a ghost through empty streets. In this dark, quiet hour, his thoughts sometimes drift back to the Egyptian farming village where he was born.

But as the sun rises over Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Sheik Reda Shata's new world comes to life. The R train rattles beneath a littered stretch of sidewalk, where Mexican workers huddle in the cold. An electric Santa dances in a doughnut shop window. Neon signs beckon. Gypsy cabs blare their horns.

The imam slips into a plain brick building, nothing like the golden-domed mosque of his youth. He stops to pray, and then climbs the cracked linoleum steps to his cluttered office. The answering machine blinks frantically, a portent of the endless questions to come.

A teenage girl wants to know: Is it halal, or lawful, to eat a Big Mac? Can alcohol be served, a waiter wonders, if it is prohibited by the Koran? Is it wrong to take out a mortgage, young Muslim professionals ask, when Islam frowns upon monetary interest?

The questions are only a piece of the daily puzzle Mr. Shata must solve as the imam of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, a thriving New York mosque where several thousand Muslims worship.

To his congregants, Mr. Shata is far more than the leader of daily prayers and giver of the Friday sermon. Many of them now live in a land without their parents, who typically assist with finding a spouse. There are fewer uncles and...

[neverdem]

Some 140 mosques serve New York City, where an estimated 600,000 Muslims live, roughly 20 percent of them African-American, said Louis Abdellatif Cristillo, an anthropologist at Teachers College who has canvassed the city's mosques.
Holy mackerel!

James Estrin/The New York Times
ISLAM ON THE GO
Each morning, Mr. Shata accompanies his daughters Esteshhad, 10, left, and Rahma, 6, to the bus stop of their Islamic school. Along the way, he quizzes them on passages from the Koran.

James Estrin/The New York Times
"Here you don't know what will solve a problem. It's about looking for a key." Sheik Reda Shata, the imam of a thriving mosque in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

James Estrin/The New York Times
FAITH AND IMPROVISATION
In the subway, Sheik Reda Shata wears Western clothes instead of his traditional robe to avoid being taunted.

[Bringbackthedraft]

"Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Sheik Reda Shata's new world comes to life."

OK, What happened to all the Scandinavians, the Son's of Norway? Bayridge was a Scandinavian, Irish, Italian neighborhood. I guess it been too many years.

[Candor7]

Poor Mr. Shata...so far from home.....so beset upon with being in America...feeling sullied by the cold environment and the traducing of his congregation by those aweful Big Macs, alcohol, mortgages and all the signs of American affluence. Allah has been so unkind. ( Barf -Puke)

You have no alternative Mr. Shata but to teach your congregation to be American patriots , and if you fail in this, you and your congregation can board the next boat from the New York Port Authority to Alexandria, one way tickets only.

[Torie]

ping

[T.L.Sink]

I think they disappeared shortly after Henry Hudson! By the way, Theodore Dalrymple explains, among many other things, why so many blacks in British prisons (as in the U.S) convert to Islam. His article "When Islam Breaks Down" was named by David Brooks of the NY Times as the best journal article of 2004. He also explains why there is inherent within Islam a propensity for the most violent and fanatical elements to prevail over the moderates. A fascinating account - if anyone wants more detail let me know.

[neverdem]

When Islam Breaks Down

[ZULU]

Just another subversive assisting the infiltration and Islamicization of America by religious colonists from the land of the Prophet.

[Valin]

America transformed me from a person of rigidity to flexibility," said Mr. Shata, speaking through an Arabic translator. "I went from a country where a sheik would speak and the people listened to one where the sheik talks and the people talk back."

[jocon307]

"Sheik Reda Shata wears Western clothes instead of his traditional robe to avoid being taunted."

Oh what b*llsh*t.

[Alouette]

In the subway, Sheik Reda Shata wears Western clothes instead of his traditional robe to avoid being taunted.

Who is going to taunt him? Hasidic Jews?

[sheik yerbouty]

Visiting Amish..

[T.L.Sink]

Thanks a million for posting that and I urge all FReepers to read it so they can share the profound insights that Dr. Dalrymple has about Islam. And his knowledge goes beyond his clinical experience and is based on on-the-ground life situations in many Islamic cultures. By the way, he's also very prophetic. Remember the recent riots and anarchy in France created by the indigenous Muslim population? If anyone wants to understand why it could happen he need only read the essay "The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris". Once again, no PC bull but a realistic assessment of the French nation.

[binkdeville]

NY/NJ is fast becoming the NEW Middle East..It will be too late before people know it. We all see it here on FR but the dumb ass PC masses don't get it yet ..

[binkdeville]

Yea , it is bullsh*t . I'm in the NY metro area. A million Muslims wear their robes in the subway every day . Sleep with one eye open my friends.

[Dallas59]

You forgot to mention, Joos, Christians, Hindus, Buddists....non-muslims. I feel so sorry for Shata. He really needs to be sent back to his own kind. How much are plane tickets?

[Shortstop7]

NYT just can't give up, can they?

[Dallas59]

They already did...

[Shortstop7]

NYT gave up? I don't think so...... they should, but I don't think they have.

[Racehorse]

How can you keep em in a burqa now that they've taken a bite out of the Big Apple?

Soon after arriving in Brooklyn, Mr. Shata observed a subtle rift among the women of his mosque. Those who were new to America remained quietly grounded in the traditions of their homelands. But some who had assimilated began to question those strictures. Concepts like shame held less weight. Actions like divorce, abhorred by Mr. Shata, were surprisingly popular.

"The woman who comes from overseas, she's like someone who comes from darkness to a very well-lit place," he said.

In early July, an Egyptian karate teacher shuffled into Mr. Shata's office and sank into a donated couch. He smiled meekly and began to talk. His new wife showed him no affection. She complained about his salary and said he lacked ambition.

The imam urged him to be patient.

Two weeks later, in came the wife. She wanted a divorce.

"We don't understand each other," the woman said. She was 32 and had come from Alexandria, Egypt, to work as an Arabic teacher. She had met her husband through a friend in Bay Ridge. Her parents, still in Egypt, had approved cautiously from afar.

"I think you should be patient," said the imam.

"I cannot," she said firmly. "He loves me, but I have to love him, too."

Mr. Shata shifted uncomfortably in his chair. There was nothing he loathed more than granting a divorce.

"It's very hard for me to let him divorce you," he said. "How can I meet God on Judgment Day?"

"It's God's law also to have divorce," she shot back. The debate continued.

Finally, Mr. Shata asked for her parents' phone number in Egypt. Over the speakerphone, they anxiously urged the imam to relent. Their daughter was clearly miserable, and they were too far away to intervene.

With a sigh, Mr. Shata asked his executive secretary, Mohamed, to print a divorce certificate. In the rare instance when the imam agrees to issue one, it is after a couple has filed for divorce with the city.

"Since you're the one demanding divorce, you can never get back together with him," the imam warned. "Ever."

The woman smiled politely.

"What matters for us is the religion," she said later. "Our law is our religion."

Smiling and wondering to myself, what was that last line?

"What matters for us is the religion," she said later. "Our law is our religion."

Seems she's serving her client quite well, as any self-representing lawyer ought to do. And thusly armed with her very own interpretation of the law, she's feisty enough to take it to the judge, er, imam.