Our Opinion: On Mosque Desecration, Good Call By Kenney

AL-AQSA Mosque, victim of hate crime.

We applaud Mayor-Elect Jim Kenney’s statement: “The bigotry that desecrated Al-Aqsa mosque this week has no place in Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection has a long history of coming together in the face of challenge. We cannot allow hate to divide us now, in the face of unprecedented difficulties. I ask all Philadelphians to join me in rejecting this despicable act and supporting our Muslim neighbors.”

This reminds us of the same type of bigotry that early Catholic churches received in this city. Cannon fire was leveled at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church at 2nd & Christian Streets by troops attempting to wreak havoc.

Earlier, Old St. Joseph’s Church at 4th &Willow was designed to hide it from public view and spare it from vandalism.

Al-Aqsa has now joined that list of desecrated houses of worship. In this case, a severed pig’s head was placed outside the mosque, one of the most prominent of a score of mosques in this city.

We laud Kenney for voicing his concern and calling for support of this mosque, which was established by the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in 1989 to maintain the Islamic identity and to protect and sustain the Islamic Community in Philadelphia. The task has fulfilled through many services this society offers to the Muslim and Arab communities in the Greater Philadelphia area.

Housed in a former furniture warehouse at 1501 Germantown Avenue, Al-Aqsa encompasses a mosque and cultural center for the neighborhood’s close-knit Palestinian community and other Arab Muslims in the area. Since its founding, Al-Aqsa has grown beyond the mosque to include a grocery and an elementary and high school that provides Islamic studies and Arabic language lessons.
After Sep. 11, 2001, the mosque’s leaders and members have sought to raise awareness and tolerance of Philadelphia’s Arab Muslim community to counter the growth of anti-Muslim sentiment. By reaching out to their non-Arab neighbors, Al-Aqsa has become a welcome hub of community activity in this transitional neighborhood.
Muslim Americans have made Philadelphia their home for over a century. Lebanese merchants began to settle in South Philadelphia, creating a Christian Arab community around St. Maron’s Church at 10th & Ellsworth Streets. More-recent immigration has come from all over the Arab world, with origins as diverse as Palestine, Iraq, Syria and Morocco. Palestinian immigration began in the 1950s and 1960s.
The disparate groups overcame their initial wariness to make the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society building into a living symbol of interfaith community and cooperation, humanizing the Muslim community and forging lasting relationships in the process.
We need to join in the fight against religious prejudice as we have united in the long fight against racial prejudice. Let your Muslim neighbors know they have your support.

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