Richmond mosque provides rare worship, education opportunities for Muslim families

Rasa - Mosques in West Contra Costa County are sparse and Masjid Al-Rahman serves as a vital gathering place for worship and education for the area's growing Muslim population.

News ID: 1903

Date: 27 December 2014 - 15:06

RNA - The last place you'd expect to see opposite Jerry's Cocktail Lounge in Richmond is a Muslim place of worship, let alone a full-fledged Islamic school.

But every Sunday, more than 150 parents, students, elders and teachers flock to Richmond's Masjid Al-Rahman from as far as Albany and Emeryville.

Mosques in West Contra Costa County are sparse -- the only other Muslim place of worship in the area is Masjid Noor, on Richmond's Cutting Boulevard -- and Masjid Al-Rahman serves as a vital gathering place for worship and education for the area's growing Muslim population.

Walking through the front gate, men and women separated on a recent Sunday as they entered their private spaces. The smell of cardamom, a favorite South Asian and Middle Eastern spice, was abundant. Women and children chattered, and moments later, Shabana Shahbaz (better known as Ms. Shabana), the school's administrator and coordinator, urged them all to take their seats and wait quietly for their teachers to arrive.

The mosque is diverse. Women walk in wearing hijabs, niqabs, Pakistani shalwar kameezes, Arab abayas and, of course, jeans. Every time a sentence is uttered, it is repeated in English, Urdu and Arabic.

To communicate with the non-English-speaking women, Shabana, who speaks both English and Urdu, gives instructions to her helpers and has one of them translate into Arabic.

Before classes began, a little girl rushed to Ms. Shabana's table with a confidence common to children who have spent their lives translating for their foreign-born parents and asked, "How much do I owe you for this month?"

"Sweetheart, you only owe $20," Shahbaz said. "OK, great, I think I have a 20," answered the young girl, who had to stand on her toes to see over the table.

Across the hall, in the men's space, a similar scene unfolded. Arab, black, Latino and Pakistani men teach younger adults and boys. The women have designated classrooms on their side of the mosque, but the men must divide the main prayer hall into smaller classrooms at random.

Masjid Al-Rahman, or the Islamic Society of West Contra Costa, charges families $10 a month per child. The tuition funds operating costs, snacks and the year's Eid parties (the two major Sunni Muslim holidays). Administrators say they know that many of the families are low-income and keep costs as low as possible.

At the beginning of the year, more than 200 students were enrolled at the Sunday school. That number has dropped to about 150, largely because of the school's new policy of expelling students who miss more than three weeks in a row without proper notice. Shahbaz expects the numbers to exceed 200 again soon -- the school has a long waiting list.

The school's curriculum focuses on Arabic (reading, writing, and speaking), Quranic memorization and Islamic history.

Parents say they are drawn to the mosque and the Sunday school for more than just its education.

"It's a place for the children to be among people who believe in the same religion and morals; it's a safe environment for them, not only to learn but also to have a sense of belonging," Shahbaz said. "It's hard for younger children to keep a balance of what the outside world is and what the religion is."

The mosque was founded in the early 1990s. Several immigrant families living in the East Bay spent three years praying in each other's basements until they had the means to fund their own mosque. Once the mosque was established, the next step was to build a school.

"We had the place rented, that was the first step. Next, we had to give an education to our children. It was obvious," said Jawaid Ijaz, one of the founders of Masjid Al-Rahman.

Richmond Confidential is an online news service produced by the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley.

The report first released on ContraCosta Times.

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