Yep, that’s what the headline in the Democrat & Chronicle reads.
Yusef Sharif’s dream is on display in the architectural renderings hanging on a wall of his restaurant — the masonry building, the gold-colored dome: a total of more than 31,000 square feet in which his congregation’s mosque would be a central piece.
Rochester’s Muslim population has held steady over the past six years — at an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 people, according to local Muslim clerics. But the number of area mosques has increased, from five in 2001 to seven, according to Sharif, imam of Masjid Sabiqun (formerly Islamic Da’Wah Community Center).
The largest, the Islamic Center of Rochester on Westfall Road in Brighton, is undergoing an expansion that will triple its size. But Sharif’s would be larger still and would be a gathering place for the neighborhood, with a career academy, day care center and restaurant.
Area mosques cater to Islam’s many different followers, among them people of Turkish, Middle Eastern and African-American descent. The mosque Sharif hopes to build would consist primarily of African-Americans, as his congregation of about four dozen does now, and would be located in a mostly African-American neighborhood. But it would be open to all, and Sharif said he’d like a more diverse membership.
Sharif wants to buy or be given city-owned land on Portland Avenue in northeast Rochester, across from Freddie Thomas High School. The congregation currently meets in a four-story building at 303 Central Ave., which Sharif retrofitted with a restaurant, prayer room and yet-unopened, 20-bed emergency shelter for men referred by outside agencies.
Who is Yusif Sharif: WXXI [PBS] from 2001
THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN. AS AN EMPLOYEE FOR THE ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR ELEVEN YEARS, THERE’S AN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM THEY HAVE AT THIS HIGH SCHOOL, I’D RATHER NOT SAY DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES THAT EVERYBODY UNDERSTANDS, THAT THERE ARE STUDENTS IN THIS SCHOOL THAT ARE NOT FROM THIS COUNTRY. THEY HAVE COME TO ME PERSONALLY. THEY ARE MUSLIM, AND I WAS HAPPY THAT I WAS THERE TO BE AN INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN THE ADMINISTRATION AND STUDENT THAT WAS BEING HARASSED. THEY WERE MUSLIM AND THEY WERE BEING HARASSED BY OTHER STUDENTS AND STEREOTYPED.
I WANT TO ADD, TOO, AGAIN AS AFRICAN-AMERICAN BORN IN THIS COUNTRY, WE KNOW THAT RACISM DID EXIST, SLAVERY DID EXIST. I UNDERSTAND WHAT THE SISTER SAID AS FAR AS STEREOTYPES. AS SOMEONE WHO ACCEPTED ISLAM 13 YEARS AGO, I HAVE YET — AND I SPEAK FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSLIMS IN THIS COUNTRY, THAT TRULY HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED BY — AS TRUE MUSLIMS.
I DON’T IDENTIFY WITH THE TEACHINGS OF FARRAKHAN. HIS TEACHINGS ARE NOT NEEDED OR ACCEPTED, BUT I UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU MEAN AND SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO IGNORE AND THAT’S WHAT WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO. SO WHAT I HAVE SEEN IS SINCE THIS ATROCITY IS THAT WITH THE CHILDREN, THE YOUNGER ONES IN SCHOOLS, I HAVE BEEN THERE AS A MUSLIM AND AS A CONCERNED PERSON AND AS A STAFF MEMBER TO BE AN INTERMEDIARY.
