A Toledo woman who worships at the Perrysburg mosque isn’t who you might expect to see huddling under the tent to pray.

But her fair skin actually doesn’t matter because her husband, Wesam, and the Muslim community he grew up in, are as welcoming as Islam professes to be.

“I didn’t convert until three and a half years after we were married and I was pregnant with our first child,” said Lisa Hawary, who previously worshipped in a Presbyterian church. “This is the most open-minded, broad-based humanitarian religion I could see myself raising my children in. You learn about religion from the beginning of time. It isn’t about just being a Muslim; it is being a well-rounded person.”

Hawary said worshipping in a tent outside the mosque since last month’s arson has been uplifting. She is surrounded by many cultures and voices.

Still, she said it is upsetting that an Indiana man allegedly set fire to the mosque’s prayer room, intentionally.

“It hurts your heart,” she said. “When you are in prayer with God, it is a personal moment and a loving moment in the day. You want that space back; you want that time back.”

Many people don’t understand what Islam’s philosophy entails.

“I couldn’t grasp having that much animosity and hate in my heart. It is a huge cry for help. It is a cry for knowledge. It is cry for understanding. It is a cry for love,” she said.  “If this happened at a temple, a synagogue or at CedarCreek, I would say the same thing. That person is searching for love and understanding.”

Hawary was interested in Islam even before meeting her husband, whose family is from Lebanon.

“I was learning about Islam before meeting him. I was going from church to church and not finding what I was looking for. I was left struggling with concepts I didn’t understand.”

Her husband and mosque members answered her questions and gave her material to read. Even when Hawary was fairly certain she wanted to convert, they advised her to wait.

“If Islam is something you are thinking about, wait six months and think more. Make sure this is truly what you want to do in your heart,” she said they told her.

She wasn’t even Muslim when she was married in the mosque, but the imam (leader in the church) was open-minded and wanted to get to know her spiritually. He told her marriage is a partnership and she has the right to stand up to her husband.

Hawary said she didn’t change her first name as customary when converting to Islam, and she doesn’t wear a hijab.

Once a classmate asked one of her three children, “Why isn’t your mom wearing one of those black things?”

The response showed what Islam is about.

“She doesn’t have to wear one. It is her choice.”

Email questions or comments to Toledo Free Press Community Ombudsman Brandi Barhite at bbarhite@toledofree press.com.

Tags: Brandi Barhite, Community Ombudsman, Islam, Islamic Center of Greater Toledo

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2012 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Community, Community Ombudsman.
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BGSU scholar Marne Austin believes the fire intentionally set at the Perrysburg mosque will only further cement the Muslim community’s resolve to practice their faith.

“The community is resilient and they are some of the most intelligent people I have met,” she said.

Austin is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the School of Media and Communication who is focusing on the topic of Muslim identity in an anti-Islamic environment. We became friends while I was getting my master’s; I began to admire her when I saw her passion for interviewing Muslim women as part of her doctoral research.

“What saddens me most about it is the fact that it happened in an otherwise peaceful community,” Austin said. “The Muslim population has been here for decades. They are well-regarded and contributing members of society.”

Austin said the mosque is left open to the public because local Muslims want to be transparent and welcoming. The accused arsonist from Indiana violated that ideal by going into the mosque Sept. 30 and setting fire to the prayer area.

“This is a particular community that shows great integration, and the women I have interviewed don’t report any outright anti-Muslim sentiment,” Austin said. “It is sad because if there is one place where things are good for them, it could be here.

“Unfortunately, it shows that the best of places are subject to hate.”

While Austin said it is too early to label this a hate crime, she said any violence is a hate crime.

“It doesn’t have to be toward a certain group or religion. The fact that someone had to plan it and do it, it is hate.”

Austin has been encouraging Facebook friends to change their profile photo to the mosque. She is glad the arson is getting front-page attention, but wishes more Muslims would be asked — or willing — to be interviewed. If more people hear the Muslim perspective, they will realize this is impacting their friends, co-workers and neighbors, she said.

The Muslim women she has seen on Facebook are questioning why this is happening, while also asking for prayers.

“It would be a lie to say they won’t be impacted or won’t be scared. If this happened to a school or synagogue, people would be impacted, but I think they will be resilient and keep going,” she said. “They are going to pray outside the mosque; they are going to pray in their homes.”

And most notably, “Their first thought will be to pray for the man who caused the fire, not vengeance,” Austin said.

Email questions or comments to Toledo Free Press Community Ombudsman Brandi Barhite at bbarhite@toledofree press.com.

Tags: Brandi Barhite, Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, Marne Austin

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2012 at 2:20 pm and is filed under Community, Community Ombudsman.
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Toledo-area Muslims are reeling from an arson fire at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, but are grateful for an outpouring of support from the local interfaith community.

“All the support we get is very welcome because if you are going through a tragedy and you have a friend who is holding your hand it means a lot,” said Dr. S. Zaheer Hasan, a spokesman for the United Muslim Association of Toledo.

Perrysburg Township police said Oct. 2 that a suspect has been arrested and is in custody in Fort Wayne, Ind., for the Sept. 30 arson blaze at the highly visible mosque just south of Toledo. Surveillance footage from the Islamic Center, located at the junction of I-475 and I-75, showed a “person of interest” — a white middle-aged male wearing a camouflage sweatshirt and hat — at the mosque’s entrance shortly before the blaze, which was reported about 5 p.m.

Suspect in custody

Det. Sgt. James Gross said Perrysburg Township police and the Ohio State Fire Marshal have identified the individual in custody and are continuing an investigation with help from the FBI and the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Gross did not name the individual but the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette reported that Randy T. Linn, 52, of Saint Joe, Ind., was arrested at his workplace on Tuesday and was being held at the Allen County Jail until an extradition hearing. He faces charges in Ohio of aggravated burglary, carrying a concealed weapon and two counts of arson.

Mahjabeen Islam, president of the Islamic Center, said the suspect poured gasoline in the center of the main floor where men worship at the mosque. Women pray on the same main floor, but in an area separated by a low divider.

“It was set in the men’s prayer area and the sprinklers turned out the fire. There is a lot of water damage from the sprinklers,” Islam said. “The Islamic Center is uninhabitable for easily three months.”

She said the Islamic Center is making plans for an interfaith prayer session on the mosque’s grounds at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 5, the time Muslims normally hold Juma prayers, their main service of the week.

“All the faith communities are invited to come and join us in solidarity,” Islam said.

Outpouring of support

The mosque has received many phone calls and emails of support from non-Muslims in the Toledo area, Islam said. The outpouring reminded her of when Toledo Christian radio station YES FM organized a prayer rally at the mosque a week after 9/11. In the wake of 9/11, someone had fired a bullet from the road through one of the mosque’s stained-glass windows.

More than 1,500 people of all faiths turned out on Sept. 18, 2001, holding hands as they encircled the Middle Eastern-style mosque and prayed for the safety of those who worship within.

Rev. Steve Anthony, executive director of Toledo Area Ministries, said he and his organization that represents 125 Christian churches and faith-based agencies are outraged by the arson attack and will do what they can to help local Muslims.

“Any attack on a house of worship, no matter what faith, is deplorable and should be condemned,” Anthony said. “And there’s no room for that in a pluralistic society. We should respect each other’s houses of worship.

“I want to be a part of whatever [local Muslims] are doing to support them,” he said.

Islam said there is no information yet on a possible motive for the blaze.

“It’s difficult to draw a conclusion as to whether it’s connected to world events, or a simple case of Islamophobia, or if this is someone who is a pyromaniac,” she said. “Unless we find him and talk to him we don’t know.”

But the damage to her house of worship is heart-rending, she said.

“It’s so painful to see. It goes to my heart to see the prayer area where there is now a crater, a black crater.”

She said the fire reached high enough to shatter lightbulbs on a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

“You can smell the gasoline. The main damage is in the prayer area but the rest of the Islamic Center has water damage,” Islam said.

There were no services or organized activities taking place at the mosque at the time of the fire, Islam added.

Islam said mosque officials are discussing what they will do until the center is repaired. Insurance officials inspected the building.

Members of the Islamic Center will likely worship under a tent on the mosque grounds as long as the weather permits, according to Islam.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has reported community opposition to 53 mosques and Islamic centers across the United States in the past several years, including one in southwestern Ohio.

Tags: Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, Mahjabeen Islam, Randy T. Linn, Rev. Steve Anthony, S. Zaheer Hasan, Sgt. James Gross, Toledo Area Ministries, United Muslim Association of Toledo

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2012 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Community, Crime, Religion, ToledoFAVS.com.
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