68 MUSLIMS IN THE UNITED STATES
including its suburbs, Syracuse is one of the three largest cities in upstate New
York. According to the latest count, the Syracuse mosque serves nearly six
hundred families, which live within a radius of approximately thirty miles from
the mosque. The Syracuse Muslim community, then, extends beyond the city
limits of Syracuse itself. Although there is an active chapter of the Muslim
Students Association (MSA) on the Syracuse campus, the Syracuse mosque
(Islamic Society of Central New York) serves students as well as nonstudents.
In fact, long before there were any Muslim professionals in appreciable num-
bers in the Syracuse area, the MSA represented practically the only Islamic ac-
tivity in town. It was mainly through the efforts of the MSA that the land for
the mosque, at a walking distance from the campus, was bought in 1979. Then
the community pitched in and built the mosque, and a few years later com-
pleted a small symbolic minaret on one side.
Before the mosque was built, the MSA used to hold Juma prayers in a big
hall in the student activity center reserved every Friday for that purpose. All
other functions such as weekend Qur an studies and occasional symposia used
to be held in different halls on the campus. However, as the number of non-
students increased in the community and the mosque was built, most MSA
activities shifted to the mosque. Soon the mosque became an Islamic commu-
nity center as well. Families with women and children, who were hardly ever
seen on campus before, now come to the mosque regularly. A women s com-
mittee was formed with a responsibility especially to cater to women s con-
cerns. A local activist, Diana W., started a group called Women Without
Boundaries, which invites women of all faiths and color to discuss national
and international issues. Soon arrangements were made for the weekend school
for children. A session was added for a Saturday morning Qur an reading.
With the families and students from Syracuse University and the Medical
School crowding it, the mosque becomes a lively place starting Friday after-
noons through Sunday evenings. Besides, the mosque also became a place for
occasional wedding ceremonies, weekly community dinner, as well as occa-
sional funeral prayers.
The mosque s constitution and the bylaws, borrowed from the MSA, are
simple. They provide for an executive committee (shura), which is elected ev-
ery two years. The president (ameer) is the head of the executive committee.
However, the ameer has only one vote when the shura is in session. The
bylaws of the mosque also provide for a salaried imam, who, because of being
paid by the mosque, cannot participate nor vote in any decision-making ses-
sions of the executive committee.
The present imam, Ahmed Nazar of Syracuse, is a graduate of the famous
Al-Azher school established in a mosque in Cairo in 1458. Moreover, after
coming to Syracuse, he also enrolled for and received an M.A. and a Ph.D.
degree in counseling. Having received traditional Islamic as well as secular
university education, the imam gives enlightening Juma sermons, in which he
tries to come to grips with economic, political, family, and psychological prob-
lems of modern day living in the light of his Islamic training. Likewise, his