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The Mosque's Last Day
Up the narrow stairway to the second floor, many of the 1,000 other congregants joined them: restaurateurs, small-business owners, civil servants, investment bankers from the Financial District. Africans, Arabs, South Asians, Eastern Europeans and North Carolinians all passed through an anteroom on the second floor, removed their shoes and entered the main hall of the mosque. There, the worshippers sat cross-legged in tightly packed rows marked off by strips of masking tape on the faded blue carpet. But this Friday, May 23, Sheikh Mustafa Elazabawi, a stocky man with a wide, bushy beard, wearing a black skullcap and a long white robe, would deliver his last sermon in this building that has served the Lower Manhattan Muslim community for 30 years.
The mosque has lost its lease. The building was sold in 2007 to Renta Corporacion, a Spanish company that specializes in refurbishing and reselling properties. Later that year, Renta flipped the building to Brooklyn-based Global Imports Inc., which plans to convert it into residential condominiums. The mosque agreed to move out before June. Masjid Manhattan, one of only two mosques below Houston Street, with regular attendance well above 1,000, is now without a home. The search for a new space in Lower Manhattan has so far been unsuccessful.
After the sermon, the Sheikh led the worshippers in prayer. Packed shoulder to shoulder, there was not a single available space in the room as the men stood, kneeled, and prostrated themselves, pronouncing the words, “Allahu akbar (God is great).” Observant Muslims say these words when they pray, five times each day. On Fridays, they are called upon to pray together, so Fridays are always the busiest days at Masjid Manhattan. Following the service, Sheikh Mustafa told the community they were still $6,000 short of the rent needed to move into the temporary basement space nearby at 20 Warren St. A young man in front raised his hand, volunteering to make up the difference. The community thanked him, and asked God to reward him for his generosity.
Abdul Khan, a middle-aged Pakistani-born businessman, said he had been coming to the mosque for several years. “It is an unhappy moment,” Khan said. “This is like our home, and now we must leave our home.” Mamadou Bali, a Senegalese-born auditor in the New York City Comptroller’s office, said the last Friday prayers in the space were difficult for him as well.
Some in the congregation said they worry that the mosque’s leadership may not have the savvy to negotiate the super-heated real estate market of Lower Manhattan. Indeed, the mosque’s governing board turned down a chance to buy the entire building they are now leaving several years ago for a fraction of its current price. “Maybe we need to find a leadership that is better at planning ahead,” Bali said. “There is a divide between the cultures, and maybe there’s not enough awareness of how you negotiate these things.” But that may be changing. Members of the congregation and friends of the mosque have begun to help, scouring the neighborhood for potential locations. After saying their Friday prayers, several Muslim real estate agents walked around the corner to the Pakistani Tea House on Church Street to discuss the challenges and prospects. “When we saw this issue coming, we wanted to help them,” said Nour Mousa of Soho Properties, as he sat for a halal lunch with his partner, Sammy El-Gamal. “They are our brothers.” El-Gamal said the ideal solution would allow the congregation to pay for the construction of its new mosque by first developing and selling an adjoining property. But Mousa said even under the best conditions, a permanent home for the community wouldn’t be ready for at least a year and a half. He said negotiations are underway for a permanent home for the mosque in Tribeca, but he would not specify where. In the meantime, Masjid Manhattan needs to simultaneously look for an interim space, one much bigger than the 200-person-capacity basement that was to be used for prayers the following Friday. Mousa estimates it will need to be at least 10,000 square feet. “There just aren’t that many spaces down here that fit our needs,” he said. Then there are the other hurdles. For one, the Koran forbids usury, or interest-bearing loans. That means that the mosque cannot take out a conventional mortgage to help finance their move. And where would it be welcomed? Members thought they were close to closing a deal on one location on Nassau Street for a space that met their needs, until they disclosed to the landlord that they were representing a mosque. The landlord promptly took the space off the market, explaining that in Lower Manhattan, leasing to a mosque could make it difficult to attract and retain other tenants. Manhattan Masjid and its negotiators are quick to play down the role that anti-Muslim sentiment may play in their difficulty in finding a space. But the Nassau Street episode suggests that when a 1,000-member mosque goes looking for a home just blocks from the World Trade Center site, their faith is a factor. The Tuesday following their last Friday prayers at 12 Warren St., a handful of worshippers gathered in the mosque’s new temporary home, the basement of 20 Warren St., a few storefronts down, for midday prayers. The space was cramped and stifling. There were no air conditioners or fans. The floor was littered with construction debris. Community members worked to erect temporary walls and clean out broken glass from the earlier configuration. Toward the front of the narrow room, Sheikh Mustafa and half a dozen members of the mosque’s board of directors, as well as several members of the community, sat on the carpet, considering how they possibly serve 1,000 worshippers in a space that only holds 200. At the last minute, the mosque negotiated the one-time use of the gym at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) for the following Friday, where the faithful gathered under the basketball hoops and championship banners. “Insh’Allah, we will find a new space soon,” Sheikh Mustafa said. God willing. And if not? “Worst case scenario, you have more than 1,000 Muslims with nowhere to pray but the park,” Mousa said. “But we are optimistic that something will come through before that happens.” That optimism appears to sustain the entire community as it faces the most uncertain days in its 30-year history, negotiating complicated logistics and—something the negotiators don’t want to complain or get angry about—discrimination. “We’re not interested in putting blame or pointing fingers,” Mousa said. “As the Sheikh said in his sermon, we are leaving with love. This is God’s will, and God will reward us when we build his new house. What we are asking now is for help from anyone who can help us, Muslim or non-Muslim. We need help.”
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