I’d love for more people to write about their early memories of going to ICCD as kids (or other area Mosques as kids) and their experiences. Kind of so we can preserve those memories as so many more Muslims/Mosques arrive in the Capital District and we move on to the third and fourth generations here! So please let me know if you can write a few paragraphs that we can post on here!!

So last time I told you about how we used to go to the Mosque every week and practically grew up there, it was such an integral part of our lives. We used to have two or three classes with breaks in between. Our hangout place was the girl’s bathroom! We’d go in there and be free and talk about our American school and life and whatever else. We also used to go outside to the treeline and go into the woods a little where we’d have a private hangout. One day on one of those ‘youth sports day’ Saturdays we went into the woods and somehow got lost! when we finally came out we discovered a golf course! It was like a new world of smooth grass, rolling hills and a pond with lily flowers. We felt like we discovered a lost new world! Later on I found out some of the older boys had already discovered the golf course and used to go there to smoke! Tsk!!

The teachers would use various ways of teaching us. I don’t think we actually had any type of books until much later. At some point they started photocopying different things and binding them into books. The Islam teachers would teach us a random subject each week and we’d always complain that we just ‘learned the same thing over and over again’. On occasion a teacher would take our class outside to the grass and we’d sit in a circle and read from our Quran pages or the teacher would tell us a story or answer any questions. Brother Djafer especially was an amazing storyteller who would make the Sahaba and Seerah come alive for us. These are some of my favorite memories.

A class at ICCD. Try spotting me (via Usama Chaudhry)

All the classes were co-ed until maybe my later teenage years when they separated us into a girl’s class and a boy’s class. I think most of the boys just stopped going after awhile as they got older. But most of the girl’s continued and only ‘graduated’ when they graduated from high school.

Brother Djafer and brother Mokhtar used to take us on camping trips to the Adirondacks during the summers during my teenage years. We even went horseback riding and once I think we stayed a whole week up there with a big group of boys and girls. The girls used to row out to some island and we’d go swimming there with our long pants and t-shirts. That was definitely a highlight in life. Our Imams back then were very young themselves and had young kids and wives back home. We’d sit around the fire and tell jinn stories, they’d talk or say something to each other in Arabic and laugh or they’d tell us ‘riddles’ that we had to figure out.

One of the interesting things I contemplate here is that we never had this strict kind of separation like we have today. Girls and boys with huge barriers in between, the old in one place and the young in one place. It was just that we were all together.

The custodian of the Mosque was named Br. Kamal. He was quite the character and always took care of us kids by putting out cookies during breaktime (we were only allowed two each) and used to know everyone by name. He was originally from Macedonia and in one rare instance came to our class and talked about ‘the old days of the war’ there. He was probably one of the first Muslims to even come to the capital district, if not like The first! He died just a few years ago and the entire ICCD Mosque was packed with old and new faces and they took him to be buried at the Muslim cemetary. That was a very sad day.

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My Dad and I sat out on the porch for awhile drinking our tea and talking about this and that. The topic of our ancestors came up as my uncle just sent us a family tree from India that went back 10 generations from my great grandfather! The first person is listed as “Shaikh Salahuddin”, who was probably the first person in our family to convert to Islam in India.

I was saying how I wish we could have known who he was and his story. Then somehow we talked about this and that and my Dad said his father had actually owned a gold coin from the Uthmani era and a very old hand-written illuminated Quran. He had seen these things with his own eyes as a teenager and wrote to his family from Australia (where he went for his PhD) to keep these items safe as they were very valuable. But somehow no one can find them now. Either it was hidden somewhere, someone took them or they were just lost over time either before or after his father died.

So then I told my Dad he should write down his history and how he came to America and about the early Muslims in this area. Then he told me ‘well this is a job of a blogger and ur old too now, u can write about ur memories!’ D’oh! So very true.

We now have so many Mosques in this area and when I go to some events I know less than half the people. I often wonder who everyone is. This is just so unheard of. When I was growing up every Muslim knew every Muslim by name…

So here is the first in what I hope is a series of posts on the early Muslims of Albany, NY:
_____________________________________

One of my very first memories in America is our father taking us to the Mosque for the first time. This would be the original Islamic Center of the Capital District in Colonie. Back then it was a little white stucco structure that looked a little like a house from the outside. There was a little rectangular parking lot out front and a long area of lawn on the side. (Yup that’s it, no school, no huge community center, no winding wrap-around parking lot, no playgrounds, nothin!) (and we loved it.) Inside there was a downstairs basement area that was carpeted and had ping pong tables. Mid level upstairs there were 3 rooms, 2 of which were used as classrooms and one as an office, and a corner shoe area and then the upstairs big Musallah area. Over time the downstairs basement area would come to have these big office type of partitions so they could create three or four large classrooms (including one under the stairs!) and also have half that as an area to have community dinners.

The Mosque was made up of every ethnicty. There were Arabs, Pakistanis, Indians, Turkish, Cambodians, Afghanis, African-Americans etc etc. This was the the only Mosque of the area (except for maybe a musallah in Troy near RPI) and everyone from the Troy, Schenectady, Albany area as far north as Lake George and as far south as the Catskills would come there.

My teachers were mostly Arab mothers like Sister Sukina, Sister Hoda, Sister Samia, Sister Fatima, Sister Suzanne and some brothers who were there as phD students like the principal Brother Djafer, Brother Abdul Nasser, Brother Errol and my Dad and later on Brother Sohail. The first Imam I can remember was Br. Shawki and there was some kind of controversy about him and later on an Egyptian Imam straight from Egypt who didn’t speak any English and then we had Shaikh Mokhtar who was a phD student from Syracuse/turned Imam.

Anyway during these early years in the 80s we would go to the Mosque every Friday night and Sunday afternoon. The adults would have some kind of lecture upstairs and we’d have our classes. Our Dad was pretty strict and we weren’t allowed to skip Mosque for any reason!! Even if we had missed school that day we were usually fine enough to go to Mosque lol. I developed a ton of friendships in my class and was especially close to a group of 5 girls. We were extreme best friends but the oddest thing is we never saw each other except at the Mosque on the weekends! Occasionally they had a ‘Youth Day’ on a Saturday where people came and just played sports on the lawn. One Saturday night every month they had a ‘community dinner’, where absolutely everyone would come and we’d all eat downstairs on the long plastic tables with metal folding chairs.

The route to the Mosque was pretty regular. From Albany down Washington Ave to Washington Ave extension till we got to the big water tower, a right down to Central Ave and then all the way down Central Ave to the little turn at the Ethan Allen furniture shop. There was literally nothing once you got to the Suny campus. This is before all the new buildings on the right side including hotels and medical arts and the apartment building! they have there now. It was all just woods. Down Washington Ave extension there was literally nothing but swamp probably. This was even pre-Crossgates pre-Walmart era, even pre-office buildings era! I think the Italian American center was there but nothing else. Down that 155 road there was nothing until they built a Cracker Barrel type of country store thing that we found very expensive. And all along Central ave there were businesses going up and down and a number of car dealerships sprang up towards the end of Central ave, before the big cemetery and the turn for the Mosque. Where the Islamic school is now, across the street from the Mosque, was just woods. The school was an old dilapidated building and there was a long sort of building next to it (stables? old stores?) that I used to stare at and wonder what it had been.

Some of the mothers would drop off their kids at the Mosque and go to the mall that was nearby. At that time it existed as Mohawk Mall and had stores like Caldor’s. On the way back home my Dad first used to stop at Northway Mall which had a Sears type store called Montgomery Ward where he would buy stuff and we’d go into the mall to find our own fun. It used to be one long hall with small stores on either side. There was one dedicated store to stickers! Yup stickers of all kinds like scratch n sniff and water filled and rolls of various stuff and packaged strawberry shortcake stickers and whatever else. I’d usually go in there to look around while my older brother would have disappeared into the arcade towards the other end of the mall. This was definitely another era where our parents would just bring us to the mall and everyone would fan out on their own. It seems impossible now in the era of pedophiles and crazies. I completely panic when I don’t see my niece or nephews in Target for 5 minutes! Ahhh such was the 80s.

We also used to go to some grocery store every Sunday after Mosque. I think this was an A&P market and later a Price Chopper next door to the K-Mart at the corner of 155 and Central. We’d go around the entire store with the cart and our Dad allowed us to get only “one item” that we kids wanted. This could be a favorite cereal or a brick of cheese or something. Later on when I was a teenager we would go out to eat after Mosque and invariably this would be at the Taco Bell that sprang up in that new Price Chopper complex.

So next time more on what we did at the Mosque and growing up and maybe a scandalous secret or two about what us kids discovered beyond the forest! C u then!!

A few pics courtesy of Usama Chaudhry…

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DATES: June 10th – June 20th, 2012

TEACHER: Sessions will be taught by Sh. Mokhtar Maghraoui.

Click here for more information and to register online: http://www.jannah.org/retreat/
http://www.zawiyah.net

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I find the boys very sharp in learning/memorizing things quickly and they want to “prove” their knowledge in games like jeopardy or adding stars to their progress chart. They’re competitive but like to help each other out.

The girl’s are slower to learn things, but ask a ton of questions. Why this why that. I’m still squinting from trying to find the answers to questions like ‘Can ppl have babies in Jannah’ or ‘What if a person never gives Zakat their whole life but goes to Hajj, will they be forgiven?’and the email I received from one of them the other day “Sister Jannah, is it Haram to wear fake nails?”. Uhmmm. But they are excellent at doing their homework and I can feel when things reach home with them which is very important to me.

All in all I like teaching them both although it is very draining at times. (I actually have two other classes I teach too this year!!) But I find myself conflicted all the time in teaching the girls. There’s so much I want to teach them, yet I know society and culture is going to go against it one day. How do I teach them that the only thing that is important is what is in their hearts when that is totally not the way society is. What is in their hearts has almost 0 value to society and what will be important will be their looks, their ‘image’, their lineage, where they come from etc. I want them to be strong, independent, spiritual girls. Yet, it seems there is such a backlash in the US against girls like this. Like I just read in a Zeba Iqbal article, it seems like second generation Muslim women in the US have to now “repent for being accomplished, educated and independent – ironic because that is exactly what our parents wanted for us when we were growing up. Somehow we have failed by being successful. ”

Matrimony: When I think about marrying by Zeba Iqbal
http://www.altmuslimah.com/a/b/rsa/3003/

Can I even teach them to be less obsessed with their looks, when I know this is the way of the Dunya? Should I be teaching them to act all “quiet and sweet” around other ppl, without opinions, learn how to cook and whatever else prospective guys and in-laws are looking for? Can I teach them to be independent — but not too independent as this scares ppl, educated — but not too educated, religious — but not too religious. It’s just messed up.

I’ve heard so many mothers say they were hoping they would have a boy because it would be “less complicated and easier” and I seriously wanted to punch them. But I can’t deny that it is truth. Boys will always have an easier time in the world because of the way everything is set up, even in this the 21st century among Muslims in America.

In the meantime, I struggle to continue teaching the girls (and boys) to be good Muslims, hoping that somewhere along the way Allah will also help them in the Dunya aspects of their life.

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"I lost my homework in my backpack."

^This has actually happened lol

Some of you know that I started teaching weekend Islamic school again this year. It’s been amazingly comical, frustrating, heartbreaking and humbling. First I ended up teaching at two different Mosques!! Yeah, I can’t even figure out how this happened lol but since I gave both my word I couldn’t back out!

One school is very very new, in an inner city neighborhood run by brothers (it’s a bit chaotic though because no one’s in charge). The girls are completely separate from the boy’s school. We’re basically just on our own. There’s no printer, no photocopier, no books, broken whiteboards, not enough teachers or resources, the classrooms are pretty small themselves. We can’t leave anything in the rooms because somehow ppl get in during the week and make a mess or plain just take stuff and the men use the rooms for Jumah. There’s construction going on all over. The heat is OFF most of the time. Sometimes I tell the girls to keep their jackets on and when you ask the brother’s side to turn it on no one knows how to/where the key is. Every time I go into the classroom I find weird things, paint chips, wood, old doors, old sinks, huge bags of old clothes all spread out?! Seriously!

And I honestly don’t understand how they expect the school to function without books. They bought a wonderful series called “I love Islam’, however there’s only 1 textbook per teacher. We’re supposed to read from that and the kids are somehow supposed to learn everything we say. This is also the Mosque where we have teachers meetings that are separated in DIFFERENT rooms WITH a curtain. Yeah dudes. Frustrating.

The other Mosque is very well established and has a lot of resources, the trump card being an extremely experienced principal. The school may be stricter and conservative in what they want taught, but they are more willing and open to do anything it takes to teach the kids. But my biggest problem here is the parents. They sometimes bring their kids, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the kids do their homework and sometimes they don’t. Many don’t even bring basic things like a pencil, notebook, their books, etc. And If I hear “Teacher, I left my homework in the car” one more time I may have to call a parent up and tell them to turn around! It just seems so odd to me that some parents believe Islamic school is optional and bring their kids only whenever they feel like.

This brings us to the philosophical question, are kids better off in Muslim countries? Are critics of western Muslims right to think that people come over here and just start thinking about making money and forget about keeping their kids Muslim? I think it’s more that some parents think only culturally, that as long as their child knows how to pray, say a few surahs and has read the Quran once (Ameen parties!) their duty is done.

There are definitely a lot of frustrations but I do love teaching. (part time! lol) The most important thing to me is that these kids develop a love of Islam, and see it as a beautiful, fun thing, instead of ritualistic. Sometimes there are just moments that make it all worth it like when the boys compete with each other begging to show me they know how to pray 2 rakats. Or that they’re so excited to show me that they did their homework. I love that they’re in school mode when they come, ready to learn (most of the time), even as a parent you’ll never be able to have 20 eager faces looking up to you just waiting for you to teach them something about Islam. And then after a few hours you can send them home and relax & recover the rest of the week!!

Sometimes just the questions they ask are amazing, about Jannah, about the Day of Judgment, about praying, about their pets!! One girl, whose mother passed away, asked me that if she makes Dua would Allah choose a good mother for her. <heart breaks> Or one boy who told me defiantly that he would go hide and pray downstairs if his parents wouldn’t let him pray! Lol Or when the girls come early, walking to the masjid from their homes, and ask me “if we’re going to do something fun today”. Or when someone’s mother comes to you ten years later and says ‘oh my son said you were the best islam teacher he ever had!’ and now he’s going to college –scary But priceless. Absolutely priceless.

Update: Alhamdulillah since I wrote the above things have really improved tenfold. Alhamdulillah!!! now on to teaching… I started a thread on our forum with different resources for islamic school teachers so check it out!:  http://jannah.org/madina/index.php?topic=5963.0

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Most people around here say Fall is their favorite season. Yet, I really don’t know why? Once, a secretary at a company I worked at happily chirped, “I LOVE Autumn! It’s my favorite season! I look forward to it all year!” When I asked her “Err…why?” She said “It’s just so cool and crisp! The leaves under my feet! I love it!” Uh huh. I think the rule book of common decency says you have to be from bonney ole England or have a six-figure trust fund to say ‘Autumn’, otherwise, it’s just not allowed! I said nothing however because she seemed enraptured!

I have to say I really don’t like Fall. It just represents all manner of bad things. :-^ Fall is when school starts up, unless you love school in which case you need help. If you’re a teacher it’s even worse.  Back from fun holidays, up to your eyeballs in lesson plans trying to teach bratty kids who forgot everything you taught them the year before! Yeah it’s great. Unless you’re a parent, then it must be a happy and joyous time, except for the $chool $hopping. Then it must hurt.

So the college students have moved back in, there’s never any parking, weather has cooled, cold rain has started to fall. Signs of the misery to come… our cold and dark winters. But these are just signs….like impending signs of great doom! Yeah, just kidding. It’s really not that bad. The leaves ARE very pretty in different colors. Some years the colors are just spectacular and everywhere you look is just so beautiful. The weather IS much more bearable. Taking walks can be nice. Driving to the country or Vermont is pretty breathtaking. We sometimes go apple picking, which upstate NY is famous for. Mmm sweet yummy apples straight from the tree. They also have these cider donuts which are sooo amazingly yummy. Just thinking about them can give you a sugar rush.

Then there’s Halloween! I have a lot of great memories of Halloween. We dressed up every year and went around with our friends. Yeah our parents didn’t know any better lol. I don’t think I’d let any kids still do this cuz it seems pretty dangerous nowadays and the connotations around the whole holiday are kinda shirky. But I still can’t be like one of those ppl that turn off all their lights and don’t answer the door or worse yet come out and tell kids that Halloween is Haram! and to go home! So I’m the only one in the house that will go and buy candy. (Yes it’s true we only get a few kids and I eat the rest! But see how kid friendly I am )

Also, Fall is like when you have to take stock of your life….where have you been, what have you been doing. It’s like a mental resume life evaluation. Why Fall? Because Winter you’re just surviving with everyone else, doesn’t matter what happens there, Spring you’re making plans for the future, Summer is just having fun. So Fall has to be the responsible one. Pretty painful that part. BUT… Fall has a trump card.

Yup! It’s Thanksgiving. Not that we “celebrate” it, but we do have big dinners with family and friends and everyone gets together, mostly it’s because everyone has it off. And who doesn’t love a 4 day weekend, which is actually a 6 or 7 day one because no one does any work Thanksgiving week! AND…HALAL Turkey!!! Mmmm nomnomnommm This brings me to the most important question and conclusion of this remarkable essay:  Why don’t Halal stores sell Halal turkey at any other time of the year?

So there you have it, my schizophrenic thoughts on ‘Autumn’ Unlike some ppl, who we won’t name *cough se7en *cough, I actually update my blog at least seasonally.

OK then, Happy Fall everyone

PS. I also hate squirrels!

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