I am writing to commend the Chicago Tribune for its in-depth feature on the Bridgeview Mosque and its history. Though I am not Muslim, the Mosque Foundation has been a very important icon in the Arab American community. My father joined other Christians in the 1950s and 1960s to work with Muslim Arabs to share space to conduct religious services. He worked with one of the mosque’s spiritual leaders, Hasan Haleem, in helping to galvanize the community to build the area’s first mosque.
Over the years, some members of the Mosque Foundation have used their positions to bully those in the community like myself who advocate peace and speak out against growing extremism. Members of the board must take back control of the mosque from the small handful of extremists and speak out against those individuals who have misused the real purpose of the mosque.
Instead of being a center that brings Christian and Muslim Arabs together, it has instead been used by some to push us apart. I look forward to the day when, as a Christian, I can again walk into the mosque without worrying that I will be criticized by some members because of my outspoken advocacy of interfaith relations with Christians, Muslims and Jews.
