Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Mexican wave |The National : Photo Credit to Freelance Journalist Amy Leang

An intriguing look into the nascent Islamic community in Baja California.

Mexican wave |The National:
Asharfiya Rahman, 33, originally of New Delhi, India, left, and Naima (née Nancy) Carr, 29, of Tijuana, Mexico, right, prepare dishes for members of the Masjid Al-Islam to break their fast in the Las Playas neighborhood of Tijuana. Hungry and poor individuals in the community are often invited in to share their meals.

Mexican Muslims break their fast at the Masjid Al-Islam. The mosque opened in August 2010 after local Muslim immigrants and recent Mexican converts pooled their money together because they outgrew the one-room house they worshipped from. The mosque usually invites poor and hungry members of the community to partake in the breaking of the fast.


American Muslim immigrant Amir Carr, 38, makes his way through a more humble quarter of Rosarito after visiting a friend at the Masjid El-Noor. 'When I came to Mexico in 2009 there were no masjids, and I thought I was the only Muslim. But in 2010 I happened to move around the corner from an ongoing project to build one. This was Masjid al Islam. This project was in its infancy at about 6 months but it changed my life... in other words it put me back on track. I had found my purpose again,' said Carr, who is currently enrolled in an online Islamic studies program through the Fanari Institute of Islamic Cultural Studies in Qatar.

A mural with Arabic script decorates the children's nursery of Masjid Al-Islam as member Maryam Alvarez, 49, reads religious material at the mosque located in the Las Playas neighborhood of Tijuana. Alvarez was one of the first 'reverts' in the area and would invite other Muslims to pray at her home. 'We got in touch with a brother from a San Diego masjid. They would come to help with Arabic lessons (for the converts). After three to four months, we grew to be about ten women,' said Alvarez. Today, she hopes to open a new center in neighboring Rosarito which would serve as an Islamic school as well as a place for charity aimed toward single mothers and the disabled.

Masjid Al-Islam imam Muhanna Jamaleddin, 37, leads a sermon on love at their mosque located in the Las Playas neighborhood of Tijuana. 'Wherever you go in the USA and Canada, people are defending themselves. 'No we are not terrorists.' They don't even have time to do the da'wah. Don't spend time defending yourself. Just do. Act as a Muslim. I see Muslims these days. They are not Muslims. There's a lot of challenges in this country. We are growing. If we don't start it right, we will not succeed,' advised Jamaleddin, a Palestinian American entrepreneur in the gold and silver business who donates his time and money to the mosque. 'Crossing back and forth was difficult. I do all of this for the sake of Allah because I love my religion. I want everyone to know more about my religion. The problem is that we really need an imam who speaks Spanish.'

Naima (née Nancy) Carr, 29, seated in black hijab, and Jamila (née Daniela) Ortiz, 24, standing in red hijab, pray at the Masjid Al-Islam located in the Las Playas neighborhood of Tijuana. 'A lot of my family has stopped talking to me because of my religion,' said Carr who married an American convert but chose to follow Islam of her own volition after witnessing his dedication to ritual during Ramadan two years ago.


Masjid Al-Islam member Naima (née Nancy) Carr, 29, gets ready to pray at her home in the Las Playas neighborhood of Tijuana.


Masjid Al-Islam member Amir Carr, teaches a Mexican Muslim convert named Abdullah, Arabic at Carr's home in the Las Playas neighborhood of Tijuana. 'The difficult thing about Islam in Mexico is illiteracy. If a person can't read their own language, then for sure, they can't read another language,' said Carr, an American Muslim who moved to Mexico in 2009 to join his wife, a citizen there. 'Our goal is to get brothers and sisters to study. It's important to study Arabic so that we capture the true inspiration of the Koran itself and not the interpretation.'

Masjid Al-Islam member Naima (née Nancy) Carr, 29, sorts through clothing, blankets and non-perishable items to be donated to the poor in a storage room of her home in the Las Playas neighborhood of Tijuana. Carr and other congregants of the mosque run a 'Food Drop' in which they try to help deportees and other impoverished individuals living along the border between U.S. and Mexico.

Maryam (née Maria) Alvarez 49, of Tijuana, Mexico, poses for her portrait inside the newly remodeled Masjid El-Noor in Rosarito. Alvarez was instrumental in growing the Muslim community in the area. 'I was one of the first reverts to Islam here back in 2009. I didn't know anyone else then,' said Alvarez. 'I found a sister online and then I found another brother and sister. I put ads up on Facebook and MySpace. They would all meet at my house. Now, there are two groups in Rosarito: Masjid al-Noor and another unnamed group. There's a musalla in Ensenada. And in Mexicali, there are new ones there too. All of this has started in less than three years. This has grown so fast. All of a sudden, there were so many groups and different ways to do things. Now it's time to settle down to form a committee; not to tell them how to do things, but to take care of the Muslim community in Baja.' She and her husband Ahmad currently run a non-profit Islamic charity focused on projects in Latin America called 'Viva Islam.'

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Mexican Muslim 'reverts' Maryam (nee Maria) Alvarez, 49, left, and Naima (nee Nancy) Carr, 29, right, both of Tijuana, Mexico, walk along in a more humble quarter of Rosarito, Mexico after visiting a friend at the Masjid El-Noor. 'Islam was perfect because it was the religion that I found more connection with God with Allah. I grew up with Christianity, but I found what I needed in Islam. Now my kids and grandkids can learn Islam at an early age. To see them grow up with that, it fills my heart,' said Alvarez.

After being forbidden to wear her hijab all day at work, Jamila (née Daniela) Ortiz , 24, a licensed massage therapist of Tijuana, Mexico, dons her head scarf and dines out at a taqueria in downtown Tijuana. Ortiz 'reverted' to Islam in February of this year. 'In the beginning, I felt that if I went to Islam, I would betray the beliefs I had growing up. But then I met a Muslim sister on the street who said they believed in Jesus too, though just as a prophet. This gave me the confidence to look into the religion more,' said Ortiz. All Photos by Amy Leang


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