Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 22, 1992 TAG: 9203220086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE RELIGION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Corelli Rasheed never knows just what reaction the sight of the knit "kufee" on his head or the sound of his name will provoke.
Though the signs of his affiliation with the religion of Islam usually are viewed respectfully, there are those who stare and point, who are offended or angered.
The latter include those whose only introduction to Islam has been through news accounts of Muslim extremist kidnappers in the Middle East or of controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in the United States.
Rasheed wants to educate non-Muslims about the difference between those people and the faithful followers of Islam he leads.
Rasheed, 36, is the "imam," or spiritual leader, of the Roanoke community. Its services are held in a small converted house at the end of Clifton Street Northwest, now called the Masjid An-Nur.
The community prefers calling its house of worship a masjid - rather than the Spanish word "mosque" - because that is the Arabic word for "house of Allah." An-Nur is the name of a chapter in the Islamic scriptures - known as the Koran, or Qu'ran - and means "light."
After the 1975 assassination of Elijah Mohammed, the founder of the Nation of Islam, the American Islamic movement began a transformation away from black nationalism to the conventional religion of Mohammed.
There now is no organized Nation of Islam group in the Roanoke Valley, Rasheed said, and he and other members of his congregation are eager to dispel any notions that the Masjid An-Nur is linked to that movement.
Rasheed said about 25 families are active members of the Roanoke masjid, but he believes the religion has "impacted favorably on more than 200 families who would identify with and claim the religion."
Shafiq A. Majied, a member of the Roanoke masjid, says Islam is not an exclusive religion. The faith defines some roles exclusively by gender, but, he said, women are not considered inferior to men. And because the religion took root here as a black supremacist organization, there tends to be hesitation among some non-blacks to join, he said.
Majied, 42, also believes that for many blacks, Islam represents a "reclaiming of religious and ethnic identity that was lost or stolen from Africans who were brought to this country as slaves."
"A large percentage of African people were Muslims and had been for centuries," Majied said. The religion, he believes, inserted itself "into the very genetic nature of African people."
Consequently, when those of African descent were reintroduced to Islam, "it appealed to what was inherent in their nature."
Both men are adult converts to the faith and believe that the tenets of Islam can appeal to all people. In the masjid, they point out, no Muslim is superior to any other. American Muslims rarely are followers of one of the different Middle Eastern sects of Islam - such as the Sunnis or Shiites - or involved in conflicts between them, they said.
"The brotherhood is a single brotherhood," Majied said. "No learned Muslim would ever distinguish one Muslim from another," except for those who refuse to adhere to the fundamentals of the faith. Those would include the profession that there is only one God and that Mohammed is his messenger; and the acknowledgement of the obligations of prayer, charity, fasting during the holy month of Ramadan - which now is under way - and, if possible, a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Majied is one of two members of the Roanoke masjid who have made the obligatory `pilgrimage to Mecca.
Muslims are obligated to "spread the message" about their religion but are "not obligated to create an entire Islamic world," Rasheed said. Muslims are called to be "tolerant and respectful of other religions" and to defend any place where God is worshiped.
Conflicts between Muslims and Jews are over "political and economic issues" in the trappings of religion, Rasheed believes.
In the Roanoke Valley, the men said, there are good relations between the Islamic community and other religious faiths. "We feel very comfortable being among people of faith," Rasheed said.
Muslims consider all the traditional prophets of Judaism, as well as Jesus Christ, to be genuine and to deserve the same respect and reverence as Mohammed, Majied said. They believe, though, that Mohammed is "the seal of the prophets" - that is, the last who will be sent.
They reject Christianity's claim of divinity for Jesus Christ, refusing to acknowledge any dual or trinitarian nature for God. While that sometimes might cause conflicts with the Christian families of converts, Majied said most families appreciate the new lives lived by converts.
That is especially true for those who are converted in prisons by outreach programs such as the ones conducted by the Roanoke masjid.
Rasheed, a Roanoke native, was converted more than a decade ago while serving time on a breaking-and-entering charge at Powhatan Correctional Institute. He used his five-year incarceration to learn more about Islam and to get college training, he said.
Muslims are forbidden from drinking alcoholic beverages or eating pork and are taught to restrain anger toward others.
The Qu'ran teaches that all the prophets came with the same message, Rasheed said - teaching monotheism and urging mankind to "do good." At the judgment before the afterlife, God will judge who has lived the best life possible - whether as a Jew, Christian or Muslim, Majied said.
"All will have to account for both deeds and faith," Rasheed said. He also believes "that a merciful God will mete out more mercy than justice . . . with our actions judged according to our intentions."
by CNB