Muslims Gather in Washington

On Sept. 25, tens of thousands of Muslims will gather on the west lawn of Capitol Hill for a prayer service. The chosen location for this outdoor mosque is the very site where presidents have been inaugurated since 1981, including last year’s Obama inauguration. Hassen Abdellah, one of the main organizers of the event and president of Dar-ul-Islam, said it was President Obama’s own words at the January inauguration, along with a June speech made by the president in Egypt, that precipitated his discussion with imam, Abdul Malik, about the idea.

Abdellah said he is expecting around 50,000 people from mosques throughout the country to attend this first-time event. According to the Islam on Capitol Hill website, there are 500 buses reserved from 50 states for transportation to the event.

A permit was granted on July 28 by the Capitol Hill police for access to the west front of the Capitol from 4am-7pm, and the main Friday prayer service is expected to take place at 1pm. According to the website, "The Athan will be chanted on Capitol Hill, echoing off of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and other great edifices that surround Capitol Hill."

On the home page of the website is an image depitcing a hand painted red, white, and blue shaking a light brown hand covered with Arabic writing. The U.S. constitution is in the background on one half of the image and a document, possibly a page from the Quran, on the other half. At the bottom of each website page are the words, "Our Time Has Come." On the transportation page of the website, there is a picture of a colorless American flag under a blue hue lighting with the symbolic Muslim star and crescent moon superimposed over the flag stripes and a Muslim boy in prayer in the foreground.

Interestingly, this past May President Obama chose not to celebrate National Prayer Day, a day of observance set aside for people of all faiths. National Prayer Day was first established in 1952 by President Truman and was signed as a resolution in 1988 to be observed on the first Thursday in May. Each president has observed National Prayer Day since that time; that is, until the Obama presidency.  While President Obama refused to hold a public ceremony recognizing this national tradition, he did agree to host a formal Ramadan holiday dinner at the White House.  Speaking to his guests before the Ramadan dinner, President Obama stated, "For well over a billion Muslims, Ramadan is a time of intense devotion and reflection… Tonight’s iftar is a ritual that is also being carried out this Ramadan at kitchen tables and mosques in all 50 states. Islam, as we know, is part of America. "