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by Khidir Abdalla I must admit that I believe we, the people of the "impoverished East", have so much in common with the people of the "affluent West". Regardless of our apparent differences, we have fundamental similarities. We all try to realize certain dreams and make sense of our existence. We all have to face our fears and pursue comfort in the company of fellow human beings. We all have among us the poor and the wealthy, the feeble and the strong, the wicked and the righteous, the contented and the tormented. We all strive to live with dignity and respect. We all endeavor to be human. From the "impoverished East" we come to the "affluent West" searching for new beginnings. We come searching for peace and tranquillity. We come to seek refuge from the tyranny of our rulers and the misery of our inflicted poverty. Regardless of the differences in cultural beliefs that surround us when we arrive, we find comfort in the hope of finding humans to share our fears, hopes and dreams. We rebuild our lives and communities in hope of keeping relish of our homelands to ease the dreadful isolation that overwhelms us. We model our communities after our nostalgic mirages of distant lands. At the center of our communities, we erect our mosques as the core of our existence. We fuse their physical being with representations of our sincere desire to feel secure and shielded. Regardless of their original design, we subject them to sacred architectural metamorphosis. We transform them into divine spaces, transient spaces that bring heaven closer to earth. We embed them peacefully into the fabric of New York. We announce them with extreme modesty. The interiors of the structure of our mosques are gut renovated making a wave of simple and sincere design gestures. Similar to every other mosque, our mosques have own qibla walls. They have their own Mihrabs and Minbers. They convey essential ideas and present the main cast of characters of any other mosque. With naive and metaphorical indications, such as marking a niche or drawing architectural image on the wall, we mark our Mihrab. With any material available we design and build our Minber. Yet, our most wondrous accomplishment is our commendable creativity that brings solutions from our different cultural backgrounds. We genuinely aspire space that transcends the reality outside its walls. The reality of living in another world. A world that is unfamiliar to some of us and ambiguous to the rest. A world that promises us success and delivers failure. |
