All posts tagged: Mosques

Many churches, synagogues and mosques are built around families – and they’re struggling to respond to rising singles

Many churches, synagogues and mosques are built around families – and they’re struggling to respond to rising singles

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — When a couple marry in a church, synagogue or mosque, the ceremony does more than sanctify a union. Often, it binds two families to an institution. For centuries, marriage and child-rearing have been among the main ways adults are integrated into congregational life. Couples who share the same faith tend to be more observant, and they often raise children within that tradition – bringing the next generation into congregational life. More marriages mean more families in pews and more children raised in the faith. That helps explain why the rise of single adults is so unsettling for many faith communities today. In the United States, 42% of adults were not married or living with a partner in 2023, up from 38% in 2000. This shift is unlikely to change soon: A quarter of 40-year-olds have never been married, and a third of Gen Z are projected to never marry. At the same time, the share of unmarried Americans who belong to a religious congregation has fallen well below that of married Americans. …

How a Baltimore mosque’s relatable videos led to Instagram fame

How a Baltimore mosque’s relatable videos led to Instagram fame

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — When Hasan Hammad created a Facebook page for his Baltimore-area mosque in 2011, his goal was to expand the ways community members could learn about its programming — not to one day attract millions of views. But over the last few years, the Islamic Society of Baltimore, one of the largest Islamic congregations in Maryland, has exploded its reach across social media platforms, boasting almost 300,000 followers on Instagram and nearly 200,000 on TikTok. Online, it’s earned the nickname “TikTok masjid” (the Arabic term for mosque). Through candid interviews with community members about masjid activities, ISB’s content highlights the everyday aspects of Islam in America. In one video, congregants at Eid prayer show off the beauty and cultural origins of their holiday clothes. In another, interracial Muslim couples explain where they are from. And in a clip taken during the fasting month of Ramadan, the imam challenges the room to a push-up contest. The latter video garnered over 16 million views on Instagram alone. “Tomorrow will be leg day,” someone wrote in the …

Young ‘huffaz’ carry Ramadan’s most demanding tradition

Young ‘huffaz’ carry Ramadan’s most demanding tradition

Published by Sam Flores

ST. LOUIS (RNS) — By day, he’s a third‑year medical student, hustling between operating rooms and cramming for exams. By night, he trades his scrubs for a thobe — an Islamic robe for men — and steps to the front of a carpeted prayer hall, leading rows of worshippers in prayer as he recites pages of the Quran from memory. For Besher Jabri, Ramadan is not a time to slow down. Across the country, young men like him are balancing school and work as they step into quasi-imam roles, leading Taraweeh prayers deep into the night. The task is demanding and involves hours of daily review and a grueling schedule that stretches to near midnight. Yet these student reciters say leading a congregation is about more than filling a need at local mosques — they see it as a spiritual responsibility to preserve the sacred text and share it with their communities.  “As someone who’s studied the Quran, I think it’s a duty for us to give back,” Jabri, 25, said. “It’s not just like, …

Greece’s crackdown on mosques is aimed at flushing out migrants, Muslim advocates say

Greece’s crackdown on mosques is aimed at flushing out migrants, Muslim advocates say

Published by Sam Flores

ISTANBUL (RNS) — In early February, a few weeks before the beginning of Ramadan, Greece’s minister of migration and asylum, Thanos Plevris, announced a nationwide sweep to close down “illegal places of worship,” specifically mentioning more than 60 unregistered mosques that are operating in Athens. But as Islam’s holy month of fasting began on Feb. 18, Greece’s Islamic community has maintained a defiant tone.  “If Plevris wants to make his Islamophobic plans, that creates sadness and distress to the Muslims, but they will not skip prayers because of an ultra right government,” Naim Elghandour, the president of the Muslim Association of Greece, told Religion News Service. ARCHIVE: Eid prayers held in a historic former mosque in northern Greece for the first time in 100 years The crackdown on mosques, which, like houses of worship in many countries in Europe and the Middle East, must be registered with the Greek government, came as the Greek Parliament was in the process of passing a strict new immigration bill that human rights advocates say criminalizes organizations coming to …

Wakaf properties charge market rents to sustain income for mosques, other beneficiaries: MUIS

Wakaf properties charge market rents to sustain income for mosques, other beneficiaries: MUIS

Published by Sam Flores

SINGAPORE: Wakaf properties, such as those in Kampong Glam, are rented out to tenants at market rates to ensure the income generated reaches their stated beneficiaries, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) said on Wednesday (Feb 11). This comes after CNA reported last month that some heritage businesses were being priced out of one of Singapore’s oldest conservation districts.  A wakaf is a property or asset that has been dedicated by Muslims for religious or charitable purposes, with benefits generated from wakaf assets distributed to beneficiaries by the donor. These beneficiaries may include mosques, madrasahs, needy descendants and charities. There are 26 shophouses in Kampong Glam that are on wakaf land, according to MUIS. Under Singapore law, wakafs are managed by trustees or MUIS subsidiary Warees Investments, which performs on its behalf. For trustees, MUIS ensures that they are screened and approved by its council before being appointed. Trustees must also comply with strict requirements under the Administration of Muslim Law Act (AMLA), including submitting audited financial statements of the wakaf property. MUIS said …

Thousands Flee Northwest Pakistan After Mosques Warn of Possible Military Action

Thousands Flee Northwest Pakistan After Mosques Warn of Possible Military Action

Published by Sam Flores

By Muhammad Amin Afridi and Saad Sayeed BARA/KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of ‌people ​have fled a remote mountainous region in northwestern ‌Pakistan in recent weeks, residents said, after warnings broadcast from mosques urged families to evacuate ahead of a possible ​military action against Islamist militants. Residents of the Tirah Valley, in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that borders Afghanistan, said they have moved out of the area into nearby towns ‍despite heavy snowfall and cold winter temperatures because ​of the announcements to avoid the possible fighting. “The announcements were made in the mosque that everyone should leave, so everyone was leaving. We left too,” said Gul ​Afridi, a shopkeeper who ⁠fled with his family to the town of Bara located 71 km (44 miles) east of the Tirah Valley. Local officials in the region, who asked to remain unidentified, said thousands of families have fled and are being registered for assistance in nearby towns. The Tirah Valley has long been a sensitive security zone and a stronghold for Tehrik-e-Taliban …