Religions leaders gather to support Warren mosque Construction equipment, inside of construction area was vandalized
Apurva Mahajan | The Detroit News
IONA Imam Steve Elturk shows a rendering of the remodeled mosque that is under construction amid broken mirror shards left from vandalism last weekend. (PHOTO BY SUSAN SMILEY)
Members of the Metro Detroit religious community gathered Friday at the Islamic Organization of North America in Warren in support of the mosque after it was vandalized last weekend.The gathering was organized by the Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
IONA head Imam Steve Elturk showed attendees the area of the mosque, which is under construction, where mirrors were broken and graffiti was written. The word “gay” was also spray painted on a piece of construction equipment outside of the building.
“Peace be with you,” Elturk said. “I think many of you know how much we were opposed coming to Warren to build the first mosque in the city, but many years later we face similar conditions as in the past with this vandalism that occurred over the weekend. “Vandalism is not just breaking windows or spraying paint; it is violating a sacred space and deeply wounding a community,”
The message from religious leaders representing multiple faiths was one of forgiveness and peace.
Rabbi Alica Harris (PHOTO BY SUSAN SMILEY)
Rabbi Alica Harris was one of many local religious leaders sending a message of peace, forgiveness and community after a Warren mosque was vandalized last week.Catholic Archbishop of Detroit Edward Weisenburger decried all attacks on people of faith. He talked about a church in southern Arizona being burned to the ground when he was serving as Bishop of Tucson.“We are experiencing all around the world real hostility toward religion and people of faith,” said Weisenburger. “We never allow such hardships to erode our own identity, who we are.
“In my experience when a community has been harmed or wounded as this one has, they build back,always stronger and on a more firm foundation.” Rabbi Alica Harris of the Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy emphasized the importance of different religious communities supporting each other. “We will never stand in silence when any religious institution is violated,” said Harris. “It is never OK to make a holy space a violent one.“Our houses of worship are sacred spaces where we go to connect with community, to the divine, to our ancestors, our history and our traditions.”
Woman’s Interfaith Solutions for Dialogue and Outreach in Metro Detroit board member Paula Drewek is a Warren resident who remembers lobbying for establishment of the IONA mosque several years ago. A member of the Baha’i community, Drewek said while Warren has become more diverse over the past 20 years, there are still some that cling to a policy of isolation. “Many members of this community are still stuck in the old world where enclaves of different ethnicities are entirely separate and don’t have much to do with each other,” Drewek said. “The world today, as we know, is a different world; it is a world where all of us are challenged to come together, to find ways of connecting with one God and to struggle through the problems that presents.”
Warren Consolidated Schools Superintendent John Bernia remarked when his school system first started becoming more diverse several years ago, educators used discipline to counter acts of discrimination. Once the district focused on educating students about different cultures, the problems were greatly reduced. “We went through a brief period where diversity was not as welcome as it could have been and initially, I reacted with a lot of discipline,” said Bernia. “Imam Elturk heard about some of the problems we were having and he proposed a different solution; instead of meeting intolerance with discipline we met intolerance with education.
“He came into our schools and provided resources and opened a dialogue that had not yet existed.”
Warren Police Commissioner Eric Hawkins spoke briefly assuring attendees his department is conducting a full investigation of the incident and that hate will not be tolerated. A press release issued Sept. 10 by the Warren Police Department states that thus far, no evidence has been found to indicate bias or hate-related motive in the destruction of property at the mosque.
