A crescent, and an ARCH

Every Friday, as the rest of campus wraps up a week of classes, Muslims across Penn's campus head for the top floor of the ARCH building.

For Muslims, the Friday prayer, or Jumu'ah, is the most important and holy service of the week.

And for the Jumu'ah, an opportunity for spiritual reflection, Muslims are specifically commanded to pray together, making community a big focus of the service.

So at 1:00, the Imam begins the call to prayer - a chant declaring the oneness of Allah - as 150 students, professors and professionals on Penn's campus file into the ARCH's reception hall.

But across 40th Street, another Islamic community gathers.

From across West Philadelphia, a number of different types of individuals - the young, the elderly, the working-class, the immigrants, the African Americans who have been practicing the faith for generations - file into the mosques that line Walnut Street, including the one on 43rd Street.

And though their centers are only blocks away, Muslim leaders at Penn and in West Philadelphia say more can, and must, be done to bring these two communities closer together still.

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The Muslim Student Association has been holding prayers on Fridays for the past five years in the current location after moving from Houston Hall because of space concerns.

While for Muslims, praying at the ARCH is less preferable than at a mosque, those who stay on campus on Friday afternoons say it's the opportunity to interact with all parts of Penn's Muslim community that matters.

"I prefer here because the sermon is very high quality here, [and] the students are very bright students that compose the sermons," said Hakan Ozdener, a biologist at the Science Center on Market Street.

And while the Friday Jumu'ah has long been a place for young Muslims to connect, the friendships struck up at the ARCH often cross generations.

A conversation that College senior Amro Suboh struck up with Law student Adnan Zulfiqar helped him decide that he too would like to study law, for example.

At pre-law info sessions, he said, "There's just certain expectations, and there might be canned responses." But after prayer, "there has been a good opportunity to meet Law students and to speak to them in an informal setting."

In addition, his friendship with Zulfiqar, who has sometimes led the service at the ARCH, has encouraged him to explore his interest in his faith more deeply, Suboh added.

"We do speak about different things, our interests. He's a Ph.D. [candidate] in Islamic studies [as well as a Law student], and, as a Muslim, I'm interested in Islam."

But there are other times, including holidays like Ramadan, during which students like Suboh may decided to visit the Masjid Al-Jamia, a mosque on 43rd and Walnut streets.

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With Ramadan occurring early in the school year, Penn Muslims get introduced to West Philadelphia in a way that most freshman aren't.

During Ramadan, almost 300 students make the trek every day to Masjid al-Jamia for each of the thirty days of the month.

Previously an old movie theater, members of the Penn MSA purchased the building in 1973 and converted it into the mosque, which has served as a community center for West Philadelphia Muslims ever since.

But the mosque's distance from campus, and its location in what was once considered to be a dangerous area, has prevented a stronger relationship between the two communities from flourishing.

Still, for some Penn Muslims, exposure to this Islamic community - particularly its young and working class members - has been inspiration for social action.

Attending the mosque during freshman year opened College junior Artina Sheikh's eyes to a different kind of community than the one she knew growing up in Princeton, N.J.

"I wasn't raised in an urban environment, . so the quality of life differs," she said. "We have a Penn bubble, but two to three blocks away, there are so many people that live less fortunate lives and don't have the same privileges."

After praying at the mosque during Ramadan, she decided to work with the Penn MSA to establish a holiday gift drive for children that attend the mosque.

This has inspired other efforts, too, such as SAT and college applications preparations that Penn students hold with Muslim students at schools like the local Central High School.

But most Penn students say that, on 43rd Street, the mosque is just too far to attend on a weekly basis.

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After attending services at Masjid Al-Jamia during Ramadan, College freshman Salah Chafik was struck at how few Penn students attended the mosque in the months after.

"There's no better place than a mosque. It's considered holy because it's just for prayer."

But being a Muslim and a student can sometimes conflict.

"If you're held to things such as class or other activities," prayer sometimes has to wait until later to be finished, he said.

Wharton junior Talal Khan also finds it difficult to make time to head off campus.

"The main reason I don't go there is because it's too far," he said.

A native of Pakistan, he also said he finds the mosque's practices to be different from those he is used to.

"There are just several little things, like saying something loud as opposed to saying it soft or really hard [that] might sound like small differences, but there are actually sects in Islam that have been created by saying certain parts of the prayer very loudly," Khan said.

Ali Ferron, a member of the board of directors of Masjid Al-Jamia, said he realizes that students' full schedules may make it hard for them to get to a mosque for the Jumu'ah.

But, at the same time, he hopes to draw more students into the congregation.

Students can bring "a variety of intellectual exchange [and] cultural diversity," he said.

And an increased student presence during the year at the mosque would be a welcomed addition to the community, some Masjid Al-Jamia practitioners say.

Just ask Aquil Abdul Ramah, a West Philadelphia resident who commutes from his home at 65th and Woodlawn streets for Friday prayer.

"If you come from another country, that's a blessing there," he said of the added diversity that Penn students could offer.

And, he says, students have nothing to fear from the West Philadelphia neighborhood.

"When students come here, they don't have anything to worry about. We know Allah [is] watching over. They're safe when they get in here."

But for some, practicing Islam in itself is what's most important - the location is secondary.

"A group of students, [even] four students [or] five students, get together and pray - this is excellent," Ferron said. "This is active devotion, when a person stops his personal life to give something back to God."

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