Details are emerging on the mass outdoor Islamic prayer event that will turn Capitol Hill into a giant outdoor mosque. The Star Ledger out of New Jersey reports the mosque organizing the event is the Dar-ul-Islam* mosque in Elizabeth, New Jersey and the event has a website.
September 25 ,2009 Jummah Prayer
On Capitol Hill
50,000 believers in the Greatness of Allah praying for the greater good of all people.
OUR TIME HAS COME
This ominous image above is also on the website and depicts two hands shaking in front of the Preamble to the United States Constitution on one page and what appears to be a page from the Qur’an on the opposite page. One of the hands is colored red, white, and blue while the other hand is covered in what appears to be Arabic writing. Below the image it reads ISLAM & on what red block and AMERICA on a separate block. Coupled with the ‘OUR TIME HAS COME’ imagery throughout the website, one has to wonder what all this actually intends to portray. (If anyone can blow the image up without losing clarity, let us know)
*Dar al Islam – house/home of Islam/submission or the areas of the world ruled by Islamic sharia law as opposed to dar al Harb – house/home of war or the areas of the world not ruled by Islamic sharia law or not submitting to Islam.
Star Ledger report below the fold.
Jeff Diamant | STAR-LEDGER STAFF
A mosque in Elizabeth, Dar-ul-Islam, is spearheading a national prayer gathering next month in Washington, D.C., that organizers are billing as the first event of its kind — organized prayer for tens of thousands of Muslims outside the U.S. Capitol building.
The event will not include political speeches or placards, just prayer, said Hassen Abdellah, president of Dar-ul-Islam and a main organizer of the event, which is scheduled for Sept. 25.
A permit from the Capitol Hill police, granted July 28, allows access to the area by the West Front of the Capitol building from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sept. 25, but the main gathering will occur at 1 p.m., for the Friday prayer service.
Abdellah said he expects 50,000 people to attend, from mosques around the country, though non-Muslims are welcome, too. About 400 people are expected from his own mosque, which is raising money from donors to help pay the cost of the event, expected to surpass $200,000.
The gathering will occur by the site where presidents have been inaugurated since 1981. In fact, it was President Obama’s words at his inauguration in January, and then his speech in Egypt in June, that led Abdellah and an area imam, Abdul Malik, to begin discussing the idea, Abdellah said.
“For the first time in my lifetime,” Abdellah said, “I heard someone of his stature speaking about Islam and Muslims not in an adversarial sense, but in the sense of being welcome and acknowledging we are integral citizens in the society — that we’re gainfully employed, we’re educated.”
“He said he had his hand open to the Islamic world,” he said. “The Islamic world wants to open their hand and shake it.”
The website set up for the event, islamoncapitolhill.com, features a logo with a red, white and blue hand shaking a light brown hand, with the words to the preamble of the Constitution and a page of Arabic text in the background.
Mosque members have been working since July to organize the event, through e-mails, phone calls and visits to mosques and Muslim Students Associations in different states.
via Elizabeth mosque organizes national prayer event in D.C. – NJ.com.