The I-soc (Islamic Society)

>Dung Pham gives Safia Al-Kasaby, right, a manicure at Modern Nails in Town
>'N Country as a preview of World Trade Center is shown on TV. Since
>converting to Islam, she has felt the stares that her hijab brings. [Times
>photos: Chris Zuppa]
>
>Her mother named her Elizabeth
after the queen of England. More than four
>decades later, she took another name: Safia Al-Kasaby, reflecting her new
>identity as a Muslima.
>
>Safia, 43, is an unlikely candidate for conversion. She claims Jewish and
>Puerto Rican ancestry. She is a former sergeant first class in the Air Force
>National Guard. And she lost eight relatives - one uncle and seven cousins -
>in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
>
>Back then, Safia did not imagine the faith professed by the hijackers would
>one day become her own.
>
>"It didn't really matter who did it," says the Tampa woman now, reflecting
>on the 2001 attacks. "I just never hated Islam. I never hated Muslims. For
>me to be angry about what happened to the twin towers would be like me
>hating all the Germans that killed the
Jews."
>
>Safia embraced Islam last year, coming to the faith at a time when it is
>seemingly maligned anew with each new report of terror plots, wars in far
>away lands and dead American soldiers.
>
>Like other Muslims, Safia feels the tension all around her: curious stares
>because she wears the hijab or head scarf and store clerks who ask for extra
>identification.
>
>Just last month , officials at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo turned down an
>initial request from Safia's Egyptian fiance for a temporary visa. Safia was
>certain bigotry played a role.
>
>Her new faith also has widened the chasm among her Christian family. Her
>mother, three sisters and one of her daughters question her choice.
>
>Safia presses on.
>
>"For her to accept Islam, making that decision especially in
this day and
>time, it says you're ready to step up and deal with the challenges of this
>journey," said Pat "Aliyah" Cruse, a fellow Muslima and 11-year convert.
>
>Muslim Demographics in the USA
>
>Some demographers consider Islam to be the fastest-growing religion in the
>world. Of the 1.3-billion Muslims worldwide, 4.7-million live in the United
>States, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives.
>
>One of the world's oldest religions, Islam has been in the United States for
>generations. But the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, thrust the
>religion and its adherents into the spotlight. Before the attacks, American
>Muslims largely kept to themselves. Now, many feel the public expects them
>to answer for the actions of those who commit heinous acts in the name of
>their
faith.
>
>Across the country, some Muslims complain of stereotyping, racial profiling
>and discrimination. Others pine for the days when Islam was rarely mentioned
>in headlines. Most dare not complain openly, religious and civic leaders
>say, for fear of being labeled unpatriotic or sympathetic to extremists.
>
>"There's a certain sense of indignation to being treated the way they've
>been treated," said Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim
>American Society's Freedom Foundation in Washington, D.C. "There's a kind of
>rage. The challenge is to make that a healthy rage."
>
>Many American Muslims say extremists misrepresent their faith. But
>convincing the public to separate Islam from terrorism at times seems an
>insurmountable hurdle.
>
>Opinion polls back up what American
Muslims say they feel every day: Masses
>of the U.S. populace view them negatively. In a USA Today/Gallup poll
>released in August , 39 percent of Americans said they feel prejudiced
>toward Muslims. Nearly one quarter of Americans polled said they would not
>want a Muslim as a neighbor.
>
>Another 39 percent want Muslims to carry special identification at all times
>and undergo enhanced security checks when boarding airplanes.
>
>Anti-Muslim sentiment also has popped up in the Tampa Bay area, home to an
>estimated 45,000 Muslims. In 2002, federal agents arrested a Seminole
>podiatrist, Dr. Robert Goldstein, on charges of plotting to blow up a
>mosque.
>
>Fearing for their wives' safety after Sept. 11, husbands of immigrant Muslim
>women pulled them out of leadership roles in Islamic women's groups.
Fathers
>encouraged daughters to remove their hijabs in public to avoid harassment.
>Muslim women complained of verbal abuse in retail stores. One woman's hijab
>was ripped from her head by a customer in her husband's store.
>
>Children get few passes. Last spring , athletic officials benched Temple
>Terrace's Briana Canty when she refused to remove her head scarf in an
>amateur youth basketball league tournament. Rather than recognize Islamic
>holidays, the Hillsborough County School Board voted to rescind all
>religious holidays, a move it later reversed.
>
>This is the new reality for American Muslims. Advances are often eclipsed by
>setbacks.
>
>Quoting Charles Dickens, Ihsan Bagby, a leading Muslim demographer and
>associate professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky,
said
>this is the best and worst of times for Muslims in America.
>
>"This frustration, this pressure will ultimately produce positive results as
>Muslims continue to strive to become full members of this society," Bagby
>said. "Overall, everybody will look back at this period, they'll see this
>possibly as a turning point in the history of Islam in America."
>
>Challenges for American Muslims
>
>Despite challenges for Muslims, Islam continues to grow, buoyed by births
>and new converts such as Safia.
>
>Raised by her grandparents in Puerto Rico, Safia grew up in a home of melded
>cultures and faiths. Her grandfather was a Jew, who fled Germany during the
>Holocaust. Her grandmother was Catholic. Safia ultimately chose Judaism, a
>faith she believed was her birthright.
>
>But
Judaism eventually let her down, Safia said. In 1997, nearly destitute,
>she approached a North Tampa synagogue for help. Officials at the shul
>wanted to know if she was a member. She was not. They asked her if she was
>really Jewish.
>
>"They said just because I had a relative along the line didn't make me
>Jewish," said Safia. "That was the first wall. That I wasn't pure."
>
>Battling rejection, Safia left the synagogue. For eight years, she did not
>participate in organized religion.
>
>She found Islam in 2005 on the third day of a Moroccan vacation.
>
>"I just felt like God was there," she said, recalling her visit to a mosque
>during the call for prayer. "I said, 'This is it. I believe there is only
>one God. His name is Allah, and his messenger is Mohammed.'"
>
>At first, Safia's
family didn't take her seriously. And some colleagues at
>her banking job looked askance at her new Moroccan-inspired Islamic attire.
>Safia quickly toned it down, wearing scarfs only around her neck. She dared
>not pray at work.
>
>Mostly, Safia kept her new faith at home, learning about her religion on Web
>sites and Islamic chat rooms.
>
>Safia went to the Islamic Society of Tampa Bay Area in June and asked for
>the imam. She wanted to renew her shahadah, the formal declaration of the
>Islamic Creed. Safia also was out of work. The imam gave her a job managing
>the society's office. The group also stocked her refrigerator and paid her
>rent and electricity bill.
>
>At last, Safia said, she had found a spiritual family. It helps blunt the
>sting of the rejection from her biological
one.
>
>Safia's eldest daughter, Sylvia, wants little to do with her. A Baptist and
>young military widow, Sylvia berated Safia when she showed up at her
>husband's funeral wearing a hijab and carrying a Koran.
>
>At home in Town 'N Country, Safia raises two daughters. Ten-year-old Natalia
>says her mother's religion is cool.
>
>Ada, 18, appreciates Safia's transformation and doesn't put up with people
>who make fun of Islam or stereotype Muslims.
>
>"I say, 'Wait a minute. My mom's a Muslim,'" Ada said. "She's not a
>terrorist."
>
>Safia hopes the world will see her as an example of what Islam really is.
>Still early in her conversion, she is a Muslima in transition.
>
>She studies the Koran and prays five times a day. She also wears makeup and
>has French-manicured acrylic
nails. Sometimes she covers and sometimes -
>when she fears heckling or worse - she does not.
>
>There are victories: Her fiance received his visa and the two married
>Friday.
>
>She looks forward to the day when her religion is not an issue.
>
>"I don't want to have whispers behind me, whispers in front of me," she
>said. "I want to be able to blend in, keep my faith and blend in."
>
>
>
>Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Sherri Day can be
>reached at [email protected] or 813-226-3405.