Bitter internal dispute roils San Fernando Valley mosque

Bitter internal dispute roils San Fernando Valley mosque
- January 31, 2011
- Kamal Sadiq, political science associate professor, is quoted in the Los Angeles Times and Hartford Courant January 31, 2011
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From the LA Times:
On a Friday afternoon in October, men in black security T-shirts and matching cargo
pants roamed the parking lot and perimeter of the Islamic Center of Northridge as
worshipers arrived for weekly prayers. Several Los Angeles Police Department patrol
cars were parked nearby as officers kept a watchful eye on a demonstration out front.
About 30 men yelled and held up signs. One waved a small American flag as another
denounced the mosque's religious leader as a devil. Worshipers, looking uncomfortable,
hurried past and into the building. It's a scene reminiscent of others across the
country where new and existing mosques have faced heated opposition in recent months.
But the protests at the Islamic Center's main mosque in Granada Hills are different,
not demonstrations by anti-Islamic groups but a struggle between rival Muslim groups
over control of the institution.... Such jockeying over who is more American is not
uncommon in immigrant communities, said Kamal Sadiq, a UC Irvine political science
professor who studies South Asian communities. Proving who is more assimilated is
a way of establishing who has a bigger claim on the mosque, he said.
For the full story, please visit http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-valley-mosque-20110131,0,1737289...
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