‘Whole Muslim world here’

The Washington metropolitan area has one of the largest and most diverse Muslim communities in the country, with an estimated 300,000 adherents from nearly every Islamic-influenced ethnic group in the world.

“You can find the whole Muslim world here in Washington,” says Zahid H. Bukhari, director of the American Muslim Studies Program at Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

“There’s the misconception that all Muslims are Arabs, or that all Arabs are Muslims,” says Imam Mohamed Magid, the Sudanese-born executive director of the 900-member All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque, which is attended predominantly by South Asians from Pakistan and India, and has several Bosnian and Russian members.

About 37,500 people of Arab ancestry or ethnicity reside in the metropolitan area, according to statistics from the 2000 U.S. census. But about 64,500 metropolitan residents have ethnic or ancestral ties to India and about 10,500 to Pakistan — two non-Arab countries with sizable Muslim populations.

The U.S. Census Bureau does not track religious affiliation, but does track ethnicity and national ancestry.

Thousands of Washington-area Muslims have roots in Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Sudan); Europe (Albania, Bosnia, Serbia); the Middle East (Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia); and South and Southeast Asia (Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines), according to census figures.

Irme Hafeez, 39, and her husband, Syed, 40, moved to Montgomery County from Pakistan in 1987. More than 9,500 local residents hail from Pakistan, whose population is 97 percent Muslim, according to U.S. census figures.

“This is our home now. … We are going to be staying here, so we need to go out and share [Islam] with everybody else. The whole gist of Islam is to help people who are less prosperous than you,” Mrs. Hafeez says.

She has focused on helping her Muslim community become more active in service projects such as the second annual food drive organized by the Montgomery County Muslim Council on Sept. 19. The Muslim group collected about 10,000 pounds of food and donated it to the Manna Food Center, which distributes food to the needy.

“It’s a tough time for our community here, so we want to reach out,” says Khalid Chaudhry, 53, of Potomac, a satellite-communications company vice president who emigrated from Pakistan in 1979.

“By doing something like this, we just show that we are normal people. We need to get more in the mainstream politically and in the community. This is our home, after all,” he said.

Mr. Chaudhry and his brother,Hamid Chaudhry, 51, filled a midsized moving truck with food they collected from their neighborhood.

Hamid’s 14-year-old son, Kasim, and Khalid’s son, Umar, 22, who came from Manhattan for the food drive, pitched in and helped.

Community involvement is a key element of Muslim life, according to a 2001 survey by the polling firm Zogby International. Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the “Project MAPS: Muslims in the American Public Square” survey polled 1,731 persons who identified themselves as Muslims to assess their attitudes on several issues.

Ninety-six percent said that Muslims should be involved in American civic and community-development groups to improve the nation.

Story Continues →