Subject: NEWS: Homeless shelter rooted in faith
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 11:50:39 -0700
From: AMILAnet <amila@ai.net>

From Shahed Amanullah, shahed@ricochet.net:
Homeless shelter rooted in faith

The Ohio Avenue haven for women and children reflects a Muslim man's desire to help others as the Koran commands.

Felix Hoover
Dispatch Religion Reporter

July 24, 1998

Lorenzo Islam looks over the third-floor tower area where he plans to sound the call for Muslim prayer. Islam is turning this house at 633 S. Ohio Ave. into a homeless shelter for women and children of all religions. Some people viewed a boarded-up building in the 600 block of S. Ohio Avenue as an eyesore.

Lorenzo Islam saw it as a means to fulfill his religious duty. Other Muslims see it as a step in meeting the social service needs oftheir community.

The Koran calls on Muslims to help those in need. Islam thought the house at 633 S. Ohio Ave. would be ideal as a homeless shelter for women and their children.

He is turning the house into Al Maun II, a homeless shelter that will provide up to 90 days of free housing for women and their children, both Muslim and non-Muslim.

The shelter will complement Al Maun I, a food pantry he opened two years ago at 168 N. Garfield Ave. on the East Side. Al Maun is Arabic for "neighborly assistance."

Sometimes Muslims don't find assistance quite so neighborly when they go to non-Muslims, said Norma Tarazi, editor of the IQRA! newsletter of the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus.

"A foster child was told she would go to hell because she is Muslim," Tarazi said. "Some of the staff people were uninformed about her faith. They didn't understand that there were foods she didn't want to eat and clothes she didn't want to wear."

Tarazi and others have met with agencies in the foster care network and have tried to educate them about Muslim culture and practices, she said.

Many Muslim immigrants in central Ohio don't know what services might be available to them, Tarazi said. Networking allows them to get assistance in finding support from the Muslim community.

"Some people have tribes they can call on if they know to do it."

No statistics are available about the number of Muslims needing social services, Tarazi said.

"We hear of cases here and there. We know that there is some need out there," she said.

The Muslim community doesn't have data about abuses Muslims might have experienced because of their faith, Tarazi said.

Islah Falah works full time as a social worker, and plans to volunteer at Al Maun II. She moved to the North Side from Dayton after attending a conference in the spring where she became aware of the Muslim social service needs in Columbus.

Falah's efforts are being encouraged by Muslim leadership, Tarazi said. Such encouragement also is given to Islam.

"We've been trying to raise the awareness of the Muslim community that his service exists," Tarazi said.

A lot of Muslims haven't found ways to be active in the community and to fulfill the mandate to serve others, but Islam's shelter might be a solution.

"We've been getting a number of volunteers over there to help him out."

With the completion of Al Maun II, beds will be available for four or five families, Islam said.

The shelter will be in an area with a mix of well-maintained homes and dilapidated ones.

"This was the most dilapidated of the dilapidated," Islam said. He's doing much of the improvement himself, much as he does on other properties he buys and sells in his real estate business, Housing for the Homeless.

"With this being a historic area, we're trying to help the community also," Islam said.

Although Columbus has a homeless problem, it's not as bad for Muslims and non-Muslims as in larger cities, he said.

Even so, "we were a little bit surprised there are Muslims in need in Columbus," Islam said.

When he became aware of the problem, he set out to do his part to solve it.

"I'm not looking for profit, but rather to be a righteous person," Islam said. "Profit will come in return."

Islam bought the three-story building at a Franklin County auditor's sale and wants to finish renovation before winter, he said.

He has put $20,000 of his own money into the building so far, but will need more donated building material and help from a roofer, painters and other volunteers to make the building usable, he said.

Support for the shelter also comes from the three mosques in central Ohio. The mosques work with the Mid-Ohio Food Bank to supply food that is distributed the last seven days of the month at the food pantry.

The shelter is being set up across the street from the Community of Holy Rosary-St. John Roman Catholic Church, which Islam hopes to work with.

Islam wants to provide clothing and housing for some of the people who use the food pantry at Holy Rosary, he said.

There will be no fee at the shelter, Islam said. Families, which will be referred by local mosques and social services agencies, will stay on the second floor in a dormitory-style setting, with access to two kitchens and two bathrooms.

"We expect to serve people who are down on their luck or are from Somalia and Iran and have no place to live," Islam said.

Such families now are served by other agencies for the homeless, but sometimes their cultural and religious needs aren't met, Islam said.

"The eating habits of Muslims are not being met at regular shelters -- Muslims don't eat pork," he said.

Islam's wife, Cynthia, will help with cooking at the shelter, ensuring that a Muslim diet is kept.

She also made all the curtains for the shelter, selecting green patterns for many of them to suggest growth and renewal for future residents.

The basement will house an all-volunteer staff of two or three people and the first floor will be used for clothing distribution.

Prayer, conducted five times a day by Muslims, will be held in the musallah -- prayer room -- on the top floor. The call to prayer will be sounded from the minaret -- the tower off the third-floor balcony -- beckoning Muslims to face northeast toward Mecca at the appointed hours.

"Anyone who is Muslim should come to pray when the call is made," Islam said.

Participation in worship by non-Muslims will be encouraged, but it will not be mandatory, Islam said.

"What will be mandatory is no smoking or alcohol and men running in and out late at night," he said.

Islam thinks a boost in physical fitness goes hand-in-hand with spiritual development.

"The minaret and the three-car garage, that can be a gym, that's why I bought this place," Islam said. "Working out relieves a lot of stress."

Copyright 1998, The Columbus Dispatch

The preceding document was posted on AMILAnet - a service of American Muslims Intent on Learning and Activism (AMILA) San Francisco Bay Area - http://www.mpac.org/amila