Pensacola’s Muslim community put out the welcome mat Saturday night, hosting an open house at the Islamic Center of Northwest Florida on Johnson Avenue.
If the organizers at the Islamic Center were hoping for a packed dining hall, they certainly got their wish. Hundreds of non-Muslims shared a pot-luck dinner and heard about Islam and the tenets of the faith.
Dr. Aref Rifai, an ophthalmologist who has been in Pensacola for 21 years, says the Pensacola-area Muslim community has been here for several decades, with some having spent their lives here.
“In the last 25 years we’ve had significant arrivals between physicians, between engineers, between professor[s] at UWF,” said Rifai. “And local business owners, a few restaurants, we do have people who work in construction.”
A large wave of immigrants came to Pensacola during the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, mostly Palestinians living between Iraq and Kuwait. In the mid-90s, the immigration pattern included a number of doctors – including Rifai.
“Let me start with our greeting as Muslims,” said Imam Hosny Ibrahim. “As-salāmu ʿalaykum, which is ‘Peace upon you.’”
In welcoming the visitors, Ibrahim added that when it comes to community, there is no difference between Muslims and non-Muslims.
“We eat together; we work together, we live together,” Ibrahim said. “And we stand together; we are neighbors.”
And, despite what you hear in the media, Ibrahim says the form of Islam espoused by terrorists is not the Islam followed by vast majority of Muslims in the mainstream.
“Islam is a religion of peace; Islam is a religion of mercy,” said the Imam. “Terrorists are everywhere. And, with every religion, anyone can be a terrorist.”
About an hour into the open house came the call to prayer – one of five daily. After inviting their guests to stay, worshipers filed into the adjoining mosque for a 15-minute prayer session. Men praying in the front, women in the back of the room.
Among the visitors at the open house was Scott Satterwhite, a writer and educator at the University of West Florida.
“I feel really bad that Islam has been given such a really bad reputation because of a handful of people that are doing some bad things around the world,” said Satterwhite. “What I’m encouraged to see with this, is how many people from the community are out here.”
Also attending the open house was Nadir Anhalesh. He, his wife and three daughters came to Pensacola from Syria.
“I left Syria during the problems over there, and went to Jordan,” said Anhalesh through the translation of Dr. Aref Rifai. “I stayed at a refugee camp for three and a half years. The United Nations Refugee Organization contacted me; I submitted papers and they approved my application. So I came [to Pensacola].”
Anhalesh should be getting his green card in the next few days, which will enable him to find work. He was a cook in Syria. When he was asked if he planned to begin the process to become an American citizen, no translation was needed.
“Of course,” Anhalesh said in English, laughing.
Another open house is scheduled for Saturday, April 1, at the Al-Islam Dawah Center on Barrancas Street in downtown Pensacola.