Sharon Mosque Explained

Sharon Mosque
Location:Sharon, Massachusetts, United States
Festivals:-->
Organizational Status:-->
Architecture Type:Mosque
Established:1993
Date Destroyed:-->
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The Sharon Mosque is a mosque located in Sharon, Massachusetts, United States.

History

The mosque was founded in 1993 as an extension of the Islamic Center of New England (ICNE) which was established by Lebanese American immigrants in Quincy, Massachusetts. The mosque is situated on 55 acres formerly used for a horse farm. The main building is a social hall large enough to accommodate 500 people.[1]

School

The second building behind the mosque houses an Islamic elementary school, Al Noor School, and weekend school. Former president of the school, Abdul Badi Abousamra was a prominent Boston doctor, Muslim activist, and father of Ahmad Abousamra, who is on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.[2]

Imams

Talal Eid was the first Imam of the Sharon mosque as well as the sister mosque in Quincy.[3] Eid left ICNE in 2005 after creeping radicalism put him increasingly at odds in the late 1990s with the board of directors.[4]

In 1998, Muhammad Masood became Imam of the Sharon Mosque. In November 2006, he was detained by federal immigration agents for visa violations. In August 2007, he was arrested on criminal visa fraud charges. He pled guilty to five counts of visa fraud and volunteered for deportation in February 2008.[5] After leaving the country, he became spokesman for the Pakistani terrorist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawah.[6]

Interim Imam and Egyptian native, Khalid Nasr, was Imam of both Sharon and Quincy Mosques.[7] After a difficult search, Abdur Rahman Ahmad, became the new Imam in 2015.[8] [9]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Islamic Center of New England at Sharon The Pluralism Project. pluralism.org. 2016-11-16.
  2. News: FBI on Mass. terror suspect: 'Don't know where he is, what he's doing'. Anderson. Karen. 2014-10-15. WCVB. 2016-11-16.
  3. News: Islamic community at odds over post. Boston.com. 2016-11-16.
  4. News: Moderate imam reveals how radicals won battle for soul of Boston mosques. Singman. Brooke. 2015-07-26. Fox News. en-US. 2016-11-16.
  5. News: Deported imam expects to be 'a stranger in my own country'. Lambert. Lane. The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA. 2016-11-16.
  6. News: Pakistani brothers reflect their country's contradictions. Washington Post. 2016-11-16.
  7. News: A Muslim leader in Quincy reaches out - The Boston Globe. Boston.com. 18 May 2008 . 2016-11-16. Preer . Robert .
  8. Web site: Pool Of American Imams Too Small To Meet The Demand. Service. Omar Sacirbey Religion News. 2012-06-26. The Huffington Post. 2016-11-16.
  9. Web site: Islamic Center of New England : Quincy : Sharon ยป Imam Abdul Rahman Ahmad. icne.net. 2016-11-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20160325142500/http://icne.net/imam-abdul-rahman-ahmad. 2016-03-25. dead.