Weblog of Dawud Walid

For 18 months, the Philadelphia Masjid and Sister Clara Muhammad School were closed for lack of heaters and other problems.

Meantime, members conducted a fundraising drive, which netted $55,000, and they obtained a $30,000 loan. The total was half the amount needed to repair decades of neglect.

Now, the three-story building, at 47th Street and Wyalusing Avenue, has a new roof, a new heater, new plumbing, a gleaming kitchen, newly painted and plastered walls in the prayer area, sealed holes in an exterior wall, sparkling bathrooms and clean carpets.

And at the behest of the growing congregation, interim Imam Malik Mubashshir and Rafiq Kalam Id-din, chairman of the board of trustees, re-established ties with Imam W. Deen Mohammed, who spells his name differently than his late father, Elijah Muhammad, who headed the Nation of Islam.

W.D. Mohammed, the spiritual leader of 60,000 to 100,000 American Muslims, who follow orthodox Islam, will rededicate the Philadelphia Masjid and Sister Clara Muhammad School - named after his mother - on April 11 in a citywide Muslim celebration.

“I’m so enthused. I can’t wait to see the believers, to see this place open,” said Bertha Ali, 76, who won a seat on the new board of trustees in a court-certified election in 2006.

Ali - one of the original “pioneers” who scrimped to buy the former St. Thomas More High School for the mosque and school in 1975 - was not disappointed.

Last Friday, about 300 believers, including many young people, attended the first Jumah prayer service since October 2006.

“My heart is sputtering. This is like when we walked in in ‘75,” said Yusef B. Karim, 58, a longshoreman from South Philadelphia.

“I feel blessed and really thankful to have it open,” said Janet Bashir, 56, a member for 33 years.

“We want the community to know we’re alive and kicking and we’re going to do some good things here,” said Leon Shamsudeen, 52, a board member.

Tomorrow, the mosque will open daily for five-times-a-day prayers.

But the Islamic school won’t open until the fall of 2009. Mubashshir said the academic committee needs time to achieve the high-tech transformation he envisions for the school to attract students.

The three-story building was closed in October 2006 after prayer services were disrupted by a faction led by ex-imam Shamsud-din Ali, who ran the mosque and school for 30 years, then lost a court-certified election to continue in a leadership role.

Ali, 68, is serving an 87-month sentence for racketeering, fraud and other offenses in federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas. A jury found he used the mosque and school as his headquarters to operate seven illegal money-making schemes.(MORE)