The descendants of the Lebanese immigrants who constructed “the Mother Mosque” almost a century ago — along with newcomers from Afghanistan, East Africa and beyond — are defining what it can mean to be both Muslim and American in the nation’s heartland just as heightened conflicts in the Middle East fuel tensions over immigration and Islam in the United States.

Standing by the door in a gold-embroidered black robe, Fatima Igram Smejkal greeted the faithful with a cheerful “salaam” as they hurried into the Islamic Centre of Cedar Rapids for Friday prayers.

In 1934, her family helped open what the National Register of Historic Places calls “the first building designed and constructed specifically as a house of worship for Muslims in the United States.”

“They all came from nothing… so they wanted to give back,” Smejkal said of families like hers, who arrived at the turn of the 20th century. “That’s why I’m so kind to the ones that come in from Somalia and the Congo and Sudan and Afghanistan. I have no idea what they left, what they’re thinking when they walk in that mosque.”

The community now gathers in the Islamic Centre. It was built in the 1970s when they became too many for the Mother Mosque’s living-room-sized prayer hall, and now they’re have outgrown its prayer hall, as well.

Hundreds of fifth-generation Muslim Iowans, recent refugees and migrants pray on industrial carpets rolled onto the gym’s basketball court — the elderly on walkers, babies in car seats, women in headscarves and men sporting headgear from African kufi and Afghan pakol caps to baseball hats.

This physical space where diverse groups gather helps sustain community as immigrants try to preserve their heritage while assimilating into US culture and society.

“You can be a Muslim that’s practicing your religion and still coexist with everybody else around you,” said Hassan Igram, who chairs the centre’s board of trustees.

He shares the same first and last names as his grandfather and Smejkal’s grandfather – two cousins who came to Iowa as boys in the 1910s.

Lebanese migrants ‘Mother Mosque’

Tens of thousands of young men, both Christians and Muslims, settled in booming Midwestern towns after fleeing the Ottoman Empire, many with little more than a Bible or a Quran in their bags.

They often worked selling housewares off their backs to widely scattered farms, earning enough to buy horses and buggies, and then opened grocery stores.

Through bake sales and community dinners, a group of Muslim women raised money in the 1920s to build what was called the “Moslem Temple”. Like the Igrams, Anace Aossey remembers attending prayer there with his parents – though as children they were more focused on the Dixie Cream donuts that would follow.

“We weren’t raised real strict religiously,” said Aossey, whose father sold goods along the tracks from a 175-pound sack. “They were here to integrate themselves into the American society.”

Growing up Muslim in America

Muslims sometimes faced institutional discrimination. After serving in World War II, Smejkal’s father, Abdallah Igram, successfully campaigned for soldiers’ dog tags to include Muslim as an option, along with Catholic, Protestant and Jewish.

But in Cedar Rapids, immigrants found mutual acceptance, fostered through houses of worship and friendships between US-born children and their non-Muslim neighbours.

Smejkal’s best friend was Catholic, and her father kept beef hot dogs in the kitchen to respect the Muslim prohibition against pork. Smejkal’s father, in turn, made sure Friday meals included fish sticks.

“Arab-speaking Muslims were part and parcel of the same stories that inform our sense of what the Midwest is and its values are,” said Indiana University professor Edward E Curtis, IV. “They participated in the making of the American heartland.”

Abdallah Igram is buried in the city’s hilltop Muslim cemetery, among the first in the United States when it was built in the 1940s.

It’s next to the Czech cemetery – for the descendants of the migrants who helped establish Cedar Rapids in the 1850s — and the Jewish cemetery, whose operators donated trees to the Muslim one after damage from a derecho five years ago. Smejkal wishes the whole world’s faiths could collaborate this way.

“That’s when there’s no barriers anymore. I pray one day it’s really like that,” Smejkal said.

Being Muslim in the Heartland

The Muslim presence across the Midwest grew exponentially after a 1965 immigration law eliminated the quotas that had blocked arrivals from many parts of the world since the mid-1920s, Curtis said.

Mistrust flared again after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, especially in farming communities whose young people were fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, said Ako Abdul-Samad, an African-American who represented Des Moines for nearly two decades in the Iowa House of Representatives.

He feared being Muslim would prevent his election when he first ran for office, but voters re-elected him again and again.

Immigration, including from Muslim countries, remains a contentious issue, even as Muslim communities flourish and increase their political influence in major cities like Minneapolis and Detroit.

But daily interactions between Muslims and their neighbours have provided some protection from prejudice, according to the Mother Mosque imam, a Palestinian who immigrated in the 1980s. “Stereotypes and things did not work” in Cedar Rapids, Taha Tawil said.

Bosnian Muslims say they’ve had similar experiences near Des Moines, where a new multimillion dollar mosque and cultural centre is opening next month, an expansion of the first centre established by war refugees 20 years ago.

“Our neighbours have been great to us, including the farmers we got the land from,” said its treasurer, Moren Blazevic. “We’re finally Iowans.”

Becoming Midwesterners

Faroz Waziri jokes that he and his wife Mena might have been the first Afghans in town when they came in the mid-2010s on a special visa for those who had worked for the US armed forces overseas.

After struggling with “culture shock” and language barriers, they’ve become naturalised US citizens, and he’s the refugee resources manager at a non-profit founded by Catholic nuns.

While grateful for the aid and the safety they feel, the Waziris miss their families and homeland. And they fear that cultural differences — especially the individualism Americans express, like when they sit around a table for meals, instead of together on a rug — remain too vast.

“Mentally and emotionally, I never think I’m American,” said Mena Waziri. She’s a college graduate now, and loves the independence and women’s rights that remain unattainable in Taliban-run Afghanistan. But the family is keen for their US-born son, Rayan, to have Muslim friends and values.

These tensions are familiar for the descendants of the city’s first Muslim settlers, like Aossey, who keeps exhibit panels about Lebanese immigration and integration in the same garage where he stores ATVs on his recreational farm.

“My story is the American story,” Aossey said. “It’s not the Islamic story.”

The post Being Muslim and American in the nation’s heartland appeared first on Greater Kashmir.

The Act, passed by Parliament on April 4 and receiving presidential assent the following day, was brought into force on April 8. The legislation has sparked widespread concern, drawing legal challenges from political leaders, religious institutions, civil rights organizations, and even state governments.

Although ten petitions are formally listed before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, over 15 have been filed so far. The key concerns span religious autonomy, minority rights, and procedural fairness in governance of Muslim religious endowments.

Key provisions under challenge

The petitions broadly contest:

• The removal of the ‘waqf by user’ concept

• The inclusion of non-Muslim members in the Central and State Waqf Boards

• Capping female representation in these bodies to two members

• Mandatory five-year practice as a Muslim to create a waqf

• Dilution of the waqf-alal-aulad (family waqf) doctrine

• Renaming of the original 1995 law to “Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and      Development Act”

• Empowering the government to adjudicate encroachment disputes

• Application of the Limitation Act to waqf matters

• Invalidation of waqfs created over Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-protected monuments

• Prohibition of waqf creation in Scheduled Areas
Petitioners argue these changes violate Articles 14, 25, 26, 29, and 300A of the Constitution, which safeguard equality, religious freedom, minority rights, and the right to property.

Petitions by MPs and MLAs

1. Mohammad Jawed (Congress MP) – Argues the Act imposes restrictions uniquely on Muslim religious trusts, violating principles of equality.

2. Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM MP) – Claims the amendments undermine Article 26 protections for Muslim institutions, unlike their counterparts from other faiths.

3. Amanatullah Khan (AAP MLA) – Challenges the Act for infringing on Muslim cultural and religious self-governance.

4. Manoj Kumar Jha and Faiyaz Ahmad (RJD MPs) – Contend that the law weakens the waqf governance structure and invites undue state interference.

5. Mahua Moitra (AITC MP) – Alleges procedural violations in passing the legislation, including the Joint Parliamentary Committee’s role.

6. Zia Ur Rehman (SP MP) – Says the Act imposes unreasonable constraints and discriminates against Muslim endowments.

7. Sheikh Noorul Hassan (Manipur MLA, NDA ally) – Flags concerns over the law’s impact on Scheduled Tribes who follow Islam.

Religious institutions and Islamic organisations

1. All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) – Describes the Act as an existential threat to Muslim religious identity.

2. Mohamed Maqsoon Imran (Chief Imam, Jamia Masjid, Bengaluru) – Seeks full restoration of the 1995 Act, alleging democratic erosion in waqf management.

3. Arshad Madani (Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind President) – Requests interim relief, warning of irreversible harm to historic waqfs under new digital compliance rules.

4. Samastha Kerala Jamiatul Ulema – Argues the amendments threaten to strip the Muslim community of vast tracts of waqf land.

Political parties joining the challenge

1. Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP)

2. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) – Cites constitutional violations affecting 50 lakh Muslims in Tamil Nadu and 20 crore nationwide.

3. Communist Party of India (CPI) – Echoes DMK’s concerns; had earlier supported a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Assembly opposing the bill.

4. Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) – Calls the Act an “unconstitutional assault” on Muslim personal and religious autonomy.

5. Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) – Party President and actor Vijay is among the petitioners.
Civil Society Petitioners

• Association for Protection of Civil Rights

• All India Association of Jurists

These groups have emphasized that the law enables disproportionate government control over Muslim institutions and undermines civil liberties.

States supporting the amendment

Six states—Assam, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Maharashtra—have sought to intervene in support of the amendment. They assert that the law introduces transparency, structural reforms, and institutional accountability, and was shaped through extensive stakeholder consultations.

Counter-petition: Waqf Act itself under fire

Interestingly, Advocate Hari Shankar Jain has filed a separate petition challenging the very foundation of the Waqf Act, 1995, arguing that it discriminates against non-Muslims—a parallel legal front that adds complexity to the case reports livelw.in

As the hearings begin, Wednesday, the outcome of these cases could set a significant precedent for how religious endowments are governed in India, particularly in balancing minority rights with state oversight.

The post Who Is challenging the Waqf Amendment Act, 2025 in the Supreme Court? Here’s the full list of petitioners appeared first on Greater Kashmir.

Currently, the Muslims are getting a 4 per cent reservation in the state.

The caste census report was submitted to the state cabinet on Friday (April 10), and the state government is convening a special cabinet meeting on April 17 to decide on the report’s recommendations. However, no official statement has been issued to the media regarding the report’s contents. Nonetheless, details presented in the cabinet meeting have surfaced in the public domain.

Furthermore, sources confirmed that the caste census report recommends increasing the total reservation to more than 75 per cent in Karnataka. The survey estimates the population of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) at 4.18 crore, Scheduled Castes (SCs) at 1.09 crore, and Scheduled Tribes (STs) at 42.81 lakh.

According to sources, the report indicates that OBC groups constitute about 70 per cent of the state’s population.

One of the major recommendations of the report is to increase the reservation quota for OBCs from the current 31 per cent to 51 per cent.

As per sources, the report places the Muslim population under Category 2B at 18.08 per cent, with a total population of 75.25 lakh. The report recommends increasing their reservation from 4 per cent to 8 per cent. This is higher than the Vokkaliga community, which is currently considered the second-largest population group in the state. The Vokkaliga population is recorded at 61.68 lakh, comprising 10.31 per cent of the total. The report suggests increasing their reservation to 7 per cent, according to sources.

The census report lists the Lingayat community population at 66.35 lakh, comprising 11.09 per cent — lower than the Muslim population. The report recommends increasing their reservation to 8 per cent. Currently, the Lingayat community is considered the largest in the state.

The Scheduled Castes are shown to have the highest population in the state. The report places the SC population at 1.09 crore and recommends maintaining the reservation at 24.1 per cent. The Scheduled Tribes’ population is 42.81 lakh, and the reservation of 9.95 per cent has been recommended.

The newly created Category 1A group — which includes communities such as Golla, Uppara, Mogaveera, Koli, and other marginalised groups — has a population of 73.92 lakh. The report recommends a 12 per cent reservation for this group, according to sources.

Category 2A, which includes communities like Madivala, Ediga, and others, has a population of 77.78 lakh, with a recommended reservation of 10 per cent.

The findings of the report are expected to trigger a major debate and controversy in the state and could significantly impact the political landscape.

Home Minister G. Parameshwara and Minister Zameer Ahmad Khan, while defending the Muslim quota in tenders, earlier stated that Muslims comprise between 16 to 18 per cent of the state’s population.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders have indicated that the Congress-led government is prepared to increase the reservation limit in the state. Labour Minister Santhosh Lad stated that the Central government has already breached the 50 per cent cap by implementing a 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).

Congress MLC B.K. Hariprasad asserted that the caste census provides the government with empirical data to justify increasing the reservation limit beyond 50 per cent in the state.

The Karnataka government will not take any hasty decision regarding the caste census report, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said on Friday.

When asked about discussions on the caste census report in the Cabinet meeting, Shivakumar said: “The Law Minister opened the report, but no MLA or minister has seen it. We will have a detailed discussion on the matter.”

The Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities have maintained that the caste census report is flawed.

Sources said the report was submitted in more than 46 volumes, and the data was also submitted in two CDs to the government on various aspects of the caste survey.

In 2014, Siddaramaiah (during his first tenure as the Chief Minister) ordered the Karnataka Socio-Economic and Educational Census. A committee headed by the then Backward Classes Commission Chairman, H. Kantharaju, did the survey at a cost of around Rs 169 crore. The report was ready by 2016; it was, however, put in cold storage by subsequent governments.

The Congress and JD(S) coalition government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy and the BJP government headed by B.S. Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai also kept the report pending.

In 2020, the Karnataka government, headed by the BJP, appointed Jayaprakash Hegde as the Commission chief, but the report was not made public.

Hegde submitted the final report to the Siddaramaiah government on February 29, 2024. Opposition parties, the BJP and JD(S), have opposed the implementation of the report.

Communities such as the Lingayats and Vokkaligas have alleged that the report has done injustice to them in terms of their population representation.

Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, R. Ashoka, said on Friday that the caste census report prepared by the Siddaramaiah government was not scientific. Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru on the issue, Ashoka said: “The people conducting the caste census did not visit every household. This report was prepared under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s instructions. Since it has political motives, no one will accept it. I, too, am saying that a caste census should be conducted. But this report was designed to sow discord among castes for someone’s benefit.”

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on February 18, declared that the caste census was conducted scientifically and that his government will implement its report without any doubt. “Our government supports the caste census. We have accepted the caste census report and will certainly implement it in the coming days. There is no need for any doubt regarding this,” he assured.

The post Karnataka caste census report says Muslim population is 18.08 pc, recommends 8 pc reservation appeared first on Greater Kashmir.

However, he emphasized that the gesture falls short of addressing the broader needs of the Muslim community.

Speaking to ANI, Masood said, “If these are the views of Prime Minister Modi, I welcome them. But there are about 25 crore Muslims in the country, and 95% of them are poor. Muslims do not need just this kit. If Prime Minister Modi wants to give any gift to Muslims, then he should ensure the safety of Muslims and provide education and employment opportunities for them.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Minority Morcha is set to launch its “Saugat-e-Modi” campaign, aiming to distribute special kits to 32 lakh underprivileged Muslims across the country ahead of Eid.

The initiative, kicking off from Nizamuddin in Delhi on Tuesday under the guidance of BJP National President JP Nadda, seeks to ensure that poor Muslim families can celebrate the festival without any hardship. As part of the campaign, 32,000 Minority Morcha workers will collaborate with 32,000 mosques nationwide to reach the needy.

National President of the BJP Minority Morcha, Jamal Siddiqui, outlined the campaign’s broader vision, stating that during the holy month of Ramadan and upcoming occasions like Eid, Good Friday, Easter, Nauruz, and the Indian New Year, the Minority Front will reach out to those in need through the “Saugat-e-Modi” campaign. Eid Milan celebrations will also be organised at the district level, he added.

The National Media Charge of the Minority morcha, Yasir Zilani, explained that the “Saugat-e-Modi” scheme is a campaign launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the goal of promoting welfare schemes among the Muslim community and gathering political support for the BJP and NDA.

The campaign is particularly significant as it focuses on the occasions of Ramzan and Eid. Under this campaign, the BJP Minority Morcha plans to reach out to 32 lakh Muslim families and collaborate with 3 thousand mosques.

The post “Muslims need safety, education, and jobs, not just kits”: Congress MP Imran Masood appeared first on Greater Kashmir.

In a post in Hindi on X, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said such discrimination can be detrimental to peace and harmony in the society, which is a matter of great concern.

“India is a secular country that respects all religions. In such a situation, the central and state governments should treat the followers of all religions equally without any bias, but the step-motherly treatment being meted out to Muslims in religious matters is not justified,” she said.

“The rules and laws related to restrictions and exemptions regarding festivals of all religions should be implemented equally without any bias, which does not seem to be happening.

“It is natural for peace and mutual harmony in the society to deteriorate due to this, which is a matter of great concern. Governments must pay attention to this,” she said in another post.

The post Step-motherly treatment being meted out to Muslims: Mayawati appeared first on Greater Kashmir.

The court said that he had violated bail conditions of a similar case of 2022.   Justice P V Kunhikrishnan observed that if the court grants bail in such cases, it would send out “a wrong message to society”.
The court had directed the seven-time legislator not to make statements that could promote religious enmity in the 2022 case.

However in a TV channel discussion on January 5, George said that all Muslims in India are “terrorists and communalists. Not a single non-terrorist Muslim lives in India.”
He further said that Muslims are looters and “all Muslims are communal demons and scoundrels”.

Subsequently, a police complaint was filed against George. While rejecting the bail, the court held, “If granted bail in this case, people may think that, even if the bail conditions are violated, they will get anticipatory bail from the court of law. Such a message should not go to society”.

The post Kerala High Court denies anticipatory bail to BJP leader P C George for terming Muslims as terrorists appeared first on Greater Kashmir.

While condemning Yati’s remarks, Andrabi urged the ruling party to subject the hate preparator to severe punishment.

“I strongly condemn the highly objectionable remarks of Yati Narsinghananad about the great prophet Hazrat Muhammed Mustafa (SAW). He should be given a servere punishment for hurting the sentiments of crores of believers. Such parasites are enemies of peace,” Andrabi wrote on her official X-handle.

I strongly condemn the highly objectionable remarks of Yati Narsinghananad about the great prophet Hazrat Muhammed Mustafa (SAW). He should be given a servere punishment for hurting the sentiments of crores of believers. Such parasites are enemies of peace.

— Dr Darakhshan Andrabi (@drdarakhshan) October 6, 2024

The post Parasites like Yati Narsinghanand enemies of peace: J-K Waqf chief Darakhshan Andrabi  appeared first on Greater Kashmir.

“We strongly deplore the comments made regarding minorities in India by the Supreme Leader of Iran. These are misinformed and unacceptable,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

“Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making observations about others,” it added.

The Iranian supreme leader made the remark about Indian Muslims in his message to the community, stressing unity, on the occasion of Prophet Mohammed’s birth anniversary.

“The enemies of Islam have always tried to make us indifferent with regard to our shared identity as an Islamic Ummah. We cannot consider ourselves to be Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering that a Muslim is enduring in #Myanmar, #Gaza, #India, or any other place,” he said in a post on his X handle.

However, various Iranian media outlets did not mention India in reports about his comments purportedly made at a meeting with Sunni clerics across the country at the beginning of the “Islamic Unity Week” on Monday.

This was not the first time that Iran’s supreme leader has spoken about Indian Muslims. In August 2019, he had also commented on the revocation of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir.

The post ‘Misinformed and unacceptable’: India hits out at Iran’s supreme leader’s remarks appeared first on Greater Kashmir.

Three little female kids that were murdered in a dancing school in South-Ford boiled the situation. Far-rightist movement had accused Muslims of the gruesome crime which kicked off their notorious game. Although the extremists received egg on their face when police nabbed the criminal who was not a Muslim.

Far-right activists like Anderson tate and William Thompson had till then incited Christians and atheists against Muslims who remain to be terrorized. Burning of mosques and properties belonging to Muslims has set in a new wave of Islamophobia in Europe that has badly exposed its tolerance towards the people of other faiths.

White people accepting Islam in large numbers translate it as the Civilization of Europe and its culture were not compatible any longer to their newly adopted faith and was true even with Arab Muslims. The centuries old culture and civilization of European people is turning tables on them and the real mistake lies in not understanding the need for its transformation rather remaining adhered to it.

This was actually the problem that gave vent to the far-rights groups. Even Christianity had foreign origin to Europe. But actually it was neither Christianity nor Islam to blame; it was simply intolerance and ruthless communalism.

There are several elements in the Governments in different European countries which are behind the rise of Far- right groups and are supported monetarily and morally to destroy the diversity of peaceful Europe. Migration of people into Europe only uplifts its economy.

The elements, particularly the far-right groups found guilty of ransacking and vandalizing properties are banned to enter Europian Union and USA lest their integrity, tolerance and diversity may be endangered. Banishing or ostracizing migrants from Europe will only add to its stagnation of societies and elimination of diversity, and consequent economic fall.

Great Britain has been rendered to little Britain by this one incident. It will take a long course  for the UK to not allow such communal carnage in future. However large pro migrant and anti- Islamophobia crowds thronging to roads is an example of keeping hopes alive.

Neither the faith of Islam will cease to spread nor Christianity will lose its name by repeating such horrorful events. The Muslims living in Europe and the US need to remain on a vigil and adhere to the law of the land.  The racist Islamophobic movements particularly against Muslims of Europe may increase in future. How would the world’s most advanced nation like UK react to communal tensions taking place in Sri Lanka, Pakistan or India. The question pops up.

The post It’s simply intolerance appeared first on Greater Kashmir.

The college, NG Acharya and DK Marathe College of Arts, Science, and Commerce in Chembur, had issued the ban as part of a new dress code, which had been upheld by the Bombay High Court earlier.

The High Court had stated that the directive aimed to prevent the disclosure of a student’s religion, thereby allowing them to focus solely on their education.

A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and PV Sanjay Kumar, while hearing the petition challenging the ban, expressed strong reservations about the college’s rationale. “How are you empowering women by telling them what to wear? Less said the better.

Where is the choice for the woman? You have suddenly woken up to the fact that they are wearing it. It is unfortunate that these things are being said after so many years of independence, and you say religion is there in this country,” Justice Kumar remarked, according to Bar & Bench.

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