Mosque

When the sun rose today, there was no call to prayer inside the chamber of the Masjid An-Nur mosque in downtown Camden. The mosque, whose name means Home of Light, stood blackened and gutted, victim of a pre-dawn fire yesterday. Only the walls remain, said Fareed Munir, leader of the Muslim mosque, part of the al-Islam movement. Gone were an extensive library including rare copies of the Koran - the religion's sacred writings - from around the world, the supplies and records of the elementary school and the works of a successful Muslim restaurant - all were gone.

When Zia Rahman and other Voorhees-area Muslims began looking for a site to build a mosque five years ago, they anticipated some community opposition, especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They didn't anticipate the level or depth of resistance - or the attention it would attract regionally, even nationally. One of the first signs of trouble was an anonymous flyer - distributed in the community in 2003 - suggesting that a mosque might attract worshipers with links to terrorists.

A hot afternoon at the beach turned even hotter yesterday as hundreds of enraged Israelis, some in bathing suits, attacked the Hassan Beq mosque across the oceanfront boulevard from the disco where a suicide bomber killed himself and 18 others Friday night. "We should tear this place down. We hate the Arabs," said Dor Pincas, 18, who wore a motorcycle helmet as he threw rocks at the mosque. Arab youth inside the mosque compound threw stones back, as Israeli police wrestled to take control.

A LOWER MANHATTAN zoning issue that has erupted into a national debate on religious freedom followed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday to Philadelphia, where he endorsed U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak's campaign for the U.S. Senate. Reporters and a supporter of former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, Sestak's Republican opponent, questioned both politicians about their positions on plans for an Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from the site of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers on Sept.

Lawyers representing an Islamic foundation that wants to establish a mosque on a vacant campus here and neighbors concerned about the mosque's impact said they had reached a tentative agreement regarding use of the property. A zoning hearing on the proposal scheduled for last night was postponed at the request of Rosemont lawyer Fred B. Fromhold, who represents the Foundation for Islamic Education Inc. Fromhold said he wanted to give all parties time to approve the agreement formally before the hearing continued.

For many Americans, Friday afternoons are the times for long lunch breaks to escape workday drudgery. For Muslims, though, Friday is the day for juuma'a, or the traditional weekly prayer offering. Until recently, the ritual has also involved a trek to a mosque for Willingboro's African American Muslims. Some have had to travel as far as Trenton to make their juuma'a or to attend the Sunday taleem, or to get religious education. So, when a former imam at a Camden mosque moved into town, some of the Muslim residents were moved to action.

Imam W.D. Mohammed, the leader of the Muslim American Society, joined Muslims from across the region here yesterday to dedicate a mosque that took nine years to build. The masjid, or Muslim place of worship, took so long to create because a core group of 10 families purchased a dilapidated building on Ashland Avenue and then made nearly all of the repairs themselves. "I can reflect back on the first time we stood in this building," Wali Abdul-Salaam, one of the original investors, told the group of followers who sat cross-legged and barefoot in the sun-drenched mosque during a short, midmorning ceremony.

Tired of renting space for worship, the Islamic Society of Greater Valley Forge is the second organization with plans for a mosque on the Main Line. The society revealed those plans to the Tredyffrin Township Planning Commission last night, just two months after another Muslim group announced plans for one in Lower Merion Township. The Valley Forge area society, which is made up of 44 families, wants a special exception to use a 1,500-square- foot house as a place of worship in a residential district.

The Muslim cleric arrested six weeks ago by federal authorities in a raid of his East Frankford mosque and home said yesterday he was bewildered by the events that led to his detention. "I've played it in my mind a thousand times," Mohamed Ghorab said by telephone from York County Jail, where he is being held. "I don't know why. There is nothing going on in our mosque. " The interview was his first since dozens of federal agents with rifles, dogs, and a search warrant for bank, wire-transfer and other financial records took him into custody on immigration charges.

The Lower Merion Zoning Hearing Board has granted a special exception to an Islamic organization that allows the group to establish a mosque on a vacant college campus. The zoning board's decision, issued Thursday, opens the way for the Foundation for Islamic Education Inc. to buy the approximately 22-acre campus from Northeastern Christian Junior College for $2.7 million. The college closed the campus at 1860 Montgomery Ave. in the spring of 1993 because of declining enrollment.