Photo by José A. Giralt
On a cold but bright and sunny afternoon, members of Masjidus Sabur set up a table on Bainbridge Avenue in Bedford Park for their annual winter coat and essentials drive. Masjidus is the Islamic term for mosque. Iman Alprentice Talibudeen McCutchen helped manage the event on Feb. 5 in front of the mosque, located at 2975 Bainbridge Avenue.
“In today’s event, we’re giving away [free] coats for children as well as teenagers and adults… and book bags,” McCutchen said. A group of four to five volunteers joined McCutchen in manning a folding table surrounded by multiple boxes of coats in a variety of colors still neatly folded and wrapped in protective plastic. They took turns approaching people walking along both sidewalks and directing them towards the table. Many of the adults who stopped by were accompanying school-aged children.
Although none of the visitors agreed to be interviewed on the record, several expressed gratitude for the free coats and book bags. One adult said in Spanish, “Esto es bueno,” [This is good]. Coat drives like these are not new for the members of the mosque. Originally formed in 1995 in Harlem, Masjidus Sabur moved into their current location in Bedford Park five years ago. “We’ve been doing coat drives since our inception [in Harlem] for the past 20 years,” McCutchen said.
On the day of the event, they were stocked with 75 coats and “about 30 book bags,” according to McCutchen. The coat drive was completely funded by contributions from the mosque’s members, which number around 75. Iman Umar Abdul-Jalil is the senior iman at Masjidus Sabur, and is retired from his secular job as a commissioner with the City’s Department of Corrections.
He is especially proud of the ties that members maintain with the mosque even after they move away. “We have members that stretch out throughout the five boroughs. We have members that live in Maryland, members that live in Georgia,” Abdul-Jalil told the Norwood News.
“We have people that relocate, people in North Carolina but they still send their monthly donations here … as part of their membership here.” He clarifies, however, that those members who regularly attend the mosque on Bainbridge Avenue, in person, span from Mt. Vernon to Staten Island.
As reported previously by the Norwood News, a 2018 report by the group, Muslims for American Progress, a project of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, found that Muslims make up 8.96 percent of the City’s population. Some, though not all, of Norwood’s Bengali community, for example, are Muslim.
The report found that this extremely diverse populace includes descendants of Muslims who have lived in the United States’ geographical area since before its founding, arriving in America as early explorers and enslaved Africans, as well as recent immigrants from 75+ nations.
The report also found that a large number of the City’s Muslims work in front line services. For example, Muslims make up 57.5 percent of people who work at food stands, and 39.2 percent of those who work in the taxi industry, two sectors still badly hit by the flailing economy.
On the other hand, Muslims make up 9.7 percent of those who work in the medical profession, while 8.1 percent of those who work in respiratory therapy, specifically, are Muslim.
On Thursday, Feb. 11, the American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP) and more than 120 other partner organizations hosted a virtual meeting with Dr. Anthony Fauci. Dr. Noor Jihan Abdul-Haqq, Dr. Shereef Elnahaal, and AMHP’s President, Dr. Hasan Shanawani, joined Fauci to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine, and address the pressing questions of the community. The event was live streamed on AMHP’s website at https://amhp.us/fauci/. People can watch it on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AMHPus.
In terms of charitable work, in 2016, the report found that Muslim New Yorkers donated over $608 million to charity, 33 percent more than the average American household. Charitable donations also often stay close to home. For example, after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of Staten Island in 2012, 900 individuals from Muslim organizations volunteered to deliver food, conducted needs assessment, and helped with clean-up efforts.
Abdul-Jalil said that the mosque’s members are committed to being good neighbors in Bedford Park and beyond. Although they are a faith-based group, he said that they believe that reaching out beyond the Islamic community is an important aspect of their religion.
Acknowledging that Muslims are not immune to the negative effects of the pandemic, economic and otherwise, he said he feels that members want to do more for others. “We are not promoting religiosity,” Abdul-Jamil said. “We are promoting neighborly needs. We are part of the neighborhood.”
When asked what would happen to any coats and book bags left over from the event, McCutchen said he sees an opportunity for another giveaway event. “We’ll take stock, so we can do it another day,” he said. “We try to support the community as much as possible.”
*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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