By Muhammad Bilal Lakhani
On the eve of the “Day of Departure,” Egyptians are furious as they gather inside a mosque for evening prayers. They want their president, who has been in power for over 30 years, to leave. The imam urges his congregants to join the protests against the Hosni Mubarak and prays for Allah’s help to defeat
the “oppressor.”
This is a mosque in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
“How many more people have to die before he leaves?” said Hassan Ali,
a worshipper at the mosque who migrated from Egypt in 1984. “All of us
share the same view. Mubarak must go.”
The mosque, popularly known as the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, is
housed in a non-descript building next to a movie theatre advertising
“The Kings Speech” and “No Strings Attached.” Tonight, the mosque seems to be
generating more buzz than the theatre next door.
“Day of Departure,” reads a screaming headline on a poster outside the
mosque. “Come support democracy and human rights in Egypt” is written
in bold. The bottom third of the poster shows a scene from the streets
of Egypt where protesters bow their heads (as if they are in prayer)
as policemen fire a water cannon at them. The poster calls for a
protest march after Friday prayers, from Times Square to the Egyptian Mission
to the United Nations.
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