Tulsa Muslim Population Rising
“I stopped through Tulsa by accident,” Raymond Shakir, an American Muslim, who has been in Tulsa for more than 40 years, told Tulsa World on Sunday, November 30.
Shakir first came to Tulsa in the 1970s to see his sister when he moved from one job to another in the city before becoming an active community member.
Working as a union carpenter and later at the Ford Glass Plant, the 68-year-old Shakir decided to make Tulsa a permanent home.
The active community member has first joined the Nation of Islam a few years after moving to Tulsa before splitting from the group to become a traditional Muslim.
Coupled with the sharp increase in Muslim population, a drastic need for a suitable worshipping house for Muslims appeared.
“Then it got to the point where the garage was no longer large enough, so we moved to the two-story house that was in front of that that the brothers used as a dormitory, and we started meeting in the living room,” Shakir said.
“Then that got too small, and we tore out walls and made it bigger to use the dining room and living room.”
Later on, the mosque moved to a structure at Fourth Street and Birmingham Avenue.
“That was the start of the Masjid Al-Salam,” Shakir said.
Attended by 1,300 Muslims weekly, Al-Salam mosque can’t cater to over 4,000 worshipers who come to pray each Friday.
The Tulsa Muslim community is part of an estimated Muslim minority of six to eight million in the US.
An earlier Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans Muslims are loyal to their country and optimistic about their future in the United States.
Another US survey has revealed that the majority of Americans know very little about Muslims and their faith.
A recent Gallup poll has found 43 percent of Americans Nationwide admitted to feeling at least “a little” prejudice against Muslims.
