Sharon Mosque

The Sharon Mosque is a mosque located in Sharon, Massachusetts, United States.

History

The mosque was founded in 1993 as an extension of the Islamic Center of New England (ICNE) which was established by Lebanese American immigrants in Quincy, Massachusetts. The mosque is situated on 55 acres formerly used for a horse farm. The main building is a social hall large enough to accommodate 500 people.[1]

School

The second building behind the mosque houses an Islamic elementary school, Al Noor School, and weekend school.[1] Former president of the school, Abdul Badi Abousamra was a prominent Boston doctor, Muslim activist, and father of Ahmad Abousamra, who is on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.[2]

Imams

Talal Eid was the first Imam of the Sharon mosque as well as the sister mosque in Quincy.[3] Eid left ICNE in 2005 after creeping radicalism put him increasingly at odds in the late 1990s with the board of directors.[4]

In 1998, Muhammad Masood became Imam of the Sharon Mosque. In November 2006, he was detained by federal immigration agents for visa violations. In August 2007, he was arrested on criminal visa fraud charges. He pled guilty to five counts of visa fraud and volunteered for deportation in February 2008.[5] After leaving the country, he became spokesman for the Pakistani terrorist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawah.[6]

Interim Imam and Egyptian native, Khalid Nasr, was Imam of both Sharon and Quincy Mosques.[7] After a difficult search, Abdur Rahman Ahmad, became the new Imam in 2015.[8][9]

See also

References
  1. "Islamic Center of New England at Sharon | The Pluralism Project". pluralism.org. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  2. Anderson, Karen (2014-10-15). "FBI on Mass. terror suspect: 'Don't know where he is, what he's doing'". WCVB. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  3. "Islamic community at odds over post". Boston.com. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  4. Singman, Brooke (2015-07-26). "Moderate imam reveals how radicals won battle for soul of Boston mosques". Fox News. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  5. Lambert, Lane. "Deported imam expects to be 'a stranger in my own country'". The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  6. "Pakistani brothers reflect their country's contradictions". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  7. "A Muslim leader in Quincy reaches out - The Boston Globe". archive.boston.com. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  8. Service, Omar Sacirbey Religion News (2012-06-26). "Pool Of American Imams Too Small To Meet The Demand". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  9. "Islamic Center of New England : Quincy : Sharon » Imam Abdul Rahman Ahmad". icne.net. Archived from the original on 2016-03-25. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  • Controversies around the Sharon Mosque (, ), from the Boston Globe

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