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April 15, 2021
ADAMS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
Northglenn-ThorntonSentinel.com
VOLUME 57 | ISSUE 36
Unity outweighs division at Masjid Ikhlas amidst years of protests Northglenn mosque works to build bridges in controversial times BY LIAM ADAMS LADAMS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Masjid Ikhlas opened the doors of its two-story building in 1999. Through the mosque doors and up a short flight of stairs is a lobby with a rack to place shoes on. Turn left and through the hallway is the entrance to a small library full of texts in Arabic and Farsi, an ode to some members’ Afghan heritage. Past the hallway is the men’s prayer room, blanketed by a gold and emerald carpet. Directly below is the women’s prayer hall with an identical carpet. Pass through the basement hallway, but don’t miss a window in the wall where kids serve adults coffee out of. At the end of the hallway is the kitchen area, a gathering space when there isn’t a global pandemic. It’s currently a storage area. In the 20-plus years since the Northglenn mosque opened, its membership has grown to over 1,000 members, who are doctors, engineers and business owners in the community. The mosque has a youth group, a Sunday school and an after-school tutoring program to teach Quranic recitation and memorization. There are food drives open to anyone on Saturdays. Two COVID-19 vaccination clinics were there recently. Masjid Ikhlas isn’t just a home for some community members, said board member Jamaluddin Amin. “It’s a psychological remedy.” In many ways, the mosque is similar to other religious groups in the area. At an April 2 prayer service, members received a sermon on praying, reading scripture and fellowshipping with others during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began April 13. Yet, one thing is different about Masjid Ikhlas: the Northglenn po-
Masjid Ikhlas in Northglenn. The mosque, seen by many as a community hub, has been the focus of protests in recent years. In PHOTO BY LIAM ADAMS response, various community partners have rallied around the mosque to denounce the protesting. lice officer guarding the entrance at prayer times. On and off for several years, a protester has visited the mosque. Earlier on, he debated people during open houses, which escalated to trespassing, a ticket for obstructing a sidewalk, a guilty verdict and appeal and, most recently, a letter asking for $9 million that led mosque leaders to meet with the FBI. In the midst of this, the larger faith community has rallied to support the mosque and its outreach director, Ihsan Riahi, who believes now is not the time to withdraw from the larger community out of fear, but to reach out, “to connect, to build bridges.” He joined the Northglenn homelessness task force, an Adams County
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 8 | LIFE: PAGE 10 | CALENDAR: PAGE 7 | SPORTS: PAGE 22
faith leaders caucus organized by Together Colorado, a statewide community activist group, and Northglenn’s community co-production policing advisory board. “I cannot just sit my butt on the couch and expect people to think I’m a good guy,” Riahi said. “If I don’t do it, I’m not going to wait for politicians to do it. I’m not going to wait for Fox News to do that. I’ll have to do it myself.” The protester “I’m a missionary,” said Richard Roy Blake. He started a ministry for persecuted Christians in Muslim countries and said he is a former investigative journalist, a book author
and playwright. Besides Masjid Ikhlas, he also has protested at the Denver Islamic Society, where he was arrested and later convicted of disturbing the peace by a jury in Denver municipal court. The Denver Islamic Society has a restraining order against him. Initially, Blake said he began attending the once-a-month open houses at Masjid Ikhlas in 2014 to find “allies” for his ministry before deciding that the mosque’s beliefs were extreme – a claim that mosque leadership outright rejects. Blake began debating people at open houses or would protest in the parking lot, trying to dissuade people SEE MOSQUE, P2
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