Islamic center opens in Lansing

The Al-Huda Islamic Center on Cayuga Vista Drive in Lansing opened on New Year’s Day by holding the first Friday services in the first masjid, or mosque, in Tompkins County.

“We are open with limited capacity,” said Mahmud Burton, a lay leader of the congregation. “We are doing congregational gatherings and monitoring numbers. When we have a certain critical mass, we will move to two services to accommodate that. We are not yet open officially for the five daily prayers.”

There are roughly 500 Muslims in Tompkins County, according to Burton. About 300 of these are transient — students or scholars at Cornell University or Ithaca College — and the remainder are permanent residents of the area.

“Our community has the purpose of serving those students,” Burton said. “We shared space with them all those years until we established a space of our own. The university community opened doors for the local people. Some have affiliations with the university or Ithaca College, but others are business owners or Uber drivers. We have a fairly diverse population.”

Friday services began locally in the 1960s at Cornell. As numbers of local faithful grew, the congregation moved the center of its daily prayer and outreach work to a rented small space on Seneca Street in Ithaca while seeking a more permanent home.

“That space became unavailable, so for a few months, we were hosted by the First Congregational Church of Ithaca — wonderful friends,” Burton said.

The congregation purchased land on Graham Road in the village of Lansing but then made the collective choice to move to the property on Cayuga Vista, where there was an existing building that could be used “as is” with little immediate investment. The longer-term plan to optimize the layout and construction of the building is estimated to cost about $150,000.

“We are happy to be here in Lansing, to be welcomed by our friends and neighbors, and we look forward to contributing to our community,” Burton said.

Like other local places of worship, the pandemic has placed restrictions on services.

“We are able to safely hold services — carefully distanced with small numbers,” Burton said. “A few students have been coming Fridays at midday to go to the mosque and attend prayer. It’s like a Sunday service — a religious obligation — and they stay afterward to read and study. There is a cultural component that goes along with attending Friday services.”

The congregation serves people of both the Sunni and Shia denominations, Burton said.

“Everybody is welcome, and everybody participates,” he said. “There are some differences in the nuts and bolts, but they are not significant enough. It is clear to all of us that we are all Muslims.”

Local religious communities have been similarly welcoming, Burton said.

“We have done so many events with different churches,” he said. “One of the first was with the Lansing United Methodist Church — we have an enduring relationship with that congregation. The Tikkun v’Or Reform Temple and we have been co-hosting monthly interfaith dinners. We want to try an outside gathering in May, when it’s warm enough, at Myers Park.”

Food has been a popular and successful way for the congregation to introduce themselves. For five years (until the pandemic), the congregation held an annual “Taste of Muslim Culture” event celebrating the foods and clothing of 12 distinct Islamic cultures.

“Thanks to Cornell, we have people from all of the world,” Burton said. “When Islam expanded, it took on the cultural characteristics of those places. The food is very diverse, from several different continents.”

Lay leaders such as Burton currently take turns leading services and giving sermons.

The mosque is governed by the Majlis Shura, officers, and Sulh Committee, who are “analogous to the elders of a church,” Burton said.

Major decisions, such as the location of the mosque, are brought to the assembly at large, where a 75% majority vote is required for approval.

“We are hiring a clergyman, an Imam — someone trained and strongly grounded in religious knowledge from an Islamic seminary,” Burton said. “A really important idea is the chain of transmission — that someone who graduates from an Islamic seminary today would be able to tell you the 26 or 27 people who have received knowledge from someone who received knowledge all the way back to The Prophet.”

In Brief:

Second annual Barbeque Day

The Lansing Events Committee will host its second annual Barbeque Day on Saturday, Feb. 27 from 10:30 a.m. “until gone” at the Lansing Community Center near the Town Hall.

Customers will not leave the comfort of their vehicles as they drive through, order and pick up their meals. All COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed, and masks are required. Payment will be by cash, check or PayPal.

Food is provided by Hatfield Catering. Dinners will include the choice of chicken, salt potatoes and beans for $10; chicken only for $8; pork sandwich on a bun with salt potatoes and beans for $10; and pork only for $8.