Bed-Stuy Mosque's Relocation Forces Members to Reflect on Gentrification

This article was written by Murray Cox

After their landlord doubled the rent in 2011, Mosque Al Imam Ali, a small Bedford Stuyvesant mosque, was forced to move.

The storefront mosque was founded in 2003 at the bottom floor of a small brownstone at 433 Halsey St by Imam Salihou Djabi who leads a wide variety of orthodox Sunni worshipers, consisting of African, African American, Afro-Caribbean, Arab and American residents and workers from the neighborhood.

The building was run-down, and the Imam invested a lot of his own money into making the space habitable, including basic repairs to the floor and ceiling.

The Assistant Imam, Adbul Aziz, spoke respectfully of their original landlord, Faisal Ali. However, he points out that, at times, their mosque wasn’t afforded the same respect.

He tells the story of how, at the old location, the landlord once burst into the mosque during Jumu’ah, yelling, “Rent Time! It’s time for Rent!”

Imam Masjid likened this to interrupting a Church’s Sunday Service.

Then, in early 2011, the Imam was notified by Mr Ali that his rent would be increasing -- more than 100 percent increase -- from $1,400 to $3,000 per month.

Unable to afford the increase, the Imam was forced to move his mosque, fortunately, just around the corner from the original mosque, to 410 Marcus Garvey Blvd (between Halsey and Macon streets).

There, they found a reasonable landlord who charged them $1,800 per month. Learning from experience, he signed a two-year lease, with caps on how the rent can be increased if they decide to stay.

As Abdul Aziz described events leading up to the sudden increase and move, the only conclusion he could come to was that their mosque had become a victim of greed, as their landlord capitalized on the changes to the neighborhood.

Aziz acknowledged the positive changes brought about through gentrification, but pointed out with wry irony how these “positive improvements” had become something that fewer and fewer long-time residents could take part in, as they systematically were being forced to move on.

Aziz, who had grown up in the Upper West Side and lived for some time in Harlem, expressed he was almost certain that the changes in the neighbourhood would continue: “I think it’s going to keep on going. It’s been going on for years. What’s stopping them? They did it in Harlem. Now they’re doing it here! What’s stopping them?”

The members of the mosque also described other events in the neighborhood that disturbed them, including a new bar, Marcus Vineyard, recently built within 50 feet of their place of worship. He chagrins at the thought that the owners never bothered to meet with them or consult them. Instead the bar owners went directly to the Community Board, which granted them a letter of support for its liquor license in December.

Samuel F. Reynolds, a member of the mosque who also happens to be a tenant upstairs in the brownstone housing the newly opened bar, said, as a Muslim, he was uncomfortable with the idea of living under the same roof as an establishment serving alcohol, which is forbidden in Islam. In addition, on Saturday, the mosque doubles as a religious school for children.

However, Reynolds seemed optimistic that the changes in the neighborhood would only go so far: “I think the black power block is stronger in Central Brooklyn than it was Harlem. And it’s larger,” he said.

“So... I don’t think [gentrification] is going to happen the same way. I think it’s going to be some different embankments of whiteness that we’ll see. But I think in terms of talking about it the same way Harlem has been deracinated, I disagree.”

--Murray Cox is a Bedford Stuyvesant-based photojournalist, currently documenting Food Justice in the neighbourhood. www.murraycox.com.