While spending time with my sister in Boston, we visited Castle Island, a beach near downtown. Because the beach is so close to the city, the small coast and historic site, Fort Independence attracts a broad variety of visitors.

As we turned a corner, I stopped in my tracks. Men and women participated in prayer on a grassy knoll across from us. I looked around, but no one else had stopped; I continued my walk, remembering the barricaded mosque near my previous house in Houston, Texas as well as the fenced-off mosque that I recently passed in Asuza, California.

Though I am glad to note that in some parts of the US, Muslim prayer can occur in public spaces, I am struck by how mosques—unlike other religious spaces in this country—continue to be fenced off by iron bars.

16 Jul 2017 · 08:37:14 PM