Muslim Culture in Fort Collins
By Eldad Sharon

Jamal Ahmed bows toward the holy city of Mecca as he performs his afternoon prayer. After completing his absolutions, he calmly walks out of the empty prayer room.

As he puts his shoes on to leave the Mosque, he walks back into daily American life, where his religious beliefs differ from the culture that surrounds him.

For many Shi'a Muslims, especially ones like Ahmed who come to Fort Collins from abroad, the Islamic Center of Fort Collins on the corner of E. Locust St. and Peterson St. is not only a house of worship, but also a place where their culture and its values are kept alive.

"It's the whole culture not just the religion," said Rashed Al-Mlhannadi, sophomore electrical engineering major "we came here just after we finished high school and even college life is different. We had to start all over again."

Al-Mlhannadi learned that he had to balance a social and academic life with a high moral standard; while being faraway from home and in a country taboos as so close at hand. That's were the Mosque came in, according to Isra’a Belgasem, senior physiology major and vice-president of the Muslim Student Association at CSU, the mosque is a good tool to help international students.

Many international students make connections with other Muslims in the community by attending the ICFC, which helps with the adjustment to a new culture and builds a support net for the minority population.

Ibrahim Al-Fadhala, sophomore electrical engineering major, feels that the mosque helps him hold on to his culture. Like many other Muslim students, Al-Fadhala use a small prayer room in the Lory Student Center when classes or studying conflict with his prayer times. Yet he attends Friday afternoon prayer, the holiest prayer, at the mosque.

One mosque in a town as large as Fort Collins is a stark contrast to many of the cities in Muslim countries, where mosques are as common as Latter-day Saint's churches in Salt Lake City. Some Sunni students also have said that they don't feel welcome at the predominantly Shi'a ICFC given the sect's inherent differences.

According to Ahmed, everyone is welcome regardless of their personal choice of denomination, though he is aware that Sunnis are not normally in attendance.