A U-Haul pulled into the apartment complex early after Fajr found the Farook family was ready to move to their new home in College Park, MD. Volunteers from Virginia, Baltimore and the Dar Us Salaam (DUS) community brought out boxes from the midsize ‘dingy’ apartment that was clearly too small for a family of nine.
“They have been in Maryland for around a year and the environment was not welcoming. It didn't seem like a proper place for such a large family,” says Samir Kabir.
Kabir, a first year at Prince George’s County Community College and a 2015 graduate of Al Huda school, met his friends at Fajr and spent two and half hours loading the U-Haul. Twenty people joined him including the children from Al Huda middle and high school. At 11:20 they arrived in College Park to a welcoming party with signs that read ‘Ahlan wasah lan & Welcome to College Park,’ flowers and lots of pizza from the local eatery, Pizza Roma. Hifdh schools girls and aunties from the neighborhood bustled in and out, trying to communicate in broken Arabic and sign language with Umm Khalil. As the men carried boxes and furniture, the women helped deep clean the rental house. By 2:00 the truck was empty and a long journey from Syria, to Lebanon, from Baltimore to College Park had come to an end for the Farooks.
Nayeem Ali, a student at PGCC, said, “In all honesty, I wasnt aware that they were Syrian refugees until after I first met them. To me, they were a family that needed help and you give help when help is needed. I'm not the most politically minded person but that doesn't mean I didn't know what was going on. Regardless of labels, they are our brothers and sisters in Islam and now that they moved here they are more one of us as we are one of them. But yeah, great experience.”
Umm Hamza, a community worker with DUS for 16 years is part of the effort to bring the family to College Park. “Being a mother of two, a 12-year old daughter, [a] 3-year-old son, you follow the news and you are feeding your own kids and see this absolute disparity,” she said. “We have to see the bigger picture, that we share the Earth with them. Depressed, I couldn’t breathe, so I reached out to DUS- looking for anything to.” Brother Safi suggested moving incoming Syrian refugees families near DUS.
In coordination with other concerned Muslims in the Baltimore metro, a coalition was formed streamlining processes, delegating tasks so that efforts were not duplicated. Through the help of this committee, one family was moved to the neighborhood near the Islamic Society of Baltimore community. The coalition will continue to look for affordable rental homes to house refugees in areas close to established Muslim communities. “We wanted to give them the mental comfort of living in an established community that can help in case of need. We are in the process of doing a rental application for another family,” shared Umm Hamza. Processing the Farook family’s rental application took time as they were denied many times due to the large family size and other factors.
Currently, there are six Syrian refugee families in the area. Two are in Hyattsville, two in Baltimore. Umm Hamza says that they will work with International Rescue Committee to bring more families to College Park.
Jackie Pierce is a resident of College Park and the president of the North College Park Civic Association (NCPCA;, she started a petition urging the city council to adopt a resolution welcoming refugees, including Syrians, in the city of College Park. The resolution will come before the City Council on February 23, 2016.
“College Park is a diverse community. Many of our neighbors are immigrants, Muslim, or both. By adopting such a resolution, College Park would offer a counter-balance to the harmful sentiments expressed by Governor Hogan, and would also send an inclusive message to our current and future neighbors: we support you and we welcome you,” she wrote.
Abu Khalil and his wife Abeer have settled into their new home. 5 of the 7 children will attend Al Huda school, where the community has pledged to take care of their needs because Abu Khalil is blind and will not be able to find work as easily as other refugees.
The experience has been “truly rewarding,” says Umm Hamza about the community based service.
The committee is looking for volunteers to tutor the children far behind their peers. For those that wish to support Dar-us-Salaam's efforts, Please donate to the Syrian Family Fund by emailing funding@darussalaam.org.
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