Inner city Baltimore is needs safe places where the community can gather, learn andheal from institutional, familial and socioeconomic wounds. The youth of the city need places where they are welcome, where young men and women can use their bright minds, given opportunities instead of weapons and drugs.
Allan Scott is a long time community worker at Morgan State University, John Hopkins University, Masjid Medina and Masjid Salaam. He has been living near the Waverly Business Complex for 17 years and knows the area well, as he used to run a community thrift store for years. The owner sold the building forcing Scott to shut down his business.
His non-profit, the Green Housing and Development Group is embarking on a new journey. The Islamic Learning Center, a multi-purpose center on 420 East 30th St Baltimore MD 21218. The center will also host a prayer area. The lease was signed on Saturday July 6th 2014.
The location is a commercial area called the Waverly Business and quite a few Muslim owned businesses line the streets: Punjab Halal Meat and Grocery Store, Hip Hop Fish and Chicken moved to 32th Street says Scott, and Bismillah Halal Restaurant and Pizza Deal is in the locality.
Scott is married to Sr Touria (Thuraiyya) who has a degree in Arabic studies/Islamic Studies from the Iqra Institute in Fez, Morocco and was a teacher there for 5 years. The Learning Center will teach spoken Arabic and Islamic Studies to local Muslims. There are about 30-40 families living in nearby neighborhoods.
There is also a demand for Quran Studies in this community, as the local hafiz from the community went back to Bangladesh.
?We know that we need to actually teach Muslims in America and to do dawah in our communities, we have to give back to them,? says Scott. There is also an urgent need to be more open Muslims, so non-Muslims they will learn about Islam. He recalls how the Christian students used to share the chapel at Morgan State University with the Muslims students and wonders why he can?t create a place where the Muslims can share their sacred space with their neighbors.
?You can almost walk to the YMCA. It is a pretty nice neighborhood?well kept,? says Scott. The area is flourishing. A minute walk from the bus stop, a school is right around the corner and the supermarket is a block away.
There is no community center (other than the YMCA) in this area of the city, so inspired by the YMCA, they plan on offering other activities.
?We are trying to do something for the community. Having found a prime location to benefit the Muslims in the commercial area because masajid can?t make money to support themselves, so we can do classes to support our prayer area,? explains Scott.
In the suburbs the masajid are run like community center while in the city masajid are struggling to pay the bills says Scott. Masjids need constant financial support, so they want to offer services that can actually make masjid self-sufficient, he added.
GED classes will be offered at ILC, by Millie Rice, a tester from the Adult Basic Education program at the Baltimore Community College.
A fitness center shared by the men and women with set timings for each gender with exercise bikes and treadmills, a summer camp and Sunday school are all in the plans. They have put a film projector on layaway so they can hold monthly film sessions of PG movies.
A gated parking lot will have room for a basketball hoop so anyone can come and play.
Resources-pressed community members look to the rest of the wider DC Metro community to help this project that will make their prayer space self-sufficient. ?We need help from our community,? says Scott in an interview with the Muslim Link.
Eventually, Scott hopes that they can purchase the building. ?We have Muslims who want to invest in the community but they don?t know how to run facilities or they don?t have contacts.?
If candidates are interested in applying as teachers they can get in touch with Brother Allan Scott at ascott1529@yahoo.com