Mourides Balance Distinct Identity With Islamic Faith

There is a little stretch of 116th Street on the other side of Morningside Park where talk of the Iliad and Aristotle gives way to a mixture of French and Wolof, where University Hardwares becomes Bahk Yaye store, and where Scott J. Salon becomes Même Amour beauty shop. Conversations about Amadou Bamba and life in Touba flood the streets, Christian missionaries sell CDs preaching to local Muslims in French about the “depravity” of Allah, and grocers advertise daily cuts of venison and other meats.

Little Senegal—bordered by Morningside Park on the west and by St. Nicholas Avenue on the east—is home to thousands of Senegalese and West African immigrants, a number of whom belong to the Mouride brotherhood sect of Sufi Islam.

Mouridism began in Senegal in 1883 as the brainchild of Sufi religious leader Amadou Bamba, or Sëriñ Tuubaa in Wolof. Known as the “renewer,” Amadou Bamba aimed to offer his followers a clearer picture of Islam and its teachings. Today, about 6,000 Senegalese Mourides live in New York City.

Yet the New York Mourides seem to identify more with their nationality and ethnicity than they do with their religion. “I don’t come [to the U.S.] for Mouride. I come to U.S. for U.S.,” said Abdoulaye Thiam, a board member at the Association of Senegalese in America on 116th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. The umbrella identity of a West-African Muslim pervades daily life in a more powerful way than do the ideals of Mouridism.

“I am not a member of the Mouride community, but I come here to pray,” said a visitor to the Murid Islamic Community of New York on 137th Street and Edgecombe Ave. A follower of the Islamic faith and a West African immigrant, he emphasized the cohesiveness of the West African Muslim community in Harlem. “It is the same God, the same Prophet, but the understanding is just different.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that the Mourides lack their own community. The Murid Islamic Community of New York, headquartered in a red brownstone and containing a small green-carpeted worship room for prayers, holds classes about Islam for the children and grandchildren of West African immigrants. Though not exclusively Mouride, about “99.9 percent” of the children come from Senegalese-American households, according to a visitor.

“We teach them how to read Arabic and get some information about Islam,” said Bassirou Lo, an imam at the center. This system serves as an American stand-in for the Senegalese practice of sending one’s children to a marabout, or a Mouride teacher and religious leader who would treat young followers as disciples. At the center’s satellite school on 116th Street, children learn to pray and receive “an Islamic education.”

As a faith, Mouridism revolves around two main principles, work and worship, which, according to Imam Lo, function through a symbiotic relationship. “To help yourself and better worship Allah, you need the means to do it,” he said. Because of the Mouride focus on work, Lo says that they have progressed in America. “They have opportunities here, and if they want to work, they can get something,” he said.

Many Mourides own their own businesses, while others take jobs as street peddlers and retailers. A sense of religion appears to permeate their work, as one can see photos of Amadou Bamba in stores all over Little Senegal. In the back of the store Sopey Chei on 116th Street is a room with a tapestry of Amadou Bamba hanging above a decorative beige rug.

In addition to the large Mouride community in New York, according to the imam, “They can be found everywhere—in France, Los Angeles, Italy.”

Some Mourides stressed that the misconception about the connection between work and faith is that they send money they make in the U.S. back to Touba, the capital of Mouride Senegal, to benefit the religion. Just like anyone can “send money for your church, your mosque,” Thiam said, “They send money to their families in Senegal.”

While the Senegalese Mourides hold on to their religion, they still interact with other West African Muslims. “I would help any Mouride who called me up,” Thiam said, “But it’s a cultural community, and people mix culture and religion.” The worship center on 137th Street further defines itself as a house for all people, and especially for all Muslims. “As African people in general, we are used to eating together, living together ... in the city you are alone a lot, and my job as a home-health aide is depressing, so I’m happy from my part to be able to come here at the end of the day,” said Marieme Sambe, who sipped tea and watched Senegalese news and soccer on TV at the center on a Monday afternoon.

Describing the Murid Islamic Community center, a visitor said, “You can come here to eat, to pray, to get free food, to ask questions, to use the bathroom. It’s for everybody. That’s what we call Islam.”
Scott Levi can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.