Shelter Hosted by Mosque Eases Stereotypes

December 12, 2005

Source: IBN News

http://news.ibn.net/newsframe.asp?url=http://news.ibn.net/newsgen.asp?url=msst

On December 12, 2005 IBN News reported, "For the past few days, homeless mother Galadrial Neece-Estrada and her family have been sleeping someplace they would never have imagined - at a southeast Las Vegas mosque. Neece-Estrada, her boyfriend and their two sons... are spending a week at the mosque as guests of the Islamic Society of Nevada. 'I've been reading up on Ramadan (the Muslim holy month) in the classroom where we sleep,' the 26-year-old mother said. 'The longer I'm there, the more I realize how beautiful the (Islamic) religion is.' It may seem like an unlikely place for a homeless family with no religious affiliation to end up, even temporarily. But society director Aslam Abdullah said taking care of others is what religion is all about. 'If God's creations can't find a place in the house of God, then what's the use?' he said. Abdullah volunteered the mosque to Family Promise, a nonprofit organization that works with about 20 local places of worship representing eight different faiths to help homeless families... While Lindemann said Family Promise is not a religious organization and participating churches do not proselytize the homeless families they host, Neece-Estrada is absorbing as much about each faith as she can... Abdullah said he was motivated to join Family Promise not by a desire to change negative stereotypes about Islam, but to practice its beliefs."