How we partnered legendary basketballer, Hakeem Olajuwon to build biggest mosque in Houston worth $.5m – Seriki, pioneer Muslim community president
By Mumini AbdulKareem and Sulyman Jimoh
The pioneer president of the Muslim Community in Houston, United States of America, Alhaji Surajudeen Seriki has narrated how legendary basketball player now retired, Hakeem Olajuwon partnered with the body to build one of the biggest mosques in the country.
Seriki who spoke with National Pilot at its corporate headquarters, along Asa Dam on Friday, revealed that half a million dollars was expended on the gigantic and iconic project which serves as rallying point for Muslims in Houston, the most popular city in Texas.
Seriki who had spent over forty years in the US noted that there was no mosque in 1985 when he got to Houston but the situation gradually changed when Islamic consciousness began to grow with the vital role of people, likes of Hakeem Olajuwon who contributed $400,000 to the project and supervised it from scratch to the finish.
According to him, “May Almighty Allah continue to bless Alhaji Hakeem Olajuwon because he played a very vital role in establishing the Masjid in Houston. He spearheaded the whole funding of the Masjid for half a million (USD) dollars, our own contribution then was $100,000.
“Hakeem is a very quiet person and does not announce his numerous contributions to the cause of Islam and assistance of Muslims both Nigerians and across other Muslims communities.
“So we started some programmes at the Masjid and Alhamdulillah today, we have graduated a lot of hafizs, our children that would have been lost and we started Arabic school also Islam convention which we do in partnership with other states in the US. If anyone wants to come to Houston now, the first place they come to is the Masjid, because they know about it, it’s a very big Masjid. Now we’ve got another plot of land which is ails very big to do other things like Eid prayer which we held this year, he noted.
Seriki who said he performed Hajj in 2008 at the cost of $4,500 from the US further said the hajj fee now goes for about $9,000. He said a lot of white and blacks Americans are embracing Islam contrary to insinuations adding that Americans are very tolerant and don’t discriminate or deny employment on the basis of religion.
“A lot of people used Hijab there whatever the profession and we even have the support of the Mayor who is not a Muslim. There is room for religious tolerance in US, we should not allow anybody to fool us. In fact many Muslims males and females have won elective seats into congress and that have been worthy ambassadors of Islam”, he submitted.
On the impact of 9/11 on Islam in the US, Seriki said although the event made Americans to look at Islam differently, such narrative has changed with time. He also noted that President Trump had issues with Muslims initially but it has been surmounted. “Everything faded away as they know us with our religion better now. But some people pushed it to the limit that Muslims are terrorists. So the Muslim community in US played a key role in rewriting the narrative and now the future of Islam is very bright in the country. There is no fear about prayer or practicing Islam anymore.
