Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Fear hinders worshipers’ sanctuary plans
NEW YORK — When the Shaanti Bhavan Mandir in Queens became the first Hindu temple in the nation to publicly declare itself a sanctuary congregation, part of a network of houses of worship that will support and shelter immigrants in the U.S. illegally, its leaders hoped other Hindu temples in the area would join, too.
But spearheading that effort is proving more difficult than they had hoped. No other temples turned up at an April meeting intended to encourage others to become sanctuary congregations. Even within their own temple, only a few unauthorized immigrants have come forward to begin talking about their status, although more worship there, members said.
“I’m positive it’s the fear,” said Davanie Singhroy, who is helping lead the temple’s efforts. “No one wants to come forward for fear they are making themselves more visible.”
The struggle at Shaanti Bhavan Mandir mirrors the larger problem that the National Sanctuary Movement, a coalition of some 800 houses of worship, has been having in attracting participation from immigrant congregations of all faiths, its organizers said.
Sanctuary congregations pledge to protect and stand with immigrants facing deportation by
providing legal, emotional and practical support and, as a last resort, by sheltering them in their basements and rectories. Yet nearly all of the publicly declared congregations are Christian and Jewish.
“The reality is that among mosques and temples, and immigrant-led congregations as a whole, there is oftentimes more hesitancy, because of the concern that they may become targets themselves, whether for ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] or hate groups,” said the Rev. Noel Andersen, the national grass-roots organizer for Church World Service and an organizer of the movement.
In the New York area, about 25 houses of worship are participating in the area branch of the movement, known as the New Sanctuary Coalition with some 100 more in the pipeline to join, said the Rev. Donna Schaper, a founder and the senior minister at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan.
There are no mosques among them, though they may be helping their members
quietly, Schaper said. Shaanti Bhavan Mandir is the only Hindu temple involved, she said. Yet despite the risks, the small temple has been unexpectedly public, unlike most other sanctuary congregations in the area, which have taken a lower profile. (The Union Theological Seminary, a 181-year-old bastion of progressive Christian scholarship in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, has also made a public announcement.)
Schaper called the temple’s stance “very brave.”
For mosques, the challenge of joining the movement has been particularly intense, given the persistence of suspicion about Islam nationally and the targeting of Muslims by law enforcement and immigration orders.
In New York, the executive director of the Majlis Ash Shura, an umbrella organization of Muslim mosques and organizations, said area mosques led by blacks and immigrants were rightfully wary of joining the movement.
“The other imams feel that if they shelter a criminal, they could be treated by law as hiding a terrorist,” Cheikh Ahmed Mbacke, the executive director, said. “They are very vulnerable and one of the biggest targets of law enforcement. It’s not that easy for anyone to bring that heat on themselves.”
In February, nine progressive Muslim spiritual leaders from around the country signed an online pledge to join the sanctuary movement, and called upon other Muslims to do so. But a decision was made not to publicize the list.
“There are many mosques working with local
immigrant communities and undocumented folks,” said one of the public signatories, Imam Omar Suleiman, the founder of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research near Dallas. “But for issues of safety, mosques are being cautious about public declaration for good reason.”
The first mosque in the country to have publicly declared itself a sanctuary, the Clifton Mosque in Cincinnati, backtracked soon afterward and now calls itself a “solidarity” mosque that pledges to work with the movement.
“Within 48 hours, I received myself about 75 death threats, via text messages and Facebook,” said Imam Ismaeel Chartier, the mosque’s spiritual leader. The declaration in January, and accompanying fear, caused an internal conflict and soon led to the election of a more conservative, older board.
The Shaanti Bhavan Mandir is a surprisingly humble temple to take such a public role in the movement. The small storefront congregation is on Jamaica Avenue in the Richmond Hill neighborhood, under the elevated tracks of the J train. Its small banner is
draped over the sign of a former real estate agent’s office whose space the temple is renting. It was founded five years ago by Pandit Manoj Jadubans, 44, a Guyana native, who, with a group of supporters, wanted to broaden what modern Hindu practice could look like.
One of hundreds of small Indo-Caribbean temples in that corner of Queens, it has sought to distinguish itself by focusing on the younger generation, acts of service and the environment. Its youth group’s motto is “the hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray.” Among other actions, it participates in regular beach cleanups through Sadhana, a coalition of progressive Hindus that also played a key role in encouraging the temple to become a sanctuary.
“We are a community largely comprised of immigrants and undocumented immigrants, and we were worried that this step would bring attention to our congregants who are undocumented,” said Singhroy, 22, a temple and Sadhana member. “But in the end we decided those are the very people we were going to help by taking this step.”