Collegiate Times

Imam Goma Makhlouf delivers a khutba, or sermon, and leads prayers in Squires Student Center on Friday afternoons.

Goma Makhlouf sits quietly at his computer, a tablet of Christian writing in Arabic script perched to his right. An Egyptian, Makhlouf received his religious education at arguably the world's greatest Islamic university, Al-Azhar in Cairo, and is now completing his Ph.D. in translation and comparative religion at an Egyptian university. He's a full-fledged Imam, a Muslim spiritual adviser and scholar. Except, he's not taking on his craft from the crowded crush of Cairo. Rather, you can find Imam Makhlouf right next to Kids' Heaven: His new mosque, Masjid al-Hadaya (Mosque of Guidance), is adjoined to a child daycare center in Blacksburg.

But while he's off the beaten path for the Islamic community, he's not too far: Because the loosely-organized organization the Islamic Society of Blacksburg's Web site, islamview.org, was one of the first American Islamic Web sites, it retains a small following. The Islamic Center, led by professor of electrical engineering Sedki Riad, supports and maintains the mosque. Makhlouf said he has fielded inquiries for religious guidance from as far afield as New York.

Makhlouf is but one part of the complex and robust Islamic community of Blacksburg although he is emblematic of a larger trend. While mainly hailing from abroad, the Islamic community is both highly educated and sees itself as an experiment, perhaps even a model, of the possibility of an Islamic way of life in a Western nation.

Out of Egypt

"Let's say I have some connections," Riad, who was born and bred in Egypt, said, leaning back in his chair in his office in the upper reaches of Durham Hall.

In Egypt, one could call Riad's ability to requisition an Imam from the Egyptian government for the Blacksburg community an exercise of "wasta," a mixture of gravitas and familial or personal prestige that lubricates all sorts of social and commercial transactions in the largest of Arab nations. While he is quick to point out that he is only a caretaker and doesn't feel any sort of leadership over the Islamic community, Makhlouf's presence in Blacksburg is clearly a coup.

"He doesn't cost us a penny," Riad said with a smile.

One of the longest tenured members of the Islamic community (he came to Blacksburg in 1979), Riad has watched the community grow from a handful of active participants to "a four-digit number" with several hundred active members and two mosques, al-Hadaya on South Main Street and Masjid al-Ihsan on North Main Street.

Comprising this community are a great number of students in the technical sciences, particularly engineering, many of whom hold or are pursuing advanced degrees.     "When I go to the masjid and there are two doctors on my right and two Ph.D. students on my left and two engineers in front of me, and the one who is leading the service is a 19-year-old business student; it can only happen here," said Amine Chigani, a Moroccan Ph.D. student in computer engineering.

The mosques serve as a meeting place and a shared community of understanding.

"The thing that brings people together is the mosque and the religion. In Christianity, you can find the American, the European, the Chinese, all together. The same thing in Islam," Makhlouf said.

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