The largest mosque in Southern California is located in Culver City, just south of Beverly Hills, not far from the Sony Pictures movie lot.
The blue-and-white-tiled building—with an imposing four-story minaret that resembles a USAF Delta missile—was built on Washington Boulevard in 1998 to accommodate 2,000 worshipers. It sits in the middle of a working-class neighborhood whose bungalows were once occupied by defense workers, but have become increasingly gentrified over the past decade. My dental hygienist lives there now and has flipped several houses, at great profit.
On Sunday, Sept. 10, as the local streets were marked by realtors’ pennants indicating houses for sale by people trying to catch the last wave of the turning market, the neighborhood was also the site of a peculiar community event.
Last month, a political group called the United American Committee (“Keeping America Safe, and Working for a Better Tomorrow,”) challenged the mosque to issue a fatwa repudiating Osama bin Laden and other terrorists by name. When the mosque refused, the committee decided to press the issue and commemorate 9/11 by hanging bin Laden in effigy outside.
At 4 p.m., there were slightly fewer than 100 protesters from the U.A.C. on the west side of Huron Street (the mosque is located at the corner of Huron and Washington,) carrying American flags and chanting, “Remember 9/11! Remember 9/11!” It was a predominantly white, middle-aged crowd—a few blacks, a couple of Hell’s Angels, a handful of college kids (protesting for women’s rights in Islamic countries) and a smattering of paramilitary types. Occasionally, the chant would change to “No more jihad!” or a communal singing of “God Bless America.”
On the east side of the street, directly in front of the mosque, there were two distinct groups: First, 70 or so racially mixed counter-protesters of both sexes, many of whom identified themselves as being with the International Socialist Organization—in other words, old lefties in spirit if not age. Through a bullhorn, this group taunted the American flag-carriers with counter-chants, alternating between “Racists go home!” and “You are Nazis—can’t you see? Muslims aren’t the enemy!” Their banner du jour declared “U.S./U.K./Israel—The Real Axis of Evil.”
And separated from this group—again, on the mosque side of the street—was a scrum of clergymen, primarily from the United Methodist Church of Southern California, giving interviews to the press.
… King Fahd mosque. According to The Washington Post, it was funded by the King of Saudi Arabia and his son, for $8 million, to promote Wahhabism. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, two of the hijackers—Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid Almihdhar—spent time there while in Southern California. The National Review links the mosque to Sgt. Asan Akbar, who threw grenades at his fellow U.S. soldiers in Iraq in 2003. And according to the Los Angeles Times, the mosque’s former imam, Fahad al Thumairy, was deported that same year for terrorism links.
