{"id":472589,"date":"2020-07-19T21:40:20","date_gmt":"2020-07-20T04:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/?p=472589"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:19:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:19:23","slug":"they-can-take-away-the-mosque-but-theyll-never-take-my-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/2020\/07\/19\/they-can-take-away-the-mosque-but-theyll-never-take-my-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"They can take away the Mosque, but they\u2019ll never take my faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

They can take away the Mosque, but they\u2019ll never take my faith<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Noor Pervez<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plain language summary<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/disability_visibility\/content.blubrry.com\/disability_visibility\/Noor_Pervez-They_can_take_away_the_Mosque_but_they_ll_never_take_my_faith.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

When I think about faith, I feel love, first, then pain. It wasn\u2019t always this way. My journey to identifying as disabled <\/span>started<\/span><\/a> in a Friday <\/span>Jummah<\/span><\/a>, surrounded by a community bending and swooshing in prayer around me. It was a standout moment in a history of my faith bolstering me.<\/span><\/p>\n

I grew up in a rural suburb of North Texas, in a bustling, primarily South Asian hub of Muslims, spread out across a primarily white community. My first memories are of teachers trying to comfort me \u2014 always fussing, telling me I was such a <\/span>good<\/span><\/i> student, if I could only get along with others. I wondered if they\u2019d feel the same way, if they\u2019d known me before I went into education, back when I was still a non-speaking child who regularly had to fight my own abusive family. They didn\u2019t know what to do with me. I was too socially uncomfortable to hang out with anyone, including other South Asians.<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t understand the way that other kids moved, the way that they talked \u2014it was all this fascinating, new language that I could study but couldn\u2019t imitate. Alone, though, I immersed myself in my faith. I read Qu\u2019ran. I prayed regularly, reciting Arabic that I\u2019d learned by heart after repeating it over and over since I first had speech. I didn\u2019t completely understand it at first. I struggled with how hard the language in the Qu\u2019ran itself was, and I had to ask a lot of questions. Alone, I fell in love with the story of Islam. It was in groups, however, that I fell in love with God.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Islamic Sunday school to my regular attendance at my local Mosque, I found myself most at peace when I was praying. The rote motion of people around me was a comfort. The rules were always the same. No shoes. Men go there, women go here. Ignore the screaming, playing children. It all used to make so much sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I got older, I also found myself with new words to understand what I experienced. I found the autistic community, and I got diagnoses — a lot of them, all at once. I got my first experiences with mobility aids. I found out that I wasn\u2019t actually a homebody, just someone in too much pain to leave home. With the right combination of meds and a wheeled mobility aid (a rollator, then a scooter, then a power chair, as I gained access to insurance and an occupational therapist), I was unstoppable. I had enough energy to go to LGBT group meetings, to disability group meetings, to transit councils. I could go everywhere, do everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Except for, as I found out, when I couldn\u2019t. When the LGBT groups met at loud, crowded bars up steps. When the disability meetup refused my autism accommodations. When mosques, segregated by gender, literally had no space for me as a nonbinary person, but also almost always had no elevators for me to access the prayer areas in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

The physical barriers preventing me from entering mosques pushed me into the arms of the progressive Muslim movement, where I was met with even more ableism. At the first meeting of a chapter of one of the largest progressive Muslim organizations, the elevator up to the prayer space was broken, and I was made to physically crawl up a flight of steps because there was no plan to accommodate me if it broke. They then proceeded to be disgusted when I nearly threw up and implied that I was being unreasonable for expecting them, the organizers of an allegedly progressive space, to host an event that wheelchair users could reasonably attend.<\/span><\/p>\n

The difference between the Mosques and the progressive muslim org, however, is that the org was a nonprofit with more than 15 employees. They were legally bound to the ADA. It took me going over the heads of the organizers, straight to the org president, and showing them the law for anything to get done. I am not welcome there again, and I never will be. But I made them move.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s been the story, over and over again. I fight. I bite. I throw the law and my protected rights at people where I can, and publicly shame lack of access where I can\u2019t, but it always ends the same. The looks of exhaustion when I enter the room, after. The question, always, \u201cWhy are you making this so difficult?\u201d or \u201cWhy are you being so harsh?\u201d about asking people for basic access, 30 years after the ADA was signed into law. This was never supposed to be the end, yet people act as though getting me in the front door is an act of God, or a special favor, let alone giving me what I need to participate.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s because of this treatment that I find myself largely isolated, in the ways that I practice my faith. With the exception of my long-distance board participation in <\/span>Masjid-Al Rabia<\/span><\/a>, a Muslim community center based in Chicago, my faith practices have been largely alone. Prayers behind closed doors in my house. Me struggling to read and understand Qu\u2019ran alone, as my brain fog gets worse. I can count the days of the year I get to physically pray alongside other Muslims on one hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was reminded of this again, recently, when I tried to buy a tasbeeh and prayer mat. I asked for recommendations, but all of the Islamic bookstores in the DC\/Maryland\/Virginia area that anyone knew about, including Google\u2019s recommendations, were inaccessible. The only way that I could get one from an Islamic seller was to have a friend several states over buy and send me one all the way from Georgia.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had to self-advocate pretty much daily since I came into my disabled identity, and it is exhausting and isolating. It drives me to stay home many days, no longer because I don\u2019t have energy, but because when I try to find people like me, I\u2019m told, in every way possible, that I am not physically welcome in spaces that are supposedly for me. In Islamic bookstores. At South Asian Muslim groceries. At Mosques. In \u201cprogressive\u201d Muslim spaces. Nobody claims me.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want Mosques in particular to make active changes without me having to fight so bitterly hard for them. I need more mosques to have information about how to request interpreters, to have the construction done for elevators and ramps, to speak of my community with respect and fight for our issues the way they do for their own. Going beyond access, claiming me-truly claiming me-looks like caring about me all of the time, not just when it\u2019s convenient. This extends to all Muslim spaces-if you claim to want me, <\/span>act like it.<\/span><\/i> Take the steps necessary to get me in the room and participate on equal footing, and fight to defend my right to access and live in the world alongside me.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a member of the ADA generation, I experience a lot of privileges that people before me didn\u2019t have. I don\u2019t want to diminish that. I can get on the bus. I got an education. I have a job and can enter my place of work. However, what the ADA intentionally excluded (places of worship, small businesses) and what it didn\u2019t (social groups, nonprofits) remain challenges for me, every day as I try so hard to participate and find community.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll keep fighting, as long as I have to. I should never have to. I\u2019ll keep praying. They can take away the house of God, but they\u2019ll never take away my faith.<\/span><\/p>\n

ABOUT<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\"A
A south asian person poses in a Jazzy Passport folding power chair. He has on brown lace up boots, a colorful floral skirt, and a white lace top. He has a conference badge. He is smiling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Noor Pervez<\/strong> is a student organizer turned autism and LGBT+ educator, public speaker and internet researcher. He focuses on the intersections of disability, gender identity, sexuality and religion. He now works at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network as the Community Engagement Coordinator.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read all 13 essays from the #ADA3oInColor series<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Support Disability Media and Culture<\/b><\/p>\n

DONATE<\/b><\/a>\u00a0to the Disability Visibility Project\u00ae<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They can take away the Mosque, but they\u2019ll never take my faith Noor Pervez Plain language summary https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/disability_visibility\/content.blubrry.com\/disability_visibility\/Noor_Pervez-They_can_take_away_the_Mosque_but_they_ll_never_take_my_faith.mp3<\/a> When I think about faith, I feel love, first, then pain. It … Continue Reading They can take away the Mosque, but they\u2019ll never take my faith<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":472664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6701202],"tags":[3471,173786,66130,587152916,587152716,587152717,587152719,587152921,587152353,72082,587152721],"class_list":["post-472589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-blog-posts","tag-accessibility","tag-accommodations","tag-ada","tag-ada-30-in-color","tag-communities-of-faith","tag-disabled-muslims","tag-houses-of-worship","tag-mosques","tag-muslim-disabled-people","tag-south-asian","tag-worship","post-has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Noor-Pervez-copy.jpg?fit=1378%2C583&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4H7t1-1YWp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}