From The Daily Nebraskan
Posted: Monday, November 18, 2013 1:00 am
by Layla Younis
Members of the Sabah Mosque youth group stood outside of their mosque this Saturday, waiting for their group leader so they could drive to a community dinner.
They talked about how cheap handbags are in Bosnia, what cities in Bosnia or Germany their families are from and if they might help rake the leaves outside of their mosque.
After nine months of using the new mosque, the teenagers of Sabah have found a place to be themselves — students living in the United States without losing their culture through the creation of their new youth group.
Senada Gusic, a freshman political science major, has been the leader of the youth group since last Ramadan, a month-long Islamic holiday in which practicing Muslims fast from sunup to sundown, that took place from July 8 to Aug. 7.
The mosque does not have its own Imam, an Islamic leader who leads prayers, but during Ramadan, the mosque brings in a temporary one for the month.
The one who came last year started the youth group and encouraged younger members of the mosque to continue the group.
“He passed the baton on to some of the older kids,” Gusic said.
The mosque brings in a Turkish Imam from Omaha during the rest of the year to lead Friday prayers, Gusic said.
Gusic said the mosque started out with a handful of families getting together and renting out a room at the People’s City Mission. They started outgrowing the space, so they purchased a former church at 1145 Furnas Ave and remodeled it. The mosque currently has about 100 to 150 members, and the new building is big enough to house all members during Ramadan, the busiest time of the year for the mosque, Gusic said.
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