KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Imam Bilal Hazziez and journalist Sara Jawhari are more than a decade apart in age, but have much in common when it comes to matters of faith.
About this series: We are exploring Kansas City’s many religious communities and talking to members about the way faith shapes their lives.
Sara Jawhari: “I feel my best in a position of giving."
Jawhari, 25, is a multimedia journalist whose work has taken her overseas and placed her in some of the world’s most disenfranchised communities. In 2015, she documented conditions inside Syrian refugee camps with the human rights organization Invisible Children.
Watch Jawhari speak about her experiences growing up Muslim in Kansas City. (If you cannot see the media player below, click here to watch.)
Jawhari credits her Muslim upbringing and her hardworking parents with inspiring her to make a career out of advocacy.
"I feel my best in a position of giving," Jawhari said.
MARCH 7: Panel discussion, "Muslims in the Metro"
About Islam
Nearly one-fourth of the human population is Muslim; according to a Pew research study released in 2015, over 1.6 billion people identify as Muslims worldwide. Islam is thought to have originated in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca with the Prophet Muhammad, whose teachings are recorded in the holy book the Quran.
The Muslim community in America is one with deep roots: experts estimate that 20 percent of slaves brought to the North American colonies were practicing Muslims in their home countries, and many of the religious protections written into early American law were drafted with Islam in mind.
Today, Islam is the third-largest religion in the United States.
Imam Bilal Hazziez: "Worship is doing anything that’s good."
Most days are busy days for Imam Bilal Hazziez. In addition to running a real estate company, Hazziez, 37, serves as resident imam of Al-Inshirah Islamic Center, where he leads worship, performs wedding and funeral services and provides marriage counseling for members of Kansas City’s Muslim community.
WATCH: Hazziez shares what serving as imam means to him in the video player above
For Hazziez, who grew up attending services at Al-Inshirah before being elected imam as an adult, Islam is larger than a religion; instead, he describes it as a lifestyle.
“For a practicing Muslim, your whole day revolves around worshipping your God,” he said. “And worship is not necessarily just prayer. Worship is doing anything that’s good: being kind to your fellow man, being an asset to society, giving to charity. All of those things are a form of worship. Before you rush off to work or to school in the morning, the first thing you do is pray to God. You pray several more times throughout the day. And what that does is, it keeps you focused on what your purpose is here, which is first to be a servant to God and then to mankind.”
About Al-Inshirah Islamic Center
- 3664 Troost Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri.
- Founded in 1982
- Number of worshippers: About 50 families
- Information about services
- Contact: (816) 960-0475 | alinshirahkc@gmail.com
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In our next installment of this series, we plan to cover Resurrection Downtown, a Methodist congregation in Kansas City. If you have feedback, suggestions or think someone in your community has an interesting story about their faith, you can email series producer Sarah Walsh at sarah.walsh@kshb.com or contact her on Twitter @sarahbellewalsh.
