Bradenton-area Muslims feel welcomed by neighbors, other religious communities

Attacks on Muslims and mosques -- vandalism, arson, bombings -- now occur often. The violence can strike even people mistaken for Muslims.

You've heard the vitriol spewed by people on social media. You've watched as frontrunning GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump says America should turn away refugees from Muslim countries or register all American Muslims.

Crimes directed at the Muslim community in the Bradenton-Sarasota area, however, have not happened.

"We've never had any trouble," said Shiraz Hassan, president of the Islamic Society of Sarasota and Bradenton. "Maybe someone has said something to someone when they were out shopping or something, but I haven't heard about it. We have great relationships with our neighbors."

The Islamic Society mosque, 4350 Lockwood Ridge Road in

Sarasota -- the only mosque in this area -- has about 300 members. It doesn't include all the Muslims in the area.

"I'd say there are maybe 600," he said. "I'm just guessing. As in any religion, not everyone comes to pray."

Islamic people in the Bradenton-Sarasota area feel welcome, he said, and even embraced by the Jewish and Christian communities. But they're not blind to anti-Islamic bigotry.

"I think there's a lot of Islamophobic rhetoric," Hassan said, "but my sense is that it isn't worse now than it was after 9/11. But now it's become mainstream."

There have been terror attacks by groups calling themselves Islamic, Hassan said. And local Muslims are just as shocked and sickened by those attacks as anyone else.

"It's become a theme today to lump all Muslims together with ISIS," he said. "That's not right. The people in ISIS, I do not think they are Muslims. Just because they call themselves Islamic State doesn't mean they are Muslims. They can use any name they want."

Even though local Muslims enjoy a peaceful coexistence with non-Muslim neighbors, Hassan sounds frustrated when he talks about rampant misconceptions about his faith.

"We are a monotheistic religion, and we worship the same god (as Christians)," he said. "If you look at an Arabic Bible, and there are Christian Arabs, you will see that the word for 'God' is 'Allah.' It's just the Arabic word for 'God.'"

Islam's 1,400-year history is marked far more by acceptance than terror, he said. The Islamic Society of Sarasota and Bradenton takes a straightforward approach to combatting Islamophobia, and it may the reason local Muslims feel welcome by people of other faiths. Jews escaping persecution in Europe over the centuries, he said, often fled to Muslim countries because they knew they'd be safer there.

The Islamic Society of Sarasota and Bradenton takes a simple and straightforward approach to dealing with misunderstanding or concerns about Islam.

"We have an open-door policy," Hassan said. "We pray five times a day, so there is usually someone at the mosque. If anyone has a question, they can just come to the mosque and we'll talk to them. We'll give them a copy of the Koran. We have no secrets."

For more information about the Islamic Society of Sarasota and Bradenton, call 941-351-3393 or go to issb.net.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 11:52 PM with the headline "Bradenton-area Muslims feel welcomed by neighbors, other religious communities ."