Dear New Yorkers,
As Muslims observe Ramadan this month, three mosques in Queens have the official go-ahead to add a major feature for the first time: speakers, to project the daily calls to prayer, or adhan.
It’s a first for mosques in Astoria, now home to thousands of Muslims from Bangladesh, Egypt and Morocco.
The neighborhood did not always look like this, said Sheikh Atef Mohamed of Masjid El-Ber, said to be the first mosque to open in Astoria in the 1980s. A Muslim enclave was only beginning to emerge in the majority Greek and Italian corner of the borough when he arrived from Egypt in 1985.
“When you come from a country like Egypt, and you are coming from a religious family, and you pray, and then you come and see yourself here — and there is no mosque, there is no adhan, there’s nothing to remind you with the prayer … So you will feel kind of like ‘where am I?’” he told THE CITY.
Read more here.
Some other items of note: The state budget deadline came and went this weekend. In the talks up in Albany, criminal justice reforms have been sidelined, with a raft of proposals likely pushed off at least until next year.
In the East Village, longtime tenants on East 11th and 12th streets say a new owner who bought the building last summer is pushing them out. The residents’ apartments are a mix of market-rate and rent-regulated homes.
The Rev. David Brawley, pastor of St. Paul’s Community Baptist Church and co-chair of the community organizing group Metro-IAF, talks with THE CITY Executive Editor Alyssa Katz about what it really takes to build community power on the latest episode of the FAQ NYC podcast.
New Yorkers have until May 31 to submit the names of loved ones to MISSING THEM, THE CITY’s COVID-19 memorial project; send a note to memorial@thecity.nyc. May 31 is also the last day to see the MISSING THEM photo exhibit in The Bronx and Queens.
We’re just getting started covering this year’s Council races (Primary Day is June 27!) and we want to make our reporting better with your help. What are your questions about voting, your ballot or local campaigns? Text “Election” to THE CITY’s team at (718) 215-9011 to get answers, or email us at ask@thecity.nyc with “Election” in the subject line.
See how New York City is doing with our newsroom’s economic recovery tracker.
For the latest local numbers on COVID-19 hospitalizations, positivity rates and more, check our coronavirus tracker.
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