Man Finds Plenty of Surprises in Bay Area Mosques

Zuhair Sadaat, 25, knew the Bay Area Muslim world was more varied than his parents’ 3,000-member, suburban Santa Clara mosque, where the congregation encompassed doctors, engineers, and other successful professionals.

In 2010, he set out to discover just how diverse it was.

The result: “30 Mosques in 30 Days,” a blog that clicks with American-born Muslim millennials. 

Sadaat (rhymes with Zagat) visited a different mosque each night of the holy month of Ramadan, sizing up everything from shoe shelves and parking to the imam’s ability to inspire when leading the nightly taraweeh prayers.

Now in its second year, his catalogue of impressions is irresistibly droll, candid, and revealing.

“I turned around and saw a friendly woman looking at me. She was my ex-roommate's mother. I was surprised for a half-second that she was able to recognize me, and then I remembered, oh yeah, I'm one of three brown people in a crowd of 400 white people.”

He started in his home town of Santa Clara, then headed North to mosques in Milpitas, Belmont, San Mateo, South San Francisco, and beyond before stopping to tell it like it is in six counties.

Some included only a handful of worshippers; others, hundreds. He prayed in grand structures and in makeshift holy places using available space:

It's a rug store, no joke. Plenty of people walking by on El Camino were giving us strange looks, probably wondering what the hell those terrorists were doing in a closed business.

One thing is clear. He loves his faith and his people, however divergent. He was particularly impressed in Belmont by a mixed community with an energetic young imam: The people up here are so friendly it's ridiculous.

And in South San Francisco: Do you think it's possible to have a crush on a mosque? I do, because I do. I was floored when I first pulled into the parking lot and saw the beautiful facade of this place. 

San Mateo got points for feminism: This is the only mosque I have ever seen where the front entrance was reserved for women and women only. Good for them!

Then, alas, he discovered those with inadequate space and no amenities: Parking is in the charming strip mall parking lot. The mosque shares the lot with numerous liquor stores and even a night club. I wouldn't drive anything newer than a 2005 model or else my car would get keyed for sticking out like a sore thumb.

Shoe shelves. For some reason, nobody uses them. I placed my shoes on the shelves next to the only other pair, and saw that those flip-flops had cobwebs all over them. Guess the mosque left a demo pair on the shelves to show folks that they're shoe shelves.

Three messages lie behind these light-hearted thumbnail sketches, all simple: Muslims are human. Muslims differ from one another, and so do mosques. And many, many Muslims call the Bay Area home.

Sometimes blog visitors take issue with his observations, like when he scolded one mosque for sinking money into a new minaret instead of something more practical, like a men’s room. But mainly he gets thumbs-ups.

This year, he'll revist some of last year's sites. And he'll hit some new ones.

He read about San Bruno's Al Madinah Academy in the newspaper. The mosque occupies a modest residential building, and has grown from seven to 60 members since it opened its doors in 2003. If holds taraweeh prayers, he'll be there.

"It's a mosque few people know about, so I was definitely looking forward to visiting this small community," he said.

He said there's much more he could be doing to promote his blog, but he's been cool to the idea. For one thing, he doesn't want to become recognizable.

“I don’t want people to expect me,” he said. “I want to be an anonymous visitor.”