The State of Masajid in Japan

For several months, I have been trying to write a comprehensive article on the state of the masajid in Japan.  However, my other engagements have prevented me from doing so. But, I have been taking notes, gathering ideas on which points to discuss in the said essay.  Following are the points I plan to include in my essay Inshallah some time soon.

• Mosques in Japan are healthy and growing in number steadily

• Most Masajid are pretty young. They were established recently.  They are still trying to strengthen their foundations in many respects

• That is the reason they face challenges. Some of these challenges are are as follows.

• They need to develop best pratctices to perform their activities the way Islam prescribes

• How can we build strong, vibrant, healthy　masajid according to the standards set by the Prophet (SAW) and his  his beloved companions

• A Prophetic Masjid should do the following

  • Increases knoweledge

  • Enhances the community sense among its members

  • Helps establish good relationship with the broader non-Muslim community around it

  • Serves the social and religious needs of the Muslim community

  • Calls to Islam in the best possible way

  • Provides a platform for the Muslims at all levels

  • Calls to justice

  • Offers generosity to the Muslims and non-Muslims alike

• Most of the masajid in Japan are quite healthy and vibrant.

• Many of them offer arrangements for five daily prayers

• Jumah Khutba and Islamic study classes for children and adults alike

• The percentage of full time paid Imams is very low

• Nasajid couls serve the Muslim community much better if they have fulll time paid Imams

• Full time Imamas are not very well trained to perform activities other than teaching the Quran

• Imams should have a formal degree in Islam

• Most imams were born out of Japan

• They came to the country fairly recently, thus do not know the Japanese language, do not understand the cultuural traditions of the local community

• Few institutions, if any, to trains foreign born or local Imams

• Masajd are understaffed

• Many of them arrange weekend schools for children and adults

• Income of many masajid is prettuy low

• masajid are diverse in nature

• very few have system for greeting and welcoming new attendees

• Attendees should gett o know each other more intimately

• Some masajid are offering cash assistance

• counselling services to for marriages, other social and family matters

• Offer food give-away

• offer service on health education

• They should host an open house at least once every few months

• Should participate in other activities ain their local communityies to give a sense of being a part of the larger society in the country

• Unfortunately, many masajid re-inventb the wheel and do not get benefit form the experience of their more experienced siblings in the countrty

• Most of them are not networked properly on the national level

• Indeed, there is no common veision for a Prophetic masajid although, many of them atry to follow some basic rules tonpropagate Islam and perform other comminity relatwed activities