Community Center Filling the Void

In this day and age, where can a teenage boy go to have fun with friends and increase his faith at the same time?  Thankfully, there is such a place right around the corner filling this need seven days a week.  It's the Mosque Foundation Community Center (MFCC), a safe environment for teenage boys and girls to have fun, listen to lectures, and hang out with friends.  The Mosque Foundation Community Center offers recreational, educational, social and religious activities to maintain good health, good habits, and good manners.  Programs such as these can make a world of difference for adolescents, especially filling a void for public school kids who might not have the opportunity to learn about their religion in their regular school curriculum.  Ahmad Ahmad, an eighth grader at Worth Jr. High School, has been attending the youth programs at MFCC for the past two years.  Ahmad says he has made many new friends at MFCC and his parents are happy that it has given him something beneficial to do.  "The counselors here are nice.  They play around with us like friends and don't really make us feel like they are higher than us," Ahmad says while naming the counselors who've made a lasting impression on him, "Abu Bakr, Ali, and Abdel Rahman, and there's another kid named Ameen who always helps everybody."  Among the activities Ahmad says he enjoys the most at MFCC are the contests with cool prizes, like Six Flags Great America tickets for the Team Charade winners, and $100 for the talent show winner.  He also enjoys the Qur'an class with Sh. Kifah, and being able to use the weights and exercise equipment.  Yaqoub Ayyad, a junior this fall at J. Sterling Morton West High School is another public school student who feels  MFCC has filled a void in his life.  Yaqoub loves praying in a group with the other boys, and says the boys always encourage each other in their faith.  He comes here almost every boys' night to learn more about Islam, exercise, and hang out with friends.  "There are only four or five Muslims in my whole school," Yaqoub says, "so this place means a lot to me.  Here, they understand me, it makes us feel close."  Yaqoub also credits the counselors for giving the boys sound advice for everyday life, and offers this invitation to other kids who haven't come to MFCC yet, "This is a fun place, you will keep your prayers on time, learn respect and learn trust."  For more information about the Mosque Foundation Community Center, call (708) 598-6307.