Imam Talib Shareef leads Masjid Muhammad, the Nation’s Mosque, which is one of Washington, D.C.’s historic black religious institutions, D.C.’s oldest Muslim community. Aside from prayer and religious lessons, the mosque provides many services to the community, including weekend classes for the children of the mosque, a nutrition program for seniors throughout the city of the community and a military veterans’ association.

The mosque also advocates for job creation and affordable housing through its civic engagement committee and combats social justice issues like mass incarceration and human trafficking. It works with interfaith groups to foster a connection with different religious groups.

When referring to African-American society, many scholars attribute the strength and progress of the black community to the black church. According to Nicole Tinson of the Congressional Black Caucus foundation, the black church serves as “a place for creating individual, systemic, and political change.” While the vast majority of African-Americans, 78 percent according to a 2009 Pew Research Poll are Protestant, the dialogue fails to take into account the other 22 percent.

The constituents of Masjid Muhammad make up part of this 22 percent. Approximately 2.5 million people in America identify as indigenous Muslims. “History has already shown that a majority of the slaves came from West Africa,” said Imam Shareef. According to Imam Shareef they were predominantly Muslim. Faced with the climate of Islamophobia and the racial tensions that affect African-Americans, its constituents have a double identity that requires a consciousness and sensitivity toward both.

In attempts to combat the problems that arise with this double-consciousness, the mosque offers an avenue for discourse. The Masjid has hosted many panels, including one called “The Role of Faith in Social Justice,” in which faith leaders discussed ways to strengthen the mental health and education systems and their roles as leaders in the movement to liberate the oppressed. Members of the mosque’s civic engagement committee also participated in the January 21 Women’s March on Washington.

In combating this double consciousness, the mosque’s constituents keep up their ancestors’ work of struggling for liberation. Drawing on connections to his ancestors, Imam Shareef, like many others descendants of enslaved Africans connected with the “genetic memory of Islam.” Shareef was raised Baptist, but converted, or “reverted,” around the time that activists Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali were active in the Nation.

Fareedah Mahdi, a constituent of the Masjid, was raised Episcopalian, but could not grasp two questions in the context of Episcopalian beliefs: “Why was God portrayed as a man?” She felt that God’s power would be limited by being defined as a man, but more specifically a white man. Another question remaining unanswered was, she said, “why ritual appeared to be stronger than belief.”

Phyllis Tarver-Kashif had a similar experience. Though she was raised Muslim, she attended private Catholic schools and had the same questions. “God, gold, and glory,” she said, were the basis of the historic brutality in Catholicism, dating back to the Crusades.  “If they couldn’t get the gold and they didn’t get the glory conquering you–imperialism– and if you didn’t accept Christianity, they murdered you.”

Both Mahdi and Tarver-Kashif have raised their children in the mosque, making sure that they are able to read and write Arabic. They attend the mosque’s weekly prayer services.

However, Mahdi urged people to compare religions. “God brought different ways to different people,” she said. And the way of Masjid Muhammad, is one of universality. The mosque does so through interfaith groups, in order to foster a greater sense of understanding amongst humanity.

“This whole world speaks to our soul,” Shareef said, “We all have the same soul.” To stay in touch with that soul, the Islamic community of Masjid Muhammad participates in religious traditions like fasting, which Shareef said is, “intrinsic to all major religions.”

The mosque, which was built by descendants of enslaved Africans, is now multicultural because of its appeal to all marginalized groups. The religion places an emphasis on the universal connection of the human race and understanding that there is only one human race.