The Muslim organisation Salahuddin Future Academy (SAFA) has bought a Baptist church in Richardson in the US state of Texas. After resolving the complications of a legal case, it has drawn up plans to convert the large church campus into an Islamic school, a seminary and a mosque.
SAFA is a K-12 educational institution. According to its website, the institution’s main aim is the “Islamisation of knowledge,” through which the teachings of the Quran and hadith will be integrated into every field alongside the common core curriculum.
It bought the site from the Korean World Mission Baptist Church, which had owned the property since 1992. The main aim of that Christian centre was to spread the message of Christianity and make followers of Jesus Christ.
On the property, Salahuddin Future Academy and the Authentic Ilm Mission (AIM) are jointly to launch a “Dawah Academy and Seminary.” It is being described as America’s first national residential dawah seminary, offering courses including a bachelor’s degree in Islamic studies.
The organisation said in a statement: “We are committed to building a body of capable and principled leadership that will represent Islam with wisdom and set out authoritative positions in support of the truth.”
In a video message on social media about the handover of the church, a speaker for AIM remarked that a church which once trained people to convert Muslims to Christianity was today about to become a Muslim institution.
According to the Texas-based local news outlet The Dallas Express, SAFA filed a case against the church in February this year. The complaint said an agreement had been signed with the church authorities in October last year to buy the property for 3.8 million US dollars, and that SAFA paid 38,000 dollars in advance. The handover was to have been completed in May, but the church claimed its pastor had signed after misunderstanding the matter, believing it to be an advertisement or listing agreement for the sale of the site.
SAFA then took legal action seeking enforcement of the agreement and more than 1 million dollars in damages. The case was settled in April without a final ruling, clearing the way for the purchase.
The change of hands comes at a time when the growing spread of Islam in Texas is being discussed in various quarters. According to demographic data, although Muslims make up only 2 percent of Texas’s total population, it is the fifth largest Muslim-populated state in the United States by population. Islam is currently recognised as one of the fastest-growing religions in the world.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report