The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 20

B6. THE SUN, Sunday, April 24, 1983 Pratt's Islamic programs touch a nerve in Muslim community i fill I'ltifew "1 By Frank P. L. Somerville Religion Editor of The Sun A series of lectures, discussions -and films about Islam at the central 3noch Pratt library intended to inform non-Muslims about the fastest growing religion in the world is Succeeding in ways the sponsors did jot anticipate. m' Even the Tuesday evening pro-Sgrams' organizers, some of whom are -acknowledged experts on aspects of 3slam, admit they are expanding their of the subject "We're all earning," said Carol Bier, instructor in Islamic art at the University of Maryland and project director for the Pratt series.

For one thing, the organizers Searned how intensely Baltimore's diverse Muslim community feels it is misunderstood and misinterpreted by 1 Western society. For another, they have confronted angry complaints that Muslim scholars are not adequately represented among the speakers in the five-week series. Originally, only two of the five lecturers were to have been Muslims. As a partial response to these complaints, the library added a sixth 1 lecture May 17 by Mohammad Z. A wan, a chemistry teacher at Poly who is a native of Pakistan and the president of the Islamic Society of Maryland.

He has been asked to bring a believer's theological insights to the -subject, "Islam: A Code of life." Not all local Muslim reaction is hostile to the Pratt's ambitious educational program, arranged by a Washington-based interfaith foundation and partly supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities through a $7,900 grant from the Maryland Committee for the Hu-manities. But the charge that the growing Islamic movement among black Americans was "belittled" in the planning 'of the series is being voiced on many I Despite what Malik Abdussamad, jimam of the 12-yearold Masjid Saf-'fat on West North avenue, saw as "some historical distortions" in the two presentations to date, he de-scribed the "net effect" of the Pratt's efforts as "most definitely positive." said he was able to forgive a sponsorship "out of touch with the indigenous Islamic community" after 2e observed the healthy, unprejudiced furiosity about his faith stimulated among non-Muslims in the audiences. ti Abdul Muhsiy, another member of Mr. Abdussamad's group, said Baltimore's Muslims, who number "several thousand," spend too much of their -time trying to explain "what Islam Ssn't" and it is refreshing to have new Dr. Mohamed Z.

Awad (left), is disturbed by the Pratt program's "unhealthy climate," bat Malik Abdussamad found from the Nation of Islam of the Black Muslim leader, Elijah Muhammad, and which in the mid-1970s, while turning away from black supremacist doctrines, adopted its previous name of World Community of Al-Islam in the West. "I don't need a Christian or Jew to teach me about Islam," declared a lone, angry picket last Tuesday night at the Cathedral street entrance to the library. Referring to the fact that Dr. Freedman was Jewish, Mr. Shakir suggested that the Jewish community would have every right to be incensed if the Pratt had asked Muslims to interpret the Holocaust for non-Jews.

He was especially critical of Islam Centennial Fourteen (ICF), the Washington-based nonprofit organization that obtained funds for the lecture and film series and cosponsored it with the Pratt Library. Mr. Shakir contended that ICF, whose stated purpose is to honor the 14th centennial of Islam and "provide objective information to the general public about the diverse peoples and cultures of the Muslim world," had totally disregarded even in its films "the African-American per spective." Ms. Bier, who organized the Baltimore programs, countered that Imam W. D.

Muhammad of Chicago, the national leader of Mr. Shakir's mosque, is on the board of ICF. Ms. Bier did note, however, that complaints such as those voiced by Mr. Shakir and others in Baltimore's black community led to the inclusion of representatives of the African-American Muslim movement in a similar series of lectures on Islam planned in Washington for May and June.

Dr. Mohamed Z. Awad, an Egyptian-born Baltimore county physician and one of the founders of the Islamic Society of Maryland, said he was disturbed by the "unhealthy climate around the whole program" at the Pratt, in which Dr. Awan's lecture needed to be added "as a matter of yielding to pressure and criticism." Dr. Awad took sharp issue with several of Dr.

Freedman's interpretations and said he found the entire Pratt Library series deficient in that it "overlooks" the strength and vitality of the Muslim faith among black American converts. "The thing that frightens me most," Dr. Awad said, "is that the program encourages emotional rather than objective responses." But Ms. Bier said she had received many positive comments about the first two programs from Muslims in the audiences including blacks and non-Muslims. "It should not be impossible to address both believers and nonbelievers," she said.

Next Tuesday's speaker is Charles E. Butterworth, associate professor of government and politics at College Park, whose subject will be "Religion and Politics in Islam." The free two-hour program, which will include a 30-minute film, begins at 7 p.m. 4 I i-4 The SunIrving H. Phillips. Jr.

for the development of a good school. more involvement you have, the better school you have." "If we didn't plan it" says Josn Mason, the P-TA president, "someone would plan it for us, and they wouldn't have any idea what we need. They would base it on a typical school, and this isn't a typical school. We want a plan to accommodate us." Mrs. Emmett reflects on the question.

The school system has all the experts, so why should parents do this sort of work? "They have the experts," she says. "We have the children." At this school, the 3 Rs are reading, writing renovating? v. V. S5-- Sts He was protesting the second lecture, a discussion of the prophet Muhammad from the point of view of a non-Muslim political scientist. The speaker, Robert 0.

Freedman, dean of graduate studies at Baltimore Hebrew College, emphasized repeatedly that his appraisal of Muhammad as "an extremely able military leader" and "a superb politician and tactician" must be considered apart from theological opinions. Principal Evelyn Beasley credits doesn't go for Roland Park. We want to keep everyone together." To accomplish this, he says, he and the other parents are studying the possibility of having a new wing built where half the school would move. The other half would remain in the building while it was being renovated. School officials seem sympathetic.

"Roland Park is functioning as one of the best schools in the city," Mr. Lantz says. we scattered the students for two years, you'd haveto start building the school all oyer again. At Robert Poole, we're playing is fi r' 1 the The SunWilliam H. Mortimer it "most definitely positive." The picket, Hakim Ali, carried a hand-lettered sign charging that the Pratt Library was part of a "conspiracy" against Islam.

Expanding on this view, Ronald Shakir, a leader of the Wilson street mosque, said he was "quite disturbed" by what he saw as the "sinister political undercurrents" of the publicly financed programs, which he contended were purposely distorting and discrediting the Muslim faith. involvement of parents and teachers checkers with the students. We have a temporary building there, and we're moving them as we go. We're going to do the same thing at Hamilton." It all goes back to Mrs. Beasley's philosophy of running a school.

"We know everyone outside of the school is for support," she says. "So they don't come in to dictate. They're all part of the support team." "They've visited other schools, they're even hiring an architect as a Northwest region superintendent. "I think that kind of thing is terrific. The opportunities to explain what it is.

The first two lectures were well attended and marked by lively, sometimes heated discussion. The harshest criticism of the April 12-to-May 17 series in the Pratt's Wheeler Auditorium, entitled "Islam: A Shared Heritage," has come from the Wilson street mosque of the American Muslim Mission Community. This is the group that evolved 2 1 1 The SunIrving H. Phillips, Jr. There were things to praise: The solid construction of the building, the attractive architecture, paneling in some of the old rooms, high ceilings and arched doorways.

600 square feet, while state standards call for 800 square feet. The state has allocated $8.3 million for next year for a new Roland Park building, although the renovation option is still open. Funds also have been approved for a new building for Francis Scott Key Junior High in Locust Point, and an Educational Facilities Program now is being written for that school. When those specifications are written, Mr. Lantz will select 5 architects from a list of 20 who have been rated as qualified by the city.

"We will take the architects out to the community, and we will ask the community to give us their preferences," Mr. Lantz says. Then the school board makes a recommendation on the architect, and one is appointed by the city. The architect will then be asked todo a study of the existing building, to see if 1 it can be renovated to fit the needs reflected in the Educational Facilities Program. The architect also will be asked to develop a schematic drawing of a new school.

"Then we will take both solutions back to the community and then back to the school board for a decision on which one it will be," Mr. Lantz says. He expects that decisions will be made and some sort of working designs would be ready by November. The state will pay for all of the cost of a new building. It does not pay all the cost of renovation.

It will pay 85 percent of the cost of renovating a building that is more than 40 years old, and the main building at Roland Park qualifies for that But it will pay for only 60 percent of the cost of renovating the 1954 part of the school, and 15 percent of the cost of the 1972 section. But Mr. Lantz said that did not mean Roland Park would be pushed to accept a new building. "We can do renovations," he says. "Right now we're renovating Robert Poole Junior High on West 36th street.

If it turns out that way at Roland Park, fine. If renovation is feasible, then I think we will renovate." And so, back at Roland Park, parents and teachers are staying after school many nights to make sure they have a say in that decision. Mace Miyasaki, an engineer and Roland Park parent, presides over stacks of questionnaires that were distributed to every teacher. The mimeographed forms ask: "What do you need to do the job? Is your classroom big enough? Do you have enough bulletin board space? Do your students need individual desks or tables and chairs?" The findings have been tabulated by the math department. The list is long and detailed: 76 percent of the teachers said their rooms were too small, 82 percent said they would like carpeting, 80 percent want to be grouped by department.

There was sentiment to eliminate the open space classrooms. Halls and classes are too crowded. And there were things to praise: The solid construction of the building, the attractive architecture, paneling in some of the old rooms, high ceilings and arched doorways. So far, the parents seem to be leaning toward renovation. They want the space and flexibility of modern classrooms, and they want the charm of the old building.

But they have one fear about renovation, that students would be split up for two years. "The way things have happened in the past is that students have been scattered to other schools during a renovation," Mr. Miyasaki says. f'The faculty and parents have said that SCHOOL, from Bl be renovated or should a new school be built? The graceful Romanesque building that pleases the eye of so many passersby was built in 1925 for $450,000. There have been ungainly additions, in 1930, 1954 and 1972, when a courtyard was enclosed to create open space classrooms on the first floor and science classrooms on the second.

Irene Briant has lived behind the school, on Deepdene road, for 20 years. She is upset at any talk of tearing it down. Her neighbors fear that additions will create more drainage problems. "It's a very nice piece of architecture," Mrs. Briant says.

"I see it all the time. I like the building. There's something very pleasing about the roundness. they would just round off some of the corners of these boxes they're building nowadays. Until seven years ago, the building had an orange terra-cotta roof, she says.

"You'd think you were looking at a building in Florence," Mrs. Briant says. "There's a nice soft mellow look about it, and it's perfectly sound. Why tear it down? The line has to be drawn somewhere, and it's very apparent that it should be drawn here. "The structure of a school has nothing to do with what goes into a student's head.

If money is to be spent," she said, "spend it on a very good teacher." Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Money to pay teachers comes from the city. Money for school construction comes from the state. i "We have a six-year capital program," says Curtis E. Lantz, assistant superintendent for the physical plant division.

"Usually a school moves up the list in five years. Roland Park has followed this process." Mr. Lantz's office, with the help of the city planning department, decides which schools go on the list. "They are selected through a combination of age and physical plant needs," Mr. Lantz says.

Roland Park got on the list for a variety of reasons, he says. "The basic electrical and mechanical systems are major problems," he says. "The shops are very small and stuck in the basement They have a small but nice library. "The building was constructed in a whole series of additions. That, as I ee it, is a major problem.

The additions were stuck in any available space. The floor plan is a real maze." Most of the classrooms don't meet current state standards for size. The rooms in the 1925 building are about I I ,1 i I II 1 .1111 1 i.