By Mia Gallegos | FāVS News Reporter
Main Points
Seattle’s The Center for Global Muslim Life is releasing the first of its kind Pacific Northwest Prayer Rug, a project and initiative aimed at reimagining traditional Muslim prayer rugs as “living artifacts” of Indigenous lands. This project, according to the Center’s website, is “meant to reflect the stories, identities, and ancestral ties of Muslim communities” in parts of Washington State, Oregon and the province of British Columbia.
Dustin Craun, who founded the Center for Global Muslim life in 2020 and now works as its executive director, explained how the idea for the PNW prayer rugs came about several years ago.
“We were doing some work on the U.S.-Mexico border where we made a short film called ‘A Prayer Beyond Borders,’ which was about the border mosque that we had built there,” Craun said. “We were actually gathering monthly with separated families at Friendship Park at the border.”
Rooting the sacred in place
Craun explained that his wife and business partner, Amor Craun, had the idea to gift prayer rugs to the migrants entering the U.S., buying hundreds of prayer rugs to give to the shelters that provided assistance to the individuals entering.
“We didn’t know the situation they were fleeing from,” Dustin Craun said. “So what we wanted to do was to give them something that would make them feel at home.”
From there a conversation began about creating a prayer rug that was unique and homage-giving to the Indigenous and sacred land within PNW region. This idea, Craun said, was largely inspired by a prayer rug created in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, called the Canadian Prayer Rug.
“That group was very intentional about doing work (that) connected Muslim communities to Indigenous communities in Canada,” Dustin Craun said.
He went on to share parts of the extensive history of Islam in the Americas, referencing an article he wrote that detailed the over 500-year history of this religion. He shared that the story that’s told of Islam in the Americas is very nuanced and intertwined with the Indigenous people native to American soil.
“As Muslims were expelled from Andalusia coming to the Americas, and as enslaved Africans were escaping, they went to Indigenous communities,” Dustin Craun said. “[They] were the first communities to protect them.”
He shared that the goal for the design of this prayer rug was to encapsulate this deep-rooted history between the Muslim population in the Americas and the Indigenous community that first welcomed them. The centerpiece of the prayer rug is Mt. Rainier, which is called Tahoma in reference to Native roots.
“You can go to a prayer rug shop and find rugs from Turkey or from China, and they’ll have one of 3 primary buildings on them: Mecca, Medina or Jerusalem,” Dustin Craun said. “ It’s never a place where you’re from. So the idea was ‘how do we make a prayer rug that talks about the sacredness of land and (that) of all the places we live throughout the Earth?’”
Dustin Craun shared intercultural dialogue as one of the big goals of the prayer rug.
“We really want to create conversation between these Indigenous and Muslim communities,” he said. “Getting them to think about who we are, who our communities are and how we can be better connected in these places.”
A hope that the Center for Global Muslim Life has for the prayer rug is for it to be offered to places like public libraries, prisons and shelters, making daily prayer more accessible to Muslims in locations where they may not be expecting to have a place to go during their day.
Dustin Craun shared that a part of this process has been conducting the Pacific Northwest Muslim Impact Report. This had a variety of functions, including a deep dive into Seattle’s mosque accessibility throughout the city.
“In looking at all the mosques in the region and how many of them are clustered in certain parts of the city, we have whole areas where we have what we call a ‘lack of prayer access,’” he said. “This means it’s not an easy place — especially in the winter — to find a spot to pray.”
The long term goal is to find places like libraries and other willing organizations in these low access areas that would be willing to have a prayer rug on hand, or even a part of their space designated for Muslims seeking a place to complete their daily prayers.
Amor Craun, the vice president of the Center for Global Muslim Life, explained the process as having incorporated the work and ideas of several artists and many members of the community. The purpose of having a variety of voices on this project was to honor the interconnectedness of cultures that the Center is seeking to bring awareness to with what they hope is a timeless prayer rug.
The design team was very mindful in terms of receiving approvals and opinions from these different communities, with the name undergoing several changes before landing upon the Pacific Northwest Prayer Rug.
Building bridges between communities
Amor Craun spoke of her desire for her community to be aware of the lands they are on and to exercise respect for it and for those who originally welcomed them to the formerly foreign lands of the Americas.
“For me as an Indigenous woman, this is one of the most important things about this project,” Amor Craun said. “To make sure the Muslim community recognizes the people of the land, that they know the land they’re on, and that they build community and connections in a respectful way so that we can get to know each other.”
Amor Craun shared her desire for her kids, who are growing up with their Indigenous heritage while practicing Islam as a family.
“It’s important that my kids know that they can be both and that all of their identities matter,” Amor Craun said. “They are able to build community and bridges with one another so that we are not strangers.”
Dustin Craun shared a similar sentiment to his wife in regard to the uniting hope that accompanies the creation of the Pacific Northwest Prayer Rug.
“To me, this is a revolutionary project of understanding, transformation and belonging.”
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Thank you for reporting on this meaningful and artistic connection being created between Indigenous and Muslim communities. This is a connection unknown to most of is. This kind of reporting is why FaVS News is so important!