This is a Time for Prayer, Unity, and Vigilance.
Assalamu Alaikum, Beloved MCC Community,
Like many of you, we are heartbroken by today’s attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego (ICSD). Three members of our wider ummah were killed in a place that should have been a religious sanctuary, including a security guard whose actions, by all accounts, saved many more lives.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we return.
Our prayers are with the victims, their families, and the entire San Diego Muslim community.
At MCC, we are implementing additional safety measures and working with the Pleasanton Police Department, which is providing support. In the coming days, we will ask for your cooperation, even when it may be inconvenient.
To help ensure the safety of our congregation, we have arranged for armed security personnel to be present during our weekly Friday prayers and our upcoming Eid prayers. We will review and, where needed, adjust our security and operational procedures so that our beloved masjid remains a place where you and your families feel safe to pray, learn, and gather.
We ask our community members to remain especially vigilant, park only in designated areas, stay alert, and immediately report any suspicious activity to mcc-listens@mcceastbay.org.
Also, this Friday, May 22, alongside our interfaith allies & local city officials, we will hold a community vigil in the MCC parking lot right after our last Jumu’ah service ends, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. We will have banners for everyone to sign and for our kids to draw messages of support from us that we will send to the San Diego Muslim community. More details in this Thursday’s newsletter.
For those in the community experiencing grief, anxiety, or emotional distress in the wake of this tragedy, our community mental health partner Maristan offers professional, faith-centered counseling & support for children, teens & adults.
May Allah protect our mosques and communities.
In Service,
MCC Board of Directors
mcc-listens@mcceastbay.org
We pray that the deceased are in the highest levels of paradise. We ask God to envelope the loved ones left behind with His mercy and comfort in this time of extreme difficulty. The Muslim community is in grief and pain.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“The example of the believers in their mutual love, mercy, and compassion is like one body: when one part of the body suffers, the whole body responds with sleeplessness and fever.”
Narrated by Al-Nu’man ibn Bashir in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
