(Deutsche Welle) Irfan Thakar and Omar Ahamad feel misunderstood as Muslims in France. They are members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Saint-Prix, a northern suburb of Paris. As the imam, the 30-year-old Thakar regularly leads the prayer at the Moubarak mosque, which features a green-and-white carpet and large windows that let in lots of light.
“I am French,” Thakar told DW while sitting in a room adjacent to the prayer room and sipping a glass of multivitamin juice. “And, yet, I have to explain that over and over again to non-Muslims,” he said. “Many people think that Islam is incompatible with France — but that’s not true.”
Ahamad, sitting in an armchair next to him, nodded his approval. “We are being treated as if we belonged to a different nation, a different race,” he said. “That’s also due to the fact that the media only speak of Islam when there has been another terror attack.”
