Rahmat Phyakul and his wife Sukatee founded Masjid Al-Fatiha, a small Thai mosque in Azusa, California. Rahmat was raised as a Buddhist in Thailand until he met Sukatee in the 1960s and converted to Islam. Their daughter, Aranyani Phyakul, says that the community was skeptical of the Thai mosque when it was originally built. “People didn’t know what to make of us. They thought it was going to disrupt their life,” she recounts. “You don’t expect a Muslim to look like us.”
Congregants at the Thai mosque are not only from Southeast Asia but are also immigrants from Bangladesh, Niger, Pakistan, India and Morocco, as well as Caucasian and African American converts. According to Jihad Turk, president of Bayan Claremont Islamic Graduate School, the establishment of the Thai mosque highlights Southern California’s diverse Muslim population. “Every mosque has its own culture because in Islam there is no hierarchical structure,” says Mr. Turk. “Some mosques tend to focus on the culture of the founders from back home, wherever that may be, or others are adjusted in the American context.”
“Our parents decided to establish this Masjid for the future of their grandkids,” states Aranyani. “The way we interact with people is out of love.”
