Imam Shamsi Ali is a prominent Indonesian Muslim Scholar known for promoting interfaith dialogues among Abrahamic Religions in United States and the Chairman of the Al-Hikmah Mosque and the Director of Jamaica Muslim Center in
Jamaica, Queens
Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is mainly composed of a large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis to the east; St. Albans, Springfi ...
South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Selatan) is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sula ...
, Indonesia on October 5, 1967. He is the third of six children (though only five survived into adulthood). His parents were a couple with farming background, Ali Kadrun (father) and Inong Tippangrom (mother).
His parents were not religious, but they wanted him to learn how to read the Koran, so they sent him to ''Daarul Arqam'' Islamic boarding school. During his childhood, Utteng (as he used to be called) was rebellious, lazy and often truant. He was one time detained for hitting a student named Mustafa, breaking his nose and sending him to the hospital. Mustafa's parents then called the police and they arrested him, though he was not entirely guilty. Finally Utteng was jailed for two weeks. Fortunately, he was not expelled from the boarding school due to the incident.
His name was changed from ''Utteng'' to ''Shamsi'' (an Arabic word which means ''Sun'') when he and his father met with the ''Daarul Arqam'' school headmaster, Abdul Jabbar Asyiri. The headmaster argued that in Islam, the name is a prayer and should have a good sense, and he eventually renamed his middle name from ''Utteng'' to ''Shamsi'' with hope, Utteng could be the praiseworthy one (from his first name) and can illuminate (from his middle name, with the same way the sun does) people's hearts.
Education
After completing primary school at age 12 in the village of
Tana Toa
Tana Toa (sometimes spelled as ''Tanatoa'', ''Tanah Toa'', or ''Tanah Towa'') is a village in the Kajang district, Bulukumba Regency in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The village is located in the east coast of South Sulawesi, about from town of K ...
in Bulukumba Regency, his parents sent him to ''Darul-Arqam''
pesantren
''Pesantren'', or ''pondok pesantren'', are Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia. They consist of pondok, mosque, santri, teaching of classical Islamic texts and Kyai.Zamakhsyari Dhofie''The Pesantren Tradition: A Study of the Role of the Kyai ...
(Islamic
boarding school
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
) in
Makassar
Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Med ...
, which is owned by the
Muhammadiyah
Muhammadiyah ( ar, محمدية; 'followers of Muhammad'); also known as the Muhammadiyah Society ( id, Persyarikatan Muhammadiyah) is a major Islamic non-governmental organization in Indonesia.A. Jalil HamidTackle the rising cost of living longer ...
organization. After graduating from the boarding school in 1987, Shamsi Ali stayed there as a teacher until the end of 1988.
He received a scholarship offer from Rabithah Alam Islami to study at the International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He completed his undergraduate in Tafseer in 1992 and continued his master at the same university in the field of Comparative Religion in 1994. During his study in Pakistan, Shamsi Ali also worked as a lecturer at the school funded by Saudi Arabia, ''the
Red Crescent Society
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, an ...
'' in Islamabad, where later he received an offer to teach at the Islamic Education Foundation in
Jeddah
Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...
Hajj
The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
season, Shamsi Ali got a mandate to speak at the Consulate General of Indonesia in Jeddah. From there, he met with some foreign hajj pilgrims, including the Indonesian Ambassador to the United Nations,
During his study in Islamabad, he was hired as a muezzin in Faisal Mosque, the biggest mosque in the city. He saved money to fund his
hajj
The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
(pilgrimage) and wedding.
After arriving in New York in 1996, he served as an imam to an Indonesian community mosque in
Long Island City
Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...
, Queens. Through funding from the Indonesian Mission to the UN, Bank of Indonesia and the Indonesian consulate of New York, the community purchased a chemical warehouse for $350,000 on the 31st Street and 48th Avenue in Astoria, Queens. In 2001, he was appointed as deputy Imam of Islamic Cultural Center of New York which is the city's largest mosque located in 96th street and 3rd Ave in Manhattan, but left the position in 2011.
Shamsi Ali is also the chairman of the board of trustees for the ASEAN Muslim Federation of North America. He also serves as the vice president of the Asian-American Coalition USA (AAC-USA) and its UN representative and as an advisory board member to numerous interfaith organizations, including the Tanenbaum Center and Federation for Middle East Peace.
In interfaith organizations, Imam Ali serves as a board member for the Partnership of Faith in NY, and co-founder of the UNCC (Universal Clergy Coalition-International). Furthermore, he is also assistant director and a board member of the Muslim Foundation of America, Inc., and chairman of the annual Muslim Day Parade in NYC.
A few days after the events of 11 September 2001, New York City chose him to represent the Muslim community to visit the scene, where he met President George W. Bush. He also recited a prayer at the memorial service for the September 11th victims at Yankee stadium in the Bronx.
In 2002, Ali was appointed "Ambassador for Peace" by the International Religious Federation, and a recipient of ICLI Interfaith Award in 2008. Ali was chosen as one of the seven most influential religious leaders in New York City by New York Magazine in 2006.
He represented the Muslim community at an interfaith discussion on Religions and Sustainable Development in the White House 2007, and took part in the Transatlantic Interfaith Dialogue in Frankfurt, Germany 2008.
Within the Indonesian Muslim community in North America, he serves as an advisory board to major national Muslim organizations such as IMSA (Indonesian Muslim Society in America) and ICMI (Indonesian Muslim Intellectual Society in America). He is also the president of Nusantara Foundation, a community based operating and non-profit organization in New York that is established, publicly supported, operated by, and for the benefit of Indonesian culture.
Controversy
Shamsi Ali was accused by some people of Islamic Cultural Center of New York of misconduct during his time as the Imam. Furthermore, some congregations disagreed with his "liberal" approaches, especially his interfaith activities which they said were controversial. Other people at the mosque accused him not to do good in the wider community, but instead he went out and made friends with Mayor
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...
and Police Commissioner Kelly. Some people then refused to attend Ali's prayers. His teachings about how to lead a modern Islamic life in a Western society infuriated some congregants.
One of scholars in South Africa even issued a
fatwa
A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...
, cautioning Muslims against performing prayers led by Ali. The worst accusation against him was that he had been accused by takfiris of committing apostasy. Some fundamentalist Muslims in Queens disagreed with Ali's approach to youths to be closer to Islam. They accused him of corrupting Muslim youths' mentality by letting them use the mosque's basement for practicing music which they considered haram. They also accused him of being an FBI mouthpiece. On another occasion, this group of people opposed Ali's defense of a Shi'a Muslim who was rallying against terrorism and injustice, whom they considered an
infidel
An infidel (literally "unfaithful") is a person accused of disbelief in the central tenets of one's own religion, such as members of another religion, or the irreligious.
Infidel is an ecclesiastical term in Christianity around which the Church ...
. According to Ali, one of these groups is thought to be an American offshoot of the London-based
Al-Muhajiroun
Al-Muhajiroun ( ar, المهاجرون, "The Emigrants") is a Proscription, proscribed militant network based in Saudi Arabia. The founder of the group was Omar Bakri Muhammad, a Syrian who previously belonged to ''Hizb ut-Tahrir''; he was not p ...
, which is infamous for its conference "The Magnificent 19," praising those who carried out the 9/11 attacks.
Ali left his position at ICC of New York (the management at ICC insisted that he was ''fired'') in 2011. He continues his position as the director of Jamaica Muslim Center in Astoria, Queens since 2004 and as the chairman of ''Al-Hikmah'' mosque since 1996.
In September 2015 Ali sharply criticized Chairman of the DPR of Indonesia, Setya Novanto and its Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon for attending Donald Trump's press conference. Shamsi said the meeting had humiliated Indonesian state leaders and was full of political interests. He said it was obvious that the press conference was part of a campaign event. He further said the presence of Setya and Fadli, who stood behind Trump as the US business tycoon delivered a speech, was deplorable. In addition, according to Imam Shamsi Ali, Donald Trump is known for his racist and anti-immigrant comments, including the anti-Muslim sentiments.
Writings and publications
Ali has written many articles, given speeches and initiated dialogues with various religious leaders about the importance of dialogues among
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
s, Christians, Jews and other religious groups toward peace. He has made countless appearances on TV (ABC, PBS, BBC World, CNN, Fox News, National Geographic, al-Jazeera, the Hallmark Channel) to condemn terrorism, radicalism,
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
and to promote peaceful Islam.
Ali has authored four books: ''Dai muda di New York City'' (A Young Dai in New York City), ''The True Love in America; 29 Kisah Mualaf Amerika'' (The True Love in America: 29 stories of Muallaf in America), ''Menebar Damai di Bumi Barat'' (Spreading Peace in Western World). The former US president Bill Clinton gave a foreword to his fourth book, a memoir, entitled ''Sons Of Abraham: A Candid Conversation about the Issues That Divide and Unite Jews and Muslims'' which he co-authored with Marc Schneier, a Jewish
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...
who is also his close friend.
Recognition
Imam Ali was appointed "Ambassador for Peace" by the International Religious Federation in 2002, and a recipient of the 2008 ICLI Interfaith Award. In 2006, he was named one of seven most influential religious leaders in New York City by New York Magazine. He is also one of 100 recipients of the 2009 Ellis Island Medal of Honor Award. This prestigious non military gold medal is one of the highest awards recognized by US government to native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens with tremendous contributions to the American society and the world and for Shamsi Ali it was due to his endless dedication in building bridges between religious communities.
On September 18, 2010, Ali was granted Hall of Fame Award by AACUSA ( Asian American Coalition USA) Inc. The award honored Ali as one of the seven outstanding individuals within their respective Asian communities. According to the AACUSA, Dr. Parveen C. Chopra, Shamsi Ali has reached across the division and became part of the Muslims’ voice at the United Nations forums, churches, synagogues, the NYPD, FBI and major news outlets including, ABC, PBS, BBC World, CNN, Fox News, National Geographic, Al-Jazeera and the Hallmark Channel.
He was also chosen as one of The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the world in 2009, 2010, and 2011 by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Jordan and Georgetown University.
In April 2014, NY senate commended him to be the recipient of Turkish Cultural Center's Friendship Award, which he received along with Rabbi Marc Schneier during the ceremony on April 10, 2014, at the Turkish Cultural Center of Queens.
Personal life
Unlike many imams in United States, Ali likes and listens to rap and hip-hop music such as songs produced by hip-hop mogul
Russell Simmons
Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. Simmons' ...
. Some people call him "Hip Imam".
Shamsi Ali lives with his wife (Mutiah Malik), four sons (Utsman, Adnan, Shakeel, Ayman) and two daughters (Maryam, Malika).