美国国家公共电台 NPR Religious Walking Tour Maps Out The History Of Muslims In New York City

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Visitors often get to know New York's Harlem through its many walking tours - from gospel music to architecture to food. But one guide offers a tour that spans centuries in the neighborhood. Farah Dosani has more.

FARAH DOSANI, BYLINE¹: Two dozen people are gathering² at the corner of a busy intersection³ in Harlem near a state office building.

KATIE MERRIMAN: Thanks for waking up and choosing this tour instead of brunch⁴. I'm here to talk to you about the history of Islam in New York City.

DOSANI: Katie Merriman started these Muslim history walking tours in 2014. She's from New York and is now finishing her doctorate⁵ in religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel⁶ Hill. And over the years, whenever she'd come across the history of Muslims in New York, she'd write it down.

MERRIMAN: And so I took all those little scribbles⁷ in the margins⁸. I put them together. And lo and behold⁹, a map appeared before my eyes in Harlem.

DOSANI: The history goes back almost 400 years, when North African slaves were brought here by Dutch settlers. The tour is not chronological¹⁰, but more geographic¹¹. And it goes to some surprising neighborhood landmarks¹².

MERRIMAN: So I brought you here to the Apollo Theater. So don't let anyone tell you I gave you a bad Harlem tour. But no, we're here to talk at the Apollo because there's a large connection between music, especially jazz, and Islam.

DOSANI: She talks about American jazz musicians who performed here and converted to Islam in the '50s after touring abroad. Merriman also plays a clip from John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme¹³" and explains how some interpret it as a Sufi Muslim prayer.

MERRIMAN: And John Coltrane never claimed this as saying Allah Supreme, but many people are pretty sure that he wanted you to not be sure.

DOSANI: Many sites on the tour are more obscure, and are either unmarked or no longer here. On a street far from the crowds, Merriman stops in front of an empty lot.

MERRIMAN: And so right in front of us here, you see all of - kind of construction fence. And that's there because they tore down a big building that used to include a mosque¹⁴.

DOSANI: Aqsa Mosque served as a community center for the wave of West African immigrants in the '80s and '90s. She also tells a story of Alianza Islamica, the Latino Muslim community that was among the first to wash the bodies of those who died from AIDS.

MERRIMAN: All right. Let's keep moving.

DOSANI: Many people who come on these tours have no particular connection to Islam; they're just curious, like Patty Rout¹⁵. She's lived in Manhattan for the past 40 years.

PATTY ROUT: I'm a big walking tour person because I find it's a good way to learn. And I like things about New York. And it's something I don't know really much about.

DOSANI: But the tour takes on a more personal meaning for others, like Amir Ahmed, a 26-year-old graduate student living in Harlem.

AMIR AHMED: This is a good way for me to sort of also learn about my identity as a Muslim and a black Muslim in the United States, but also, like, just as a neighborhood member in this community.

MERRIMAN: We're just going to go back 116th Street and over to the mosque, and that's where we'll finish up.

DOSANI: The final stop on the tour takes the group to what is likely the most prominent Muslim site in Harlem, the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque. It's there that Merriman shares a story of her Irish Catholic father who grew up nearby.

MERRIMAN: And the day that Malcolm X was assassinated¹⁶, he was a teenager up there riding around on his bike.

DOSANI: Her father told her stories of seeing crowds standing¹⁷ outside the hospital in Harlem. And while not Muslim herself, Merriman says stories like this emphasize a shared history.

MERRIMAN: My dad has no connection to these communities, but there he was on that historical day riding his bike as a teenager in Washington Heights.

DOSANI: The story reminds her, and she hopes the people taking this tour, that the history of Islam in New York is part of the history of America - what made this country what it is today. For NPR News, I'm Farah Dosani in New York.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

3 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

4 brunch   

n.早午餐

参考例句：

• They eat much the same thing for brunch every day.每天早午餐他们总是吃同样的东西。
• What did you have for your brunch?你早午饭都吃些什么？

5 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

6 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

7 scribbles   

n.潦草的书写( scribble的名词复数 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下v.潦草的书写( scribble的第三人称单数 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• The scribbles on the wall must be the work of those children. 墙壁上的涂鸦准是那几个孩子画的。 来自辞典例句
• There are scribbles on the wall. 墙上有胡乱涂写的字迹。 来自辞典例句

8 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

9 behold   

v.看，注视，看到

参考例句：

• The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
• The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。

10 chronological   

adj.按年月顺序排列的，年代学的

参考例句：

• The paintings are exhibited in chronological sequence.这些画是按创作的时间顺序展出的。
• Give me the dates in chronological order.把日期按年月顺序给我。

11 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

12 landmarks   

n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址）

参考例句：

• The book stands out as one of the notable landmarks in the progress of modern science. 这部著作是现代科学发展史上著名的里程碑之一。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The baby was one of the big landmarks in our relationship. 孩子的出世是我们俩关系中的一个重要转折点。 来自辞典例句

13 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

14 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

15 rout   

n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮

参考例句：

• The enemy was put to rout all along the line.敌人已全线崩溃。
• The people's army put all to rout wherever they went.人民军队所向披靡。

16 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

17 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。