Friday afternoon, in the gym of the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, teenagers were hustling for a basketball. Muhammad Devalle of the American Muslim Advisory Council was telling two women how they could get involved in politics. Men and women lined up for falafel. Children tied balloons with Lilith The Clown. And a man in stylish suspenders, Hussein Awasmeh, sat in a chair, waiting in line for his flu shot.
He was one of dozens of people who would receive a shot at Friday's Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga health fair – and some members, Awasmeh among them, hope the event will catalyze efforts to establish a free community health clinic at the mosque.
Friday's heath fair was a practice run for a potential clinic in the future, said board member Dr. Arif Shafi, by phone on Thursday. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Islamic society leadership was developing plans for a free, multispeciality health clinic on the grounds of the facility, Shafi said. The clinic would be open to the public, perhaps one day per week to start out.
But the pandemic sidelined the plans. COVID-19 kept local Muslims from gathering for prayer and disrupted traditions during the holy month of Ramadan. Throughout the public health emergency, the Islamic society strictly followed U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Shafi said.
Many basic practices of modern health care, like quarantining, run deep in the Islamic tradition, acting Imam Youssef Fares said. Muslims must wash their hands before they eat and pray. Scripture even mentions brushing your teeth, he said.
The Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga hosted a COVID-19 vaccination event at the height of the pandemic, said Shafi, the board member. But Friday's event, offering flu shots in addition to COVID-19 vaccines, had a broader scope and could be more seamlessly integrated into the texture of the community.
After the important Jumu'ah – Friday – prayer and sermon, Islamic society members put their shoes back on and streamed into the gym adjacent to the prayer room, dispersing to eat, play, and get shots from health workers with Cherokee Health Systems.
"We want to make it as convenient as possible," said Amir Al-Bawi, of Knoxville, who organized the fair for the Tennessee-based American Muslim Advisory Council, which has been hosting similar events elsewhere in the state.
The Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga counts a high rate of physicians among its membership: Shafi estimates 45-50 doctors out of roughly 1,500 members, a proportion far higher than that of the general public. Fares attributes this, in part, to the demographic makeup of the local Muslim community, which he says contains many first or second generation immigrants inclined toward professions that promise stability.
The clinic Shafi envisions would draw largely on this base of health care professionals at the mosque.
"We have a whole spectrum of different medical specialists within the community who are willing to work," said Shafi, himself a pediatrician.
Plans for a clinic are far from formalized, but Shafi said that he will seek to move the process forward at the society's next board meeting.
Contact Andrew Schwartz at aschwartz@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431. Follow him on Twitter @aonSchwartz.