CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Taha Tawil, the imam of the oldest mosque in America, insists upon making us cups of fortifying tea before we talk politics.
“Politics is headache,” he says wearily in the basement of the Mother Mosque, a modest two-story building that was built in the 1930s by Syrian immigrants fleeing the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.
Now a new, far larger wave of Syrian immigration has stoked a political debate about Muslims in the United States. The frontrunner for the Republican nomination, Donald Trump, has called for barring all Muslims from entering the country, surveillance of mosques and a special national registry for Muslims. (It’s unclear if the registry would be for all Muslims or just refugees.) Trump’s rivals have also expressed concern about accepting any refugees from Syria for fear that some are affiliated with ISIS, though none have gone as far as the real estate tycoon.
Despite his dislike of politics, Tawil’s role as an imam in a battleground state has pushed him into this fierce debate. He has met Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton positively called out his mosque in a stump speech earlier this week, and he has personally invited Trump to stop by the mosque and have a cup of tea with him to chat about his views. (Trump hasn’t replied.)
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