"Sometimes a real down and out type will come down Lenox Avenue, dragging his feet, his shoulders hunched; maybe he's got a bottle in a paper bag…but then he'll catch sight of our mosque, and he'll remember how much pride the Muslims have in this neighborhood, and you'll see him straighten right up; for a block or two he'll walk tall as he passes the Masjid."

—Assistant Imam Kareem Shakur, Masjid Malcolm Shabazz