After her ‘anti-Muslim’ post, a mosque opened its doors to Baltimore County school board member

Just over a week after a school board member posted a meme that offended them, members of Baltimore County’s Muslim community welcomed her into their place of worship.

Maggie Litz Domanowski accepted an invitation to visit Masjid Al-Rahmah, a Windsor Mill mosque, on Wednesday evening following a firestorm of criticism that led to her public apology.

Domanowski, who has “Make Education Great Again” displayed at the top of her public Facebook group, posted a meme last month of a Charlie Brown character holding a sign saying, “If you fear MAGA will take away women’s rights, then you should learn about Sharia law,” a reference to the legal system for Islam.

“Not wrong,” she wrote in the post.

Zainab Chaudry, the Maryland director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, arranged the visit, hoping it would help Domanowski understand how her words were harmful.

“I just want to lead by example,” Domanowski said on the tour of the Islamic Society of Baltimore campus. “We have to stop hiding behind our computer screens and spreading things that we don’t understand.”

The visit began with a private meeting that included members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Democratic politicians and Wajiha Farooqi, a volunteer at the society whom Domanowski credited with teaching her more about Sharia law.

Certain Sharia law applies to women and some governments use Islamic law to significantly restrict women’s rights, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank focused on policy and international affairs. Farooqi explained at a news conference that Sharia law also granted women the right to own property, file for divorce and receive an education 1,400 years ago, long before women in the Western part of the world were given the same freedoms.

The board member also heard from Isha Abbasi, 13, who said she was bullied at Catonsville Middle School for wearing a hijab, a religious head covering.

“I realized that I shouldn’t have to change just because someone else doesn’t understand me,” Abbasi, who now attends the Al-Rahmah School on campus, told reporters. “My hijab is my choice, my faith and a part of me, and I’m proud to wear it.”

Yehia Hassanein, the society’s executive director, and Hagar Aboubakr, principal of the Al-Rahmah School, guided Domanowski and other attendees around all three floors of the mosque. The building is a worship space, recreational center and a K-12 school for over 200 kids.

Kids and adults were setting up badminton nets inside the gymnasium that was equipped with a basketball net. Banners hung at the front of a high school classroom to show where students have been accepted to college — the University of Maryland, College Park; Penn State University; and Harvard among them. The prayer “O’ Allah, forgive my sins and open before me the doors of your mercy” was displayed on a wall.

Domanowski walked past a multipurpose space where a class was learning about how women scholars influenced the Islamic faith. She gazed up at the Islamic motifs on the ceiling inside the women’s prayer area and quietly listened as the tour guides explained how the Al-Rahmah school operates.

Students start each task with a Quran verse, “We begin with the name of God, the most gracious and most merciful,” Aboubakr said.

“I like that because it brings the students back to respect,” Domanowski said. “I’m sure you don’t have very many discipline issues.”

“Well, it’s only the third day of school,” Aboubakr said as the hallway filled with laughter.

At the end of the tour, Domanowski told Hassanein they have “so much more in common than we realize.” More people simply need to “get outside our comfort zone to meet each other, talk to each other.”

Dr. Bash Pharoan, a regular at Baltimore County school board meetings and a member of the Islamic Society of Northern Baltimore, said the moment was an opportunity for improvement.

“Maggie Domanowski will be a better board member today than yesterday,” he said.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.