Christopher Goldsmith was the first muslim I ever knew but I never knew he was a muslim until I visited a mosque.  Sporting sandy blonde hair, and the name Goldsmith, it never occurred to me that a person who looked like him could be muslim but when I was invited to visit the new mosque on Milwaukee's northwest side, there he was.

'Why would the Executive Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum be here' I thought.

It was a dedication to the new mosque and dignitaries were invited.  Back then, I was the county supervisor for the area and Dr. Muhammad Shafi invited me to the dedication.  When I walked up to the mosque I remember asking Chris what he was doing there.  "I'm a muslum" he said.  'Wow' I remember thinking.  That's enough to destroy an sterotype.

It's been years since I've last seen him but he's since changed his name to Muhammad Isa Sadlon and he's recently taken a position heading up the Islamic Society in Milwaukee.

I've visited the mosque several times and have always found both those attending as well as the residents to be good people. 

Not only does the mosque hold a prayer room, but it also has apartments in it on the second floor and a recreation area in the basement.  Muslims do not believe in living with debt so they work to eliminate things like mortgages ASAP and often a family will chip in to put all of their resources to buying a person a family member a new home outright so as to avoid the debt.  When it comes their time to chip in, they are extremely generous toward helping other muslims achieve their goals of owning a home or in this case, of building a mosque.  The day of the mosque dedication I saw many men open their wallets and take every dollar they had and threw it into the donation area to retire the debt on the new mosque.

Since that day I've visited a few times during election time.  I think back on the time when I was in office and I think that if the district was a majority of muslims I would have never won my first election because I never would have knocked on enough doors.  As a people, I've found muslims to be extremely welcoming and hospitable.  At the mosque I was always offered warm tea with milk that was prepared in such a way that I've only had it with muslims.  Always offering something on the side, whether it was a little bowl of almonds or some sort of middle-eastern biscotti kind of thing, theirs is a culture that excels at hospitality.

But it's not just the tea and hospitality that are attractive.  Muslims have a strong sense of community.  Muslims socialize and pray together — a lot.  They pray 5 times a day.

I was invited to their prayer service and offered the opportunity to listen in and pray with them if I wanted.  I couldn't understand the words but the feeling of a communal faith was strong and in a way comforting.  (Not enough to convert this Irish Catholic but comforting all the same.)

When I faced the Republican led recall movement in 2002 I lost by just 200 votes.  It was within a year of 9-11 and one of my more ignorant constituents slammed the door on me for "supporting those damn terrorists" he said.  I had been offered the opportunity to put up a yard sign in front of the mosque on the highly visible Brown Deer road and I took it.  I've wondered a few times if I lost many votes because of that.  If so, how many?  If it was just 101, that would have been enough to switch the election back.  But that's not what I would have wanted.  If that would have been the reason for winning or losing, I wouldn't have wanted to represent an area where ignorance and predjudice were the deciding factors.

Ignorance and predjudice are things that Sadlon will have to grapple with in his new role as CEO of the Islamic Society.  In a post 9-11 world, there is still plenty of ignorance and there are still plenty of rednecks who errantly equate Islam with terrorism.

Fortunately for the Islamic Society, Sadlon is both smart and politically savvy.  It is likely that without his hard work, the Santiago Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum may have never happened.  His acceptance of the position at the Islamic Society to a new level and give muslims a voice in the Milwaukee area.