The Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center sits on what used to be a barren lot in Roxbury. But as a city official, Muhammad Ali-Salaam envisioned something more for that space and pushed the administration of former mayor Thomas M. Menino to transform it.
Today, the site holds the largest mosque in New England, drawing Muslims from across the region and serving as a uniter of multiple faiths.
“He was the architect behind the vision of bringing the mosque to Roxbury,” said Darryl Smith, who was one of Ali-Salaam’s proteges at City Hall. “But he was much more than that.”
Ali-Salaam died on Jan. 4 after a long illness, leaving a void in Boston. To friends and family he was a pillar of integrity, a calming force, and a mentor and leader at City Hall. He was 78.
In the sun-dappled mosque that Ali-Salaam helped to get built, family and friends joined local and political officials Jan. 5 to honor his life and legacy.
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, in an interview after the funeral prayer service, said Ali-Salaam’s faith guided his leadership.
“He actualized that in his activism, in his leadership roles, in his role as really a pillar of the community,” she said. “This is a loss for humanity — not just the city of Boston, not just Roxbury, not just the Muslim community, not just the Ali-Salaam family, although they will feel that absence greater than anyone.”
His daughter said her father connected with people and always treated everyone with respect.
“Even if something wasn’t asked of him, he always wanted to leave someone feeling better when they spoke to him,” said Fatima Ali-Salaam.
Muhammad Ali-Salaam, a leader of the city’s Muslim community, was born in Panama on Nov. 12, 1945 and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1950, according to his obituary on legacy.com. He had been a longtime resident of Mattapan, who stayed when others left and raised eight children there with his wife Waheeda.
He was a professor at Roxbury Community College in the 1980s, and served for a time in the FBI, said Smith of his former instructor.
Ali-Salaam worked for over three decades in City Hall as a director of special projects for the former Boston Redevelopment Authority, which is now the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
His imprint can be found throughout Boston, including the mosque on Malcolm X Boulevard, the Museum of African American History in Roxbury, the Mattapan Community Health Center and the Mattapan Heights development. He was also instrumental in helping to get Malcom X’s childhood home designated as a historic landmark, Smith said.
Later in life, he became a leader in the Boston Communities of Color organization, which supports and advocates for elected officials, particularly those of color.
Friends and family remember him as a quiet but powerful mediator, a kind soul and a bridge between the government and communities of color. He was a mentor and key inspiration in city government to Yusufi Vali, the former executive director of the mosque and cultural center who currently works as a deputy chief of staff to Mayor Michelle Wu.
“As Muslims, we at times are skeptical of what an experience in government could be like, but Muhammad described to many of us the BRA [as] being able to serve people, to help people,” Vali said. “It certainly motivated many of us to give government a shot and give a career in government a shot.”
Ali-Salaam was always ready to help people come together, said Joseph Feaster, chair of the board for the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.
“He was always able to be a calming force, a mediator type of individual to be able to make A and C come together, and he would be the B that would be able to bring folks together in that respect,” said Feaster, who described Ali-Salaam as both a friend and colleague.
At the BRA, Ali-Salaam often served as the face of city government when it came to major developments in Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan, said Charlotte Golar Richie, a former state representative.
“He took his job seriously, but he also took the needs and interests of people in the community seriously. He was strategic, smart and also a very caring man who really cared about community at the grassroots level,” she said.
His impact was wide-reaching.
“To this day,” Vali said, “I run into people at City Hall who, when I mention the name Muhammad Ali-Salaam, they say, ‘Oh my God, what a wonderful person. We miss him. How is he?’ There’s just a warmth that comes with the moment you mention his name.”
Community members recognize him most, however, for his work with the mosque, which he helped push through despite relentless criticism.
“He had death threats,” said Smith, who recalled heated anti-Muslim rhetoric that marked the mosque’s founding in 2009. “This project was near and dear to him and he laid his job and his life on the line to get the project built.”
Smith, who was the assistant commissioner of the city’s Inspectional Services Department at the time, recalled massive protests when the mosque first opened and demands by city councilors that Ali-Salaam resign.
“He did the right thing for the right reason, and the mosque was built,” Smith said.
The mosque has been critical to the Muslim community and a refuge for Muslim immigrants acclimating into civic life.
“The impact of that space and his vision and dream to build that just cannot be overstated for what it’s done for the Muslim community,” said Vali.
Golar Richie said, “He had this vision of what was possible and now thousands of people worship there every year, and they might not even know who Muhammad Ali-Salaam was. They should know who he is.”
After Ali-Salaam retired from government, he became a fixture in the mosque.
“When I was working at the mosque, he would just be hanging out in the cafe there,” Vali said. “He would make it a point to go to anyone that was new in the mosque and introduce himself and just make them feel special, as if they were the number one thing in the world. That’s just a quality you just don’t see in many people.”
His impact was felt strongly at home, where he doted on his children and impressed upon them lessons such as the importance of education, doing their best, staying connected to their community and being civically engaged.
Fatima Ali-Salaam mentioned that her father loved Mattapan and valued access to green spaces, leading him to set his sights on a large tract of open space near the Foley Building on River Street that was never developed, to make sure there was access to parks and open land.
“He loved the city as a whole and the importance of understanding that each and every neighborhood had to be included,” Fatima Ali-Salaam said.
