COMMUNITY / Issues

Shadow of surveillance looms over Japan's Muslims

Six years after leak that revealed the scope of the government's profiling and spying program, the Muslim community still feels under siege.

Muslims pray at Otsuka Mosque in Tokyo. There are around 100,000 Muslims in Japan, 90 percent of whom are foreign nationals. | JARNI BLAKKARLY

By Jarni Blakkarly
Staff Writer

Jul 13, 2016

While millions around the world marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan last week, a cloud hung over celebrations in Japan. Muslims here say they feel they are constantly under the ever-watchful eyes of the police.

Otsuka Mosque in Tokyo usually hosts around a few dozen Muslims for morning prayers, but hundreds packed the small prayer rooms last Wednesday on Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that signals the end of Ramadan.

"We had to hold the prayers four separate times so all the people lining up could fit in," explains Haroon Qureshi, secretary-general of the mosque's Japan Islamic Trust organization. "There must have been 1,000 people waiting to pray."