He is an Imam. But especially in difficult times, when Islam and Muslims are under the microscope, Shamsi Ali sees himself primarily as a bridge builder.

“It gives me an opportunity, even, to push myself, to connect myself to my partners. To the Jewish leaders, to the Christian leaders. I extend my hands for help and embrace them,” says Ali.

He may speak softly, but Imam Shamsi Ali has become one of the city’s most influential religious leaders. He is the chief cleric at the city’s biggest mosque, the Islamic Cultural Center on 96th Street, as well as the director of the Jamaica Muslim Center and chairman of the Al-Hikmah Mosque in Astoria.

He’s the chairman of the Muslim Day Parade and also serves as the community’s liaison to the New York City Police Department. And when Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced support for the controversial downtown Islamic Community Center, Shamsi Ali was there with him.

His ability to work with the Muslim community’s many factions — South Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans, African-Americans — is aided by the fact that he studied in Pakistan, taught in Saudi Arabia, and came here as an immigrant in the mid 1990s. But he was born and raised in Indonesia.

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