The mosque, a busy place of worship for Lewiston’s Muslim population, is hidden behind a nondescript downtown storefront between Marois Restaurant and Frenchy’s Barber Shop, across the street from Simone’s Variety store.

In the holy month of Ramadan, when the city’s Muslims come here to pray five times a day, the mosque serves as both a sacred place and a makeshift community center. Somali men, bundled up against the chilly November wind, gather on the sidewalk in front of the the mosque to talk among themselves as Muslim teenagers dribble basketballs up and down the sidewalk.

On the window of a vacant store nearby, a sign affixed with a blue ribbon reads: “Welcome to the Somali families of Lewiston. ASSALAMU CALEYKUM [peace be upon you]. We’re glad to have you part of our community.”

Abdirisak Mahbub, a Somali spokesman and volunteer activist, appreciates such public gestures of generosity from the largely French-Catholic population that makes up this city of 37,000. For the nearly 1,200 Somalis who have moved here since the winter of 2001, he said, assimilation is more than just a struggle to find housing, jobs and the language skills necessary to become productive members of the community. There are also misconceptions to overcome about who they are and where they’ve come from and why they chose Lewiston as their new home.

“The press from around the country has come to ask why the Somalis are here, and some paint Somalis as people who are just looking for freebies from an easy welfare system,” said Mahbub, a new Lewiston resident who first came to America from Somalia in 1981 to study mechanical engineering. “But that’s not a true picture. They want to be part of this community. They are eagerly looking for jobs and training. They want this city to be their home.”

Like thousands of other Somalis now in America, Mahbub said, Lewiston’s new immigrants are all refugees from the vicious civil war that erupted in their East African country in 1991. As various clan-based military factions have competed for control of the country in the last decade, the bitter fighting has resulted in the dislocation and starvation of countless Somalis.

“They first ran away to U.N.-sponsored refugee camps in Kenya,” said Mahbub, wearing a prayer shawl as a scarf under his leather jacket. “Through the refugee resettlement programs, they went to Europe and to large American cities like San Diego and Atlanta. Most of the people in Lewiston once lived in Atlanta, but it was unsuitable there. They lived in slums, where there was a lot of crime, drugs, gangs and shooting in the streets. This was a bad life for Muslim families, who don’t drink or use drugs, so they started looking for safe and affordable places to live.”

Many relocated to cities in the Midwest and some settled in Portland. When the low-income housing in Portland was quickly filled, they began moving north to Lewiston in February 2001. Soon, other Somalis began moving up from Atlanta to join their friends and relatives on the banks of the Androscoggin River.

“They came here for the quality of life, to find opportunities for themselves and their children, and not to live on handouts,” Mahbub said. “In the war in Somalia they lost everything. Now they’re starting from scratch.”

While Mahbub praises city administrators for their efforts to provide the newcomers with support services, he said Mayor Larry Raymond’s open letter urging Somalis to stop coming to Lewiston created an unnecessary controversy that stung the immigrant community. Not only did it bring the national and international media to town, it quickly attracted white supremacist organizations such as the National Alliance and The World Church of the Creator, which has planned a demonstration Jan. 11 aimed at ridding Lewiston of its African residents.

“The mayor’s letter was offensive, but we forgave and put it behind us because we wanted to go forward,” Mahbub said. “But the Somalis are not happy about this church. They are not scared of the hate group – they have already seen so much violence in Somalia – but they dislike how they’re being degraded by this church as sub-humans and not people. That hurts very much.”

Mahbub said he hopes the “celebration of diversity” planned for Jan. 11, which is expected to bring together more than 20 community churches and cultural organizations to counter the racist rally that day, will be an expression of tolerance and solidarity that is heard far beyond Lewiston’s borders.

“This is not just a Somali issue, and it’s not just a Lewiston issue,” he said. “It’s a message for the whole state of Maine about change and the need for cultural diversity.”