“Retro Flashes” are Journey’s quick takes on moments of history that have made New York City what it is, what New Yorkers are, and, maybe, what it will be.

On June 25, 1991, Imam Siraj Wahhaj, spiritual leader of the Masjid al-Taqwa community at Bedford Avenue and Fulton Street in Brooklyn, New York, offered the opening prayer in the United States House of Representatives, becoming the first Muslim ever to do so.

The practice of opening sessions of Congress with prayer has continued without interruption ever since the first Congress drafted the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution over 200 years ago.