Five historic mosques of America you shouldn’t miss

Photo: The turret on top of the Brooklyn Moslem Mosque, NYC, USA / Courtesy of Tharik Hussain

The oldest surviving mosque in America recently celebrated its 110th anniversary, and almost no one in the US or anywhere else knows anything about it. The history of Muslims in the US has barely been explored, but a visit to the country’s mosques is a wonderful way to remedy this. The story of a mosque is the story of its people, so here are five historic American mosques you can visit to begin unravelling the story of American Muslims.

1. THE BROOKLYN MOSLEM MOSQUE, NEW YORK CITY

America’s oldest surviving mosque sits on a quiet road in Washington Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. The two-storey late-19th-century building is covered in vertical, white wooden slats. The mosque society was founded in 1907 by white Muslims from the Baltic states of Lithuania, Poland and Belarus. The community of ethnic Tatars came together to purchase the former church in 1927 before making it look like the mosques they had left behind in the Baltic: small wooden buildings with ornate little turrets on the top.

Photo: An old photograph of the original worshippers at the Brooklyn Moslem Mosque, NYC, USA / Courtesy of Tharik Hussain

“This mosque was such an important place for the migrating Tatars when they came to New York. It was like a touchstone and a place they knew they could come to, where familiar faces would help them get on their feet,” Alyssa Ratkewitch, the mosque’s vice president, told My Salaam.

Photo: Mehrab in the Brooklyn Moslem Mosque, NYC, USA / Courtesy of Tharik Hussain

Since the original worshippers moved out of the area, attendance has been greatly diminishing in recent years. However, Ratkewitch and her community hope that celebrating the 110th anniversary will reinvigorate this important piece of American history.

Photo: Exterior of the Brooklyn Moslem Mosque, NYC, USA / Courtesy of Tharik Hussain

2. NORTH DAKOTA MOSQUE, ROSS, NORTH DAKOTA

Almost impossible to find, the North Dakota mosque is in a windswept, remote spot in the northwestern corner of the state close to the Canadian border. This is Fargo country; the nearest town has a population of around 50 people.

Rebuilt in 2005 as a monument to the original Lebanese and Syrian community that erected a mosque here in 1929, the modern structure is a simple, square brick building with four thin faux minarets and a small central copper dome. It looks nothing like the original mosque, which was torn down in 1979.

In the modern building, the interior is equally simple: there are no windows and no mehrab to point the way towards the qibla. A simple oriental rug in the middle accompanies an exhibit dedicated to the people that once came here from the then Ottoman territory of Greater Syria: modern-day Lebanon and Syria.

The mosque’s cemetery is equally fascinating. Many of its inhabitants were born in the 1800s, and some served in the US military.

3. MOTHER MOSQUE, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA

Photo: The Mother Mosque in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA / Courtesy of Tharik Hussain

Known as America’s Mother Mosque, this is another monument to early American Muslims who migrated from Greater Syria. Built in 1934, the mosque has been known as the Rose of Fraternity Lodge and the Moslem Temple.

Today, the local community worships at the nearby Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids, built in 1971 to serve the growing community. The Mother Mosque is primarily used for heritage education, hosting visits from schools and dignitaries across the US.

Photo: The Mother Mosque in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA / Courtesy of Tharik Hussain

One of the fascinating aspects of the mosque’s history is that it was saved from demolition by the famous North American Muslim convert and scholar Dr Thomas Irving, who was also the first North American translator of the Quran into English.

4. MASJID MUHAMMAD, WASHINGTON DC

Photo: Exterior of Masjid Muhammad in Washington DC, USA / Courtesy of Tharik Hussain

The first mosque to be built in the capital by descendants of enslaved African Americans and African Muslims, the Masjid Muhammad’s origins date back to the 1930s. The current building, which started life as a Nation of Islam (NOI) temple, opened in 1960 through the support of key fundraiser and global Muslim icon Malcolm X.

Courtesy of Tharik Hussain

In 1975, Masjid Muhammad embraced mainstream Sunni Islam under the guidance of the late Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, one of the sons of early NOI leader Elijah Muhammad, who opened the mosque as “Temple 4”. Imam Mohammed appointed a Sunni imam and changed the temple’s name to the “Washington Masjid”. He removed the pews from the main hall so conventional salah could take place and also changed the direction of prayer to the correct qibla orientation.

Photo: Interior of Masjid Muhammad in Washington DC, USA / Courtesy of Tharik Hussain

The mosque was given its present name in the 1980s and serves as an important piece of modern black American Muslim history.

5. AL SADIQ MOSQUE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Al Sadiq is the earliest example of a mosque built by a minority sect of Islam. In 1920, the Ahmadiyya community, which was founded in Punjab, India, sent their missionary Mufti Muhammad Sadiq to the US, where he established a headquarters and a journal called The Muslim Sunrise.

In the July 1922 issue, under the title “A Brief Report of the Work in America”, the editor announced: “Permanent quarters of our mission have now been established in Chicago where I have bought a large house—a part of which with necessary alterations has been fixed up into a mosque … on Wabash Ave, and 45th Street, northwest corner.”  One of the early converts, carpenter Andrew Jacob (Muhammed Yaqub) is thanked for building the wooden mehrab and gumbad (arch and dome). In the October issue of the same year, a picture of the mosque is published, showing a classic European-style building with protruding bay windows.

Today, a small sand-coloured mosque with a pointed roof and two green minarets sits on the same spot, serving the local community like its predecessor did before it.

(This article is written by Tharik Hussain. Tharik is a freelance British Muslim travel writer, journalist, broadcaster and photographer specialising in the Muslim stories of Europe. Hussain’s first ever radio documentary, America’s Mosques; A Story of Integration, has been declared one of the world’s best radio documentaries for 2016. All his work can be viewed at www.tharikhussain.co.uk)

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