Islamic Center of America

Like other parts of the world, the United States do have a large number of Mosques. There are quite a few mosques that are famous in America and Islamic Center of America is one of them. Islamic Center of America is a Shia community mosque, and it is located in Dearborn. Dearborn is the eighth largest city in the state of Michigan. Initially, the mosque was founded 1963 by Muhammad Jawad Chirri. Islamic Center of America is said to be the oldest Shia mosque in the United States.

One of the most significant aspects of Dearborn is that most of the population belongs to the Shia community. People from Iraq and Lebanon prefer to live in Dearborn. Dearborn is said to be the “heart of shiism”. Islamic Center of America has been one of the major sources of Islamic teachings. Islamic Center of America is not only famous because it is the oldest mosque in the United States, but it is also one of the mosques that has been the center of attention for the Muslim community. Muhammad Jawad Chirri remained the director of the Islamic Center of America till 1994. Islamic Center of America is one of the most organized mosques in America that is being operated by Islamic scholars for almost more than forty years. Currently, Imam Syed Hassan Qiawini is handling the responsibility of the Imam of the Islamic Center.

Apart from Islamic teaching, there are some other facilities provided to the Muslim community by the center like marriages, divorces and funeral arrangements. One can have the classes of Arabic language at the Islamic center of America, as well. The major focus behind the formation of the Islamic center of America was to receive the funds so that they can be best utilized for the teachings of Islam. The idea was to enhance the standards of the Muslims so that the image of Islam could be portrayed up-front.

The Islamic center of America is a kind of platform that provides the Muslims community to get themselves acknowledged to the non-Muslim world. Muslims do have their own culture and in order to promote the culture, the Islamic center of America is acting as a bridge between the Muslim world and a non-Muslim world. There are a number of committees formed within the organization. Muslims actively can take part in all the activities of the Islamic center of America, and thousands of Shia Muslims volunteer their services every year.

The Islamic center of America was vandalized in year 2007; however, it is still unclear what were the motives behind the attack on the mosque. The people in the Shia community believed that the vandalism has anything to do with the tensions between the Shia community and the Sunni community as Shia Sunni conflict has always been a key issue between the two communities.

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