Minarets of America Photography Exhibit
Opened during Islamic Heritage Month 2023, Minarets of America is an exhibit inspired by the published mosque photography book by author Riad K. Ali of Ohio.
Curated by IMMC’s Dr. Esam Alhadi, Minarets of America showcases the architecture of mosque minarets across the states, ranging from Andalucian to Ottoman styles and more modern Western influenced styles. This exhibit highlights the aesthetics, diversity, and functionality of Muslim houses of worship, known as masajid in Arabic (singular masjid).
Mosques serve as multifunctional institutions in Muslim societies. Besides serving as places of worship, they are vital centers of social and cultural activities. Muslims use mosques to host various events such as weddings, funerals, and holiday celebrations. Many mosques offer educational programs including Islamic studies and Arabic language classes. They also function as community centers where Muslims come together to discuss issues of concern or development planning within their communities. The increasing number of mosques in the US reflects the growing Muslim population which rose from 2.34 million in 2007 to approximately 3.45 million in 2017, constituting about 1.1% of the total US population. Three-quarters of the US Muslim population are immigrants or the children of immigrants while African American Muslims make up 20% of the total American Muslim population.
The history of mosques in the US is interesting. While some historians refer to the forest of Kent Island, MD, as the site of the first mosque in America, where the enslaved Fulani Muslim Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (1701-1773), also known as Job Ben Solomon, used to pray, others point to the mosque built by Albanian Muslims in Biddeford, Maine, in 1915. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, a handful of mosques were built across the United States, including the Highland Park Mosque in Detroit in 1921, the mosque in the small town of Ross, North Dakota in 1929, and the Mother Mosque of America in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1934. The latter is widely considered to be the oldest surviving purpose-built mosque in the country. Today, statistics show that the number of mosques is around 2800 (as of the year 2020).
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