This week, congregants, neighbors and visitors celebrate the 70th year of the oldest mosque in Michigan.
The American Moslem Society stands as a beacon in Muslim America and Metro Detroit. Its roots proceed from the first mosque in Michigan, established in Highland Park in 1921. Experts and Islamic scholars believe the Highland Park Mosque, which lasted only for a year or two, was the first mosque in the United States.
"This mosque is the seed of all other mosques in the state of Michigan," said Mahdi Ali, the president of the American Moslem Society. "We have been called upon many times by people in other areas of the country for assistance with their mosques, even outside of Michigan," Ali said.
The mosque sits between the Ford Rouge plant and Woodmere Cemetery, in a working-class neighborhood long home to immigrants from Europe, Central and South America, South Asia and the Middle East. It is often called "the Dix mosque" because it sits near Dix, on West Vernor.
In the bad economy before World War II, Turks, Kurds, Lebanese, Syrians, Bengalis, Tartars, Albanians and others established a place for prayer and socializing in what was then a one-story structure, after more than decade of meeting at homes and taking instruction in Islam in the basement of their imam, or prayer leader, Hussein Karoub.
"This mosque has a historical weight to it," said Sally Howell, an assistant professor of Arab-American studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
"This mosque is the seed of all other mosques in the state of Michigan," said Mahdi Ali, the president of the American Moslem Society. "We have been called upon many times by people in other areas of the country for assistance with their mosques, even outside of Michigan," Ali said.
The mosque sits between the Ford Rouge plant and Woodmere Cemetery, in a working-class neighborhood long home to immigrants from Europe, Central and South America, South Asia and the Middle East. It is often called "the Dix mosque" because it sits near Dix, on West Vernor.
In the bad economy before World War II, Turks, Kurds, Lebanese, Syrians, Bengalis, Tartars, Albanians and others established a place for prayer and socializing in what was then a one-story structure, after more than decade of meeting at homes and taking instruction in Islam in the basement of their imam, or prayer leader, Hussein Karoub.
"This mosque has a historical weight to it," said Sally Howell, an assistant professor of Arab-American studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
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