Day 22: Ross, North Dakota – A Leap in Time
Sep
Bassam and I stress over our planned visit to Fargo, North Dakota. We didn’t expect our rental car to break down in Montana and the time it took to fix the car (thank you all for the prayers!) is making us late. It takes 11 hours to get to Fargo and getting there at a reasonable time is simply not going to happen now.
Instead we program our GPS to take us to Ross, North Dakota – a town with a total population of 48 people during the last U.S.Census. When my brother got married, I think there were more people sleeping over at our house that weekend than live in Ross.
Ross is home to the first mosque that was ever built in the United States. A Syrian farmer by the name of Hassan Juma immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Ross in the late 1800s. More Syrians came into town shortly after and the community built a mosque in 1929 after spending years praying in each other’s basements. It was later demolished in the 1970s but there’s a Muslim cemetery nearby where many of the original community members are buried. In 2005, a new mosque was built on the same land as the original mosque.
Bassam and I don’t know anyone who can help us find this place. Google Maps barely even knew. To our luck, a local pastor got us in touch with a woman named Lila who is the caretaker of the place. She can”t meet with us at night to open the mosque but she kindly let us visit it from the outside.
We’re driving through Ross amidst a barren landscape and take a turn down an empty dirt road. We have little idea if we’re going the right way but I keep my eyes peeled intent on finding the place.
About a quarter mile down the dirt road, my jaw drops as we find the place we’re looking for. Standing in front of me is a cube shaped mosque with a helmet dome and mini-minaret pillars on top. My heart is punching in my chest as I begin to walk towards it.
A sign to the left of the door dedicated the building to “Sarah Allie (Omar) Shupe.” I don’t know much about her but I remember reading she was instrumental in making sure this new mosque was built. I think about what she must be like and for some reason, I begin to feel like I’m falling. Fast. It was the same plummeting feeling I got when I was 18 and a skydiving instructor shoved me out of an airplane for the first time.
I don’t know why I’m falling. Maybe it’s because I’m standing in front of a place that’s taking me back in time.
I find the cemetery about a hundred feet from the mosque. I begin reading the names on the tombstones and the birth dates below them. 1882, 1904, 1931. Each of them has a star and crescent symbol at the top of the stone reflecting a Muslim was buried there.
Some of the stones indicate the Muslims buried here were veterans that served this country in armed conflicts like the Korean War. It takes several seconds for my brain to realize tears are spilling down my face. I feel ashamed to have known very little about this place until I got here.
Ross is a small town and we know virtually no one we can stay with for the night. We drive around for miles and can barely find a gas station, let alone a hotel.
We’re told the nearest hotel is about an hour away in Minot, so we head there for the night. I begin to write the post about our visit to Ross but feel I incomplete. We know very little about this enchanted place, so we ask Lila to meet us in the morning to learn some more about it.
####
Lila and her son Greg stand by the mosque as we pull our car through the opened gate the following morning.
She’s an olive skinned woman who bounces her arms along with her cheerful tone. She flashes a radiantly youthful smile and slaps her knees every time she laughs.
Greg opens up the door to the mosque and Bassam and I pray inside to pay our respects to the place. I walk around the stone room and am fixated on how serene and simple the place is.
I walk back outside and again read the name of Sarah Allie (Omar) Shupe. Lila points to the name and pauses.
“That’s my mother,” she said. “She was the driving force for this place.”
This mosque was built in 2005 on the same land the original mosque was built on. I asked her why the original one was demolished in the 1970s.
“Oh, I’m not going to go there,” she said as she looked away. “I wasn’t there at that meeting so I don’t want to get into it.”
I can sense the question is a sensitive subject, so I decide not to pry. Instead, Lila takes me inside and shows me a framed collection of photographs of some of her relatives and family friends who helped pioneer the community here. She points to one of Allay Omar, her father, and one of her mother Sarah.
Allay Omar grew up in a region a part of Syria that is now modern day Lebanon. Waves of Syrians came to this country in the early 1900s once the United States lifted its ban on immigrants from Arab countries. Syria at the time was under control of the Ottomon Empire in Turkey and many Syrians fled to the U.S. to avoid getting drafted in the Turkish army.
Lila’s father and other immigrants came to North Dakota because the Homestead Act gave people up to 160 acres of land after taking care of it, Greg said. As Greg speaks, Lila uses her motherly instincts and sways nearby mosquitos off his arms.
Earlier we had written about Greg saying tensions among immigrant farmers here over resources instead of race. In a follow up conversation with us, Greg said this to clarify, “With the remoteness of this place you had to depend on your neighbors and they had to depend on you. There was no time for racism, as it took a backseat to survival. There were no ambulances, no flight for life helicopters, no telephones.. no electricity or propane for that matter. These brave people learned to live together and learned to ignore the outward appearance of a man because it is the inner man that counts.”
Lila was born and raised in the area and still lives a little over a mile away from the mosque. Her high school graduating class had five people in it. I ask her what that was like, being not only the only Middle Eastern kid, but one of the only minorities in town.
“I knew I was darker skinned than most people, but I never saw it that way,” she said. “I am who I am.”
These days she says it frustrates her about what people think about people in the Middle East being male chauvinists and anti-Semitic.
“They say the men are oppressive towards their women over there and I’m sure that happens,” she said. “But I never had that experience. My father treated us like princesses. My father had Jewish friends and taught us to love them. I have Jewish friends too and I’m always going to have Jewish friends. I was taught to love everyone.”
“I really wish you could have met my father,” she said smiling again. “He was a wonderful man.”
Talking to Lila made me feel like I was meeting him.
Bassam and I look at the time and realize we need to hit the road to our next stop in Minnesota. Lila smiles again and asks me to sign the mosque’s guestbook before I leave.
“I will never forget this place and the contributions you, your family and friends have made,” I write. “And I hope nobody ever does.”
Great story, great history, beautiful photos, thanks for sharing!!!
Very Heartwarming Post Guys!
Been following your stories guys. I love taking road trips more than anything in the world. InshAllah I am now setting up a similar trip to visit different mosque around the U.S. Thank you all for the inspiration. Hope to meet you guys in chicago. Peace.
I was really shocked and surprised to learn about this masjid in Ross, ND. I always believed that the masjid in Cedar Rapids, Iowa was the first purpose built masjid in the US but learning about this masjid and the people who came and settled in such remote places so long ago, was very inspirational. They were real pioneers.
This post reminds me that everything happens for a reason.If you hadn’t driven over a rock in montana causing your car to break down, you may not have ended up in Ross.subhanAllah.
I believe this 30 Mosque journey is truly a gift to ALL who take the time to read and learn!!
Safe travels~
Marium, that’s excactly what I felt when we were leaving!
subhanallah!
wow that was a very deep post. we often forget that there were generations that preceded us that truly paved the way for us as muslim americans… and it’s also a reminder that we’ll be gone one day too, and what kind of legacy will we have left for our future generations?
The cemetery looks just like the cemetery where my German Lutheran grandparents are buried in southeast Nebraska. Imagine that! The mosque looks quite different from their church but is lovely nonetheless.
This post made my heart melt.
God Bless.
This post was beautiful mA! It gave me tingles.
Safe travels guys!
Thank you so much for taking time to create this blog! Your experience today was especially beautiful and moving…
Salaam
Wow Aman and Bassam! I read about the existence of the mosque and the cemetry but never got the chance to visit. You car trouble in our state made all of us know about this glowing history. You were supposed to be in Fargo yesterday and you ended up in Ross. Let us remember the golden lesson from the Quran, “ you make plans and Allah makes plans too and indeed He is a better planner.”
That is an endearing story. That little mosque is a real jewel.
Subhan’Allah, that was amazing…
SubhanAllah! Precious gems of history and human drama..just amazing.. Take care guys….
Little mosque on the prairie! What a wonderful post. Thank you, guys for this one. I was particularly moved by Lila’s description of her father as a loving, open-hearted man. So wonderful to read about good people like that.
Amazing. Very touching. May God bless us all.
thank God for that rock! although each post uniquely illuminates the essence of islam in america, this one truly unearthed its roots. the rich history behind this mosque gives us all something to pause and reflect on. thanks for that opportunity.
This is my favourite post so far. Jazak Allah Khair for what you are doing and for teaching the rest of us something very few people know. I think the majority of U.S. Muslims like myself thought that the first masjid was in Cedar Rapids. I learned something new today and enjoyed learning it.
Very inspiring, ma sha’ Allah. For those of us who are immigrants to North America, it is all too easy to forget how deep the roots of the Muslim community are on this continent.
Subhanallah. Thanks for sharing this story with us. Very heart warming.
Asalaamu Alaikum
I do hope those pictures are not in the prayer area right?
As Salaamu Alaikum, We plan and Allah plans and Allah SWT is the best planner. Thank you for sharing this post, it reconfirms that we are all one soul. Each experience is unique yet necessary. I echo the others, Thank Allah for the Rock. Take care and have a Blessed Eid.
How exciting to open this site and see MY FAMILY!!! What a unique roadtrip you designed…I hope we all can learn more about peace, tolerance and the importance of accepting the colorful differences in all our lives through your travels…
What a wonderful journey. Your emotions came through your writings and were sincerely felt. The photos were awesome, as was the commentary about my family. My parents always has this vision for a place to pray, with my brothers efforts and support of my siblings, their dream will continue on for many generations. Travel safe guys and keep up the great work.
The masjid in Cedar Rapids is the oldest surviving masjid in the country
Sally and Zinie (see comments above) are the sisters of Lila who with her son Greg gave the tour and interview of the Mosque at Ross. Their brother Emmett was the designer of this Mosque and was instrumental in the construction.
As the blog says the original Mosque was built in 1929. The one in Cedar Rapids was built in 1935. Reference: Prairie Peddlers – The Syrian-Lebenese in North Dakota by William C. Sherman, Paul L. Whitney and John Guerrero, Bismarck, North Dakota: University of Mary Press, 2002
Indeed – We can plan but Allah is the best of planners!
I hope you gave azaan in that mosque.
I’ve been following you along your journey and must say this post brought tears to my eyes. Ms. Lila seems a beautiful soul. I pray your journey to be safe. Thank you so much for sharing. God Bless you.
absolutely amazing
Wonderful post Aman, and great picture Bassam. This is probably my favorite post so far. Thank you.
Very brilliant post and wonderful pictures and real unique Mosque,good work guys and must believe that every thing in life happen for a reason.
May Allaha keep you guys in his Aman and Good bless you and have a safe trip back home.
Awesome, very beautiful MashaAllah.
Courtesy of yours truly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross,_North_Dakota; thanks for permitting use of the photo.
Very Very very Beautiful mashAllah. I have been reading this blog so consistently that the mosques are now appearing in my dreams! The other day I saw an enormous mosque in my dream (I think it was Masjid-al-haram) and its enormous size frightened me. I think I would react very similarly to this tiny mosque in Ross. Good coverage, gentlemen.
I happened to visit your website this morning. My story about why I visited, and why I found it so inspirational, is posted on my blog http://www.outsidethewalls.org/blog/?m=20100905.
I believe Lila, who you mention, is the lady at upper left on the photo at the end of the blog post.
I was at Ross in July, 2007, for a reunion of the families of Ross. Emmett and I had a reunion there. He and I do keep in touch from time to time.
Thank you so very, very much.
Salam,
you guys should publish a book, kind of like a coffee table book, i would def buy it:)
Wow.. beautiful story, and wonderful photo’s. thank you.
Subhanallah .. I’m speechless
I know all the Omar siblings and knew their wonderful
mother (I called her my adopted Mother). I wanted to
be at the dedication of the Mosque, but was unable to. Thanks to both of you, I feel like I’ve been
there. Lila, is indeed, a wonderful woman as are
all the other sisters and the brothers. They are a
very inspirational family to have had as part of my
life. Blessings on both of you and this great
journey you have been on. I am sure many have felt
their lives enriched by your sharings.
JAK for the post and pictures. I’m a US Muslim history buff and had read about the mosque, but did not know it had been rebuilt. I really appreciated the pictures and info about Lila and her family–it was amazing. I wish we could know more about them and know what *exactly* happened in 1970, such an important part of US Muslim History. khair
Mr Bernard, what a pleasure to read your blog’s posting on your close encounter. You added a precious perspective, and a much needed note of sanity to the wildly insane & fear-induced hysteria that is currently infecting segments of our public. Thank you for lending your clear, sane voice.
Aman & Bassam: God bless you for making a truly inspired idea into an inspiring reality; and sharing it with all of us. Please consider extending your 30 States to 50. It would be awesome to sample the other Muslim communities in the rest of the 20 states too!
Like many of the other readers, I’m addicted to your blog. May God reward you both with the best for your efforts & sacrifices.
Its hard to believe a city with 48 people, being the 1st site for a masjid in America..MasyaAllah
This was an amazing post. I agree – I wish I knew more about places like this too.
SubhanAllah! You can plan but God is the best of planners
There was more benefit in you going to Ross instead of Fargo!
Thanks for letting us know about this very important part of our history in this country.
Salam All,
Any word on why the original mosque was demolished in the 70s?
I’m really enjoying reading about your travels across country. Since you posted this entry, and the one about the mosque in Abiqui, I am really starting to wonder: what kind of engagement with or acknowledgment of indigenous people have you seen in the Muslim community, in places like this? What got me thinking about it was her mention of the Homestead Act; that kind of opportunity for settlement was the end result of the deliberate displacement of native people from their lands.
Aw, you guys are making ME cry now! GREAT story!!!
This is beautiful. But Ross was not the first masjid in the US. The Muslim World building on 20th St. in Manhattan had a mosque on the third floor three decades earlier. There were also several other mosques opened in New York between 1890 and 1920 – as well as in Newark, Philadelphia, and other cities. And there were almost certainly earlier masjids or musallas wherever Muslims were gathered in the 19th and even 18th centuries. http://bit.ly/bcMnjo I don’t know if people are just attracted to the idea of the first mosque being in some now inconceivable rural location or what, but the first settlements of Muslims (aside from slaves in the South) and of American converts were almost all urban. The families that settled Ross would have come through New York and the cities of the rust belt which all already had large Syrian populations.
I live not too far from Ross(of course in Western North Dakota, NOTHING is really too far, because EVERYTHING is too far…equals all out
) Your blog post was very touching.
Most of all, thank you for not taking the typical sideswipe comment about us. Our sparsely populated state has more diversity and tolerance, particularly religious tolerance, than many larger urban cities. We have less than a million people in the entire state. At the end of the day neighbors help neighbors and we all have to look out for ourselves and each other. We don’t check for the “right” ethnicity or religion card before we help each other. Nobody else in the country cares about far off, irrelevant North Dakota. That’s what makes *us* care about each other so much.
I have known about the mosque since I have lived int he area(I am a California transplant of 12 years) and it has never caused the stir that it seems to be causing now. It is a little bizarre to see Ross singled out by the President of the United States in a speech be honest..lol It is just another place of worship in North Dakota.
What is the best part of coming across this blog(yea for Google alerts huh?
) is I was able to see the inside of the mosque. It is exactly what I would have expected it to be. It is everything that the landscape and people of North Dakota are in life; simple, humble and absolutely beautiful.
There will always be tensions between some here because of our history. When the West is “won”, somebody loses, BUT, 99% of us respect every aspect of what makes our culture so rich and it is exactly what makes North Dakota a place where you could have the little Mosque on the prairie and have it just as accepted as my Lutheran church, the Catholic Monastery, the Jewish Synagogues, the multitude of Native American sacred places and the other smaller places of worship for all the different faiths scattered over the state.
I am really thrilled you were able to make it to tiny Ross, ND, and it seems like our little slice of the world was well worth the gas to get here
Have a good day.
Whatever (if anything) turns out to be “fact” about the real first mosque in the U.S. it remains that this place in a most improbable prairie location did exist, and existed very early on in the settlement of the midwest. We Americans seem to have a fondness for being “first”. The real testimony to this place is its very existence for a long period of time. I am enjoying this conversation. (That year I lived in Ross, 1953-54, I am certain there were fewer Catholics (my “brand”) than Moslems. Our little church was in next-door Stanley.)
As a person who grew up all over North Dakota (almost literally true) from 1940-62, and who still visits the state regularly, I can second and applaud this comment.
Thank you guys for the touching comments. They are greatly appreciated by us.
It’s just so inspiring, thank you for such an initiative …
I saw you on CNN this morning as I drank my coffee and watched my morning news in Vancouver Canada. My girlfriend looked up your blog and sent me the link. I am from Minot North Dakota and never new there was a Mosque in Ross. I am nervous about the religious tension in the US and middle east and it was good to see you guys doing this trip to help the educate ignorant people out there.
I am a Christian and I don’t know what to think about the mosque being build in NYC and I see both sides. I have heard every belief and opinion speak up about it. People are people and this will be a debate till the end of time. I’m not sure if it is true or not but I heard that Mosques are sometimes built near the area a battle/war was WON????? Not sure if that is true or false? I would love to hear your input on this.
I do know that Jesus said love your neighbor as you love yourself.
-Safe Travels Gentlemen and good luck:)
Epic post, guys. I found out about your work on my cell phone’s news feed. Had to check out info on this mosque with such history in the middle of nowhere. Amazing story. This is just as unassuming as the radio tower in North Dakota that was the tallest structure on earth until the Burj Khalifa in Dubai finally passed it. ND doesn’t advertise this stuff enough!
Hello! My grandparents’ farm is just outside of Ross, ND. A descendant of Hassan Juma, Joe Juma, has farmed the land for about twenty years. The farm itself has been in my family for about 130 years. Mr. Juma started farming my family’s acreage when my grandpa was unable to do so due to his advanced age. Now Mr. Juma farms it because my grandpa has passed away. Thank you, Mr. Juma, for tending to my grandfather’s legacy.
Salamu alaykum.
As I was reading your post, my heart was just melting. Subhan’Allah and Mashaallah. What an amazing story… I wish to visit there one day and pay my respects.
and Eid Mubarak!!!
Keep blogging!
I was raised Catholic and I have never known much about the Islamic faith and even less about Muslim people. I know work in an academic setting with many Muslim people. I know the local Imam. I have learned much about Islam and Muslim people since, but, I must tell you, that you two gentleman, in a very short amount of time, have taught me much more about Islam and Muslim people than my personal experiences working with young Muslim people.
Thank you both very much for doing what you are doing.
As someone who’s lived in Fargo-Moorhead for thirty years and is acquainted with the numerous communities of muslim refugees living here, I am disappointed you missed our city. However, it looks to me however that finding Ross more than made up for it.
Thats not true, it just so happens that muslims build mosques for worship anywhere they happen to be.
we stumbled upon the story of this journey this morning, September 11 How uplifting it is to read such a positive story about this journey. A refreshing antidote to the venom and hatred. I wish this journey could be made into a PBS film special so more people could see it. How amazing to learn that the first mosque in America is in, of al places, North Dakota! I can’t wait to tell my friend who is from there! I was married to a Lebanese American man and came to love Arab cultures. My daughters will be very interested in this! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful adventure.
I agree with Dick….Aman and Bassam may God bless you and thank you for letting us know what you did….I will definately visit the Mosk sometimes..
“North Dakotan”, you could not have put it any better! I am from North Dakota, born and raised there and have come to appreciate everything about it. I’m proud to be from a place where it doesn’t matter what color you are or what religion you practice. All that matters is that we are all people and all equally important!
Should I cry or weep or moan? Imagine Islam has been in North Dakota for 100 years. I live in Minnesota and visited Fargo, North Dakota, but never taught islam was in such far area.
This post brought tears to my eyes! What a beautiful, simple mosque in such a beautiful, start place. Thank you so much for this.
“start” = “stark”
great blog. if you ever do make a documentary out of this road trip – a must! – you should be aware that the first mosque built in the us was in highland park michigan (1921).
Eide mubarak! Hope you are enjoying your time in MI.
Thank You. Hope your Travels are going well.
You might be interested in a website showing the cemetery:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=102189&CScn=moslem&
I noticed that there is no picture of the gravestone for the Omar family on FindaGrave.com
If you give me permission to use your pictures, I would like to add pictures to FindaGrave and give you guys the credit.
Mashaa allah, May allah help me visit this place
Subhana Allah, how that little acorn planted in Iowa grew to such a great oak tree..spreading it’s branches throughout America.!
vay anasini be neler neler yapiyorlar su oyunlarda gercekten insan hepsini oynamak istiyor fakat bu kolay degil sanirim
This post made my heart melt…Its shocking growing up in Fargo, ND and not knowing that history was made not too far away from me… I thank you for posting this and Inshaallah I plan on visiting the mosque next time I visit my family.
Thank you for the heartwarming and beautiful story.
I read that the first mosque was built in NYC, the second in Ross, and the 3rd in Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids, Iowa is where the oldest “original surviving” mosque is.
Thanks for this wonderful history from my home state of ND…next time I go up to see my mom in MN I am going to try and visit here as well…
I never had any idea about it.
I loved hearing your stories and travels…and what a great idea to do this trip!
your sister,
Eva Nirgaz Abdullah
I really enjoyed your post.. mashallah wonderful story.
Thank you for this post. I loved reading it. I wish there was more info on this Masjid and the history. I hope to visit one day and have the honor of praying in this humble house of Allah (swt).
Thank you for sharing
God bless!
I recently went on a similar pilrimage to a remote area of my home county and found some things we were searching for and some not. Thank you for sharing your experience – I invite you to check out my blog all about local history, and the one in particular I wrote about our trip at http://56755.blogspot.com/2010/09/caribou-pilgrimage.html
I my hometown area, there was efforts that took most of last century to bring back respect for a sacred ground including burial places, and I SO respect what the Ross people did to bring back the mosque – see http://56755.blogspot.com/2006/11/metis-pilgrimage.html
Thank you very much for sharing this with us.
Asalamulakium,
What direction was the Qiblah?
Ibn Saad
I am researching muslims and mosques in America and came across this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605510.html
It says the first mosque was during the colonial era. Even so, I would also like to say that I found this article to be really touching. Thank you for sharing.
I have been researching the first mosque in the USA. Here you credit Ross but I found that Albanian immigrants founded the first mosque in Maine in 1915. http://www.ghazali.net/amp/html/mosques_in_us.html
Also another article here: http://www.keepmecurrent.com/sun_chronicle/news/article_80482cb4-bc45-11df-83b4-001cc4c002e0.html
Beautiful. Thank you so much for writing about this.
wonderful story! thank you so much for sharing the saga, and bringing to life the sometimes invisible humanity – even in the middle of the Great American nowhere.
I found this through the US Consulate General in Dubai and am reminded again of why I’m proud to be from North Dakota.
I’m living in the UAE, but grew up an hour west of Ross in Williston. Next time I’m in the area (later this summer), I intend on visiting. I’m a Christian, but if I’ve learned one thing about living here in the UAE, and growing up in ND, it is that faith and family are vital to survival. It doesn’t matter if it’s Christian or Muslim, White or Black, Man or Woman.
Loved your article! Very touching.
I saw a feature on CNN today, and thought I’d check out the website. I’m a first generation American Muslim and while I’ve lived all over, I consider myself a North Dakotan having spent a great deal of my childhood there. Growing up in Bismarck, my finally decided to make the trip north to Ross, as a sort of pilgrimage to the home of Islam in the United States. While the first mosque was no longer around, we were able to visit the site and pray in what then stood there. That day, three generations of my family stood side by side, praying where the first American Muslims prayed in congregation and it is something only now as a 20 year old that I understand the significance of. I’m now a student in our nation’s capital, and your post has inspired me to one day head back “home” and revisit Ross and the beautiful mosque that now stands there. It may be small, but in its humble nature, is it truly North Dakotan.
This is a heartwarming blog. Thank you for sharing your amazing journey. If more people could share not only ideas but time and the small kindnesses that show we are all more alike than different we as humans would be much better off. As a member of a minority religion I have tried to avoid the subject with most people, for fear of being marginalized. Islam is not a faith of small following but is often treated as such here in the U.S.