Day 25: Iowa, The Mother Mosque in Cedar Rapids
Sep
Aziza Igram, a first generation Muslim American, shares a photo of the Mother Mosque, or as it was called back in the 1930's the "Moslem Temple"
Note: There are many families that have helped build the Cedar Rapids Muslim community. Unfortunately, I was only able to meet with a small portion of them. So please take these small accounts and stories as part of a larger history.
Many mistake the Mother Mosque as being the first mosque in North America, but as we blogged a couple of days ago, Ross, North Dakota was the site of the first mosque in 1929. What makes the Mother Mosque so important though is that it’s the longest standing mosque, established in 1934.
Throughout the 1800′s there were many Muslims that emigrated to the states to work at factories, railroads, etc., but very few of them were able to create sustainable communities. The Mother Mosque is a nationally recognized historic site and is preserved by Imam Taha. Since the Cedar Rapids Muslim community moved to a larger mosque, the Mother Mosque now serves more as a historical landmark and cultural information center.
The Mother Mosque was known by a couple of names: Naadi (club or hangout) by the Arab youth and Moslem Temple by the sign outside.
The basement of the Mother Mosque is lined with photos and news pieces showcasing a rich history covered by the local papers and tv outlets. From the first news clipping and photo of the congregants outside of the mosque to pictures of the aftermath of the drastic Iowa floods that desecrated hundreds of important books, Imam Taha and the community have done a great job preserving the history of the mosque.
The Mother Mosque is now a nationally recognized historic site.
In the basement of the Mother Mosque Imam Taha shows Aman and I a local news story covering the mosque in the early 90's.
Imam Taha leads a small congregation inside the Mother Mosque. The Mother Mosque is not a functioning mosque, it moved in the 1970's to a larger building.
The large mosque was built in the 1970s when the congregation grew out of the Mother Mosque.
Unlike most of the Muslim communities in America, Cedar Rapids is home to a large community of third, fourth or even fifth generation American Muslims. Aman and I, both coming from largely first generation Muslim communities, wanted to learn more about these folks.
Today, on a cloudy Labor day, we sit with Fatima Igram, a third generation American Muslim, at her house as she shares some important photos with us from her community. .
Fatima, daughter of Aziza Igram, smiles at the camera as she shows significant photos from the family albums.
A social gathering inside the Mother Mosque in the basement. Fatima sits in the middle, uneasy because the boy to her right always tries to sit next to her.
Her father, Abdullah Igram, was in the military and was stationed in New Guinea during World War II. When he was getting his dog tag made, he was asked to claim his religious affiliation with either a P for Protestant, J for Jewish, or C for Catholic. Abdullah said he was a Muslim and asked for an M to be engraved. The military couldn’t produce an M on the tag, so decided to leave it blank. For Abdullah, the idea of dying abroad and not receiving the right burial was terrifying.
Thankfully, Abdullah safely arrived back to Iowa after the war. A couple of years later he wrote a letter to President Eisenhower persuading him to add the M option on military dog tags. Soon enough, Abdullah received a letter from the President’s secretary thanking him for the suggestion and the M option was added.
Abdullah Igram, a Syrian American, was born in America and became somewhat of an ambassador for the Muslims to the larger community. He was one of the first kids in the community to complete the Quran in Arabic. Afterwards, he taught basic aAabic and Qur’an classes in the basement of the mother mosque.
Abdullah Igram and the Mother Mosque was featured in the Iowan Magazine. Here, he is smiling in front of the Mother Mosque
Qur'an lessons taught by Abdullah Igram and a peer.
Abdullah Igram's fight for the M option on the dog tag garnered a lot of media attention. Headline reads: "Vet Leads U.S. Moslems In Fight For Recognition."
Abdullah Igram sits with the local pastor in Cedar Rapids.
Aziza Igram, Abdullah’s wife and Fatima’s mother, came to the US when she was nine years old. She is now 82 and has been working at the Yonkers department store for the last 31 years.
“Uf, I think I’m going to quit soon.” she says to me.
Aziza is a petite Lebanese lady who loves talking about her kids, grandkids and, well, great grandkids. She is a hard worker and Fatima, her daughter, has been trying to convince her for years to leave her job.
Aziza Igram sits with her two daughters, Fatima and Lila, on one of the many Thursday social gatherings at the mosque, circa 1950's.
Aziza and Fatima Igram, Mother and daughter look over photos from the past together. Present day.
Aziza has a large collection of her husband’s letters and documents. There was one letter written to an official in DC talking about the lack of unity when it comes to moon sightings during the month of Ramadan – the letter was written in 1954. So, yes, ease up fellow Muslim readers, your local uncle was not the pioneer of moon sighting quarrels. We learned it from our forefathers, clearly. 
On our way out of Iowa, we stop at a furniture shop owned by Naji Igram, a third generation Lebanese American Muslim. Back in his day, Naji was a body builder who entered competitions regularly. At one point, he became the third runner up in Mr. Midwest.
“Ahh, I stopped it,” Naji shrugs, “there were more important things for us to spend our time on.”
Naji is a laid back guy who is known for his large hands. In fact, before knowing his names and his accomplishments, I was told about how large his hands are. Though he wouldn’t want me saying it, Naji has been integral in helping the Muslim’s in Cedar Rapids progress.
“Our families didn’t know much about Islam. They just knew the bare basics.” Naji says to me sitting a nice dining table on display, “They came to America as peddlers and grocery store owners, they were busy trying to survive.”
Many of the Lebanese families ran grocery stores in Iowa. Naji himself owned a grocery store, but, like many muslims, left because of the conflict of selling alcohol and lottery.
At the time, the Mother Mosque had a small turnout for Friday prayers, and small lectures on Sundays. There were makeshift arabic and quranic lessons, but nothing substantial was happening.
“That wouldn’t have been enough for our community to survive. We needed more.”
In the 1960′s and early 1970′s, the small Iowan Muslim community found a large number immigrants coming from South Asia for work.
“Many of the Pakistanis would try to correct us, or tell us what to do.” says Naji. A classic example of the clash of Immigrant v. Indigenous.
“but they were kind of right. We didn’t know much and needed to learn more.”
“We had a big divide around then, those that liked the way things were before, and those that were willing to progress in their Islam and their practice.”
According to Naji, those that were okay with the earlier ways of the community left and those that were willing to progress stayed and built the mosque into what it is now.
The Cedar Rapids Muslim community is large and vibrant. Aman and I joined them last night for dinner and were amazed by the diverse congregation we saw. For dinner, we had rice pilaf, tandoori naan, butter chicken, goat with gravy and rice pudding for dessert. It was clearly a Pakistani/Indian menu and a meal the entire congregation seemed to enjoyed.
“I’m optimistic about where our community is going,” Naji says, “our kids, they know more than we do. Actually, our kids’ kids know more than us. And that’s promising.”
This is incredible, the history is so interesting. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Beautiful post, thank you for bringing us this piece of history.
God bless you and stay safe.
Absolutely amazing reading this post. Thanks for sharing and Eid Mubarak in advance from South Africa.
I thank you very much for bringing us this side of muslims in U.S.A, I live in Spain and I was just reading an article and it took me to this great one, to know more about the muslims situation in the USA. I felt myself traveling together with you around all these places and hope Islam will get stronger and muslims will do good things like our Mohammed “sala allahou aalayhi wa sallam” told us to do so.
Thank you and SALAM to all the muslims around the world.
Rachid A.
Nice. So our moon sighting disagreements even happened back in the day eh! Interesting.
Beautifully! Modern day Ibn Battuta
wonderful – simply wonderful post… nice to learn more.
So fascinating! There really should be a course on Muslim-American history. Our stories are so diverse, from the Cedar Rapids “Moslem Temple” to Malcolm X. There is so much we, as Muslims, should know about the experiences of generations before us.
honestly all these posts are getting me very emotional. I just can’t seem to understand why muslims are being demonized and so misunderstood by the general pubblic. we’re just human. that’s all. what makes us so different? we’re all just trying to do the best we can in this beautiful country while practicing what we believe. What’s so wrong about that?
Assalamu alaikom,
I love the Cedar Rapids Muslim community and it’s so nice to see the community profiled here. (And I look forward to your visit to Michigan, too!)
The pictures of the kids seated together in the mosque, (girls in front!), the women wearing western clothing, hair uncovered, mingling with the men, are the most modern depiction of Muslim women in America yet depicted in this blog. The pictures are 60 years old. Back To The Future, Part IV!
Asalaamu Alaikum
This part if beautiful and we can all learn so much from this attitude.
“Many of the Pakistanis would try to correct us, or tell us what to do.” says Naji. A classic example of the clash of Immigrant v. Indigenous.
“but they were kind of right. We didn’t know much and needed to learn more.”
Thanks so much for your blog. This is Islam in America 101. You guys should totally publish a coffee book table of all of this cool stuff. Add videos and audioslides if you can to your posts. Haha maybe I’m asking too much. Keep up the good work MashAllah.
I think this is the most fascinating stop so far.
I wonder if there are any lessons that we can take from this story. It has been said that those who don’t know their history are condemned to repeat it. The fact is that this once vibrant and alive edifice is now a historic landmark. Isn’t that the evolution of churches in Europe? Beautiful edifices that once were the core of the community now are quaint landmarks, museums and tourist attractions. It makes one wonder about the future of our current mosques.
I really love the part about Abdullah Igram – thanks for sharing his story.
awesome story that Abdullah guy is very awesome guy.
I’m astounded by the picture of the Quran lessons by Abdullah Igram. I really like how the teachers were wearing suits and the students dressed respectably. It really mirrors American society at the time. How far we’ve drifted since then and fractured into so many little and very foreign enclaves where the more religious one is seems to make on more hostile to the America they live in. We need to take more inspiration from our forebearers in faith who taught the Quran but acted quite at home here with little apparent conflict. Thier identity was at once American and Muslim without forgetting where they come from, but now our communities seem so hell-bent on maintaining a foreign identity imported from over there that they resist any tiny bit of becoming integrated with our country. Why?
Also, as a fellow veteran, I salute his can-do attitude and getting it done for his community, amin and a salute to him so I was able, decades later to easily have my religion printed on my dogtags as a normal, matter of course.
I agree with this sentiment.
I loved the mini history lesson in this one; I love to hear people’s individual stories, they make up the strands of our communities and our society.
I was especially impressed by the willingness to learn and grow and change shown by many in the congregation in the 1960′s and 1970′s and beyond. Would that we could all be so humble and open to learning.
Best wishes for a smooth remainder of your journey.
Assalamu ‘alaykum,
I lived in Iowa for about four years (in Grinnell, 91 km / 57 miles from Cedar Rapids), and so I’m happy to hear any good news from the state. This post was great, ma sha’ Allah. Like several other people who’ve commented, I like the picture of the Qur’an class.
Salaam alaikum:
I have been writing a book about the History of Islam in America, and am so sorry I missed your visit to our fair state of Iowa. My family and I moved to the Cedar Rapids community a little over ten years ago from New England. My children are 6th Generation Muslim-Americans hailing from Lebanon and Egypt. My family settled in New England, West Virginia and North Carolina when they arrived in the 1860s. Before my husband, children and I arrived here, I had heard many good things about this community, but did not know how deep the community roots really were. I’ve grown to love this community and the Muslims in it–they are our family, just as my blood family in New England. Keep up the good work spreading the story of Islam in the US.
Salaam,
This was truly a wonderful post. Beautiful in all regards. It’s amazing to see the pictures. Good job, guys. Really good job.
A photo book (and maybe even a docu film) would be GREAT, esp. at this time! People need to LEARN more about their AMERICAN nabes…
Assalamu’alaikum wrwbth,
Wow, a great history lesson! Perhaps CNN should cover the history of Islam in the US, and the crazy Gainesville Florida Pastor and his congregation can learn how deeply rooted Islam is in America!
Thank you for enlightening us.
Alhamdulillah. I never would have known and honestly had not thought of doing research on other muslim communities that dated back that far in the U.S. Thank you so much ofr this post, ITS INCREDIBLE
Wow this really brings back some fond memories I was a family friend of Abdullah (Abe & Aziza (Betty) Hassan Yusef Lila and Fatima and the whole extended Igram family I remember going to Jim’s store and buying candy as a kid. I always thought he was Mr. America. These are some very remarkable caring people.What a fine job of compiling all the information. I only lived a block from the Mosque and played there in the big open lot often. It was always a treat to go see Grandma and Grandpa on 1st Ave. What wonderful people.I believe my Grandfather was a member of the Mosque if not he had some close ties and friends their.
One of the things I love the MOST about praying in that mosque is the unified singular prayer room. There is something so compelling, enriching, and liberating to be worshiping Allah together as a community without the constraints of a wall, a one-sided mirror, and a speaker system. You can’t imagine the synergy that reverberates throughout the room to hear one glorious “Ameen”. There is a reason the Prophet (sws) built his mosque to have one prayer room. Glad you guys got a shot of it to share with the readers!
I am not Muslim (and i don’t even like history) but i am greatly inspired by this. Peace.
It was this wonderful community that was my introduction to Islam. The welcoming, warm, family oriented community was so special. And YES…the open prayer room is powerful. These are wonderful people who provide such a wonderful example for other communities.
Its true, many of the women in these pictures are dressed just like my Italian American aunts dressed back in the day. However, I don’t think the fact that they are uncovered and mingling with men makes them more “modern” than the Muslim women of today. The leader of their community admits: “Our families didn’t know much about Islam. They just knew the bare basics.”. What you deem a modern attitude is NOT the result of an educated decision by forward-thinking women choosing to reject an oppressive culture; they were just following the cultural norm of the society they lived in. I see more modern thinking in the actions of Muslim women today who choose to cover their hair in the face of much misunderstanding and prejudice.
>>my Italian American aunts
Mine, too! Its so easy for me to feel kind of at home with Lebanese since their ways seem so similar to old-school Italian-American ways, especially if one’s family is from the Arab-influenced parts of Sicily like mine.
What a great story. As a Lebanese-American (Maronite), I was blown away by the pictures of the Igram family – that could be my family. Aziza looks just like my mother!
Hello,
I have really enjoyed the tales from your journey and am so glad that you took the time to visit Iowa, my home state. I’m a non-religious Iowan and am surprised and fascinated by the Islamic history my state has. Thank you for informing me about my own local history and I am pleased that you found yourself so welcomed in Iowa.
The average American’s education about Muslims comes from tv – full of conflict in Palestine, hostages in Iran, the attack on NY 9 years ago, etc. with no emphasis on moderation or shared values. They’re ignorant & afraid & attack. Blacks, Japanese, & Hispanics all had their turns. Muslims, being more different, are the next easy target.
It’s dead wrong! I’m so glad to see more positive things lately. The shared services here in Cedar Rapids. This blog. People challenging the lies & standing up with their Muslim neighbors. I’m not Muslim or Christian, but I will fight for your rights.
I live 45 minutes away from Cedar Rapids and had no idea about the historical aspect of its Mosque. Thanks for the education.
So glad you got to visit the Cedar Rapids mosque! I recently brought there a delegation of young visitors from different Middle Eastern countries. They were very happy to see this side of AMERICAN culture and history…and they were very appreciative of the meal they received.
I look forward to reading about the other mosques. Thanks so much for sharing your journey.
Your blog is truly a fantastic read. I am a Christian and find your journey to be very inspiring. Thank you for sharing with us the vibrant history and culture of Islam in the US. I am thankful to live in a place where I can immerse myself in different ideas, cultures, and beautiful histories.
Western culture and media tends to portray hijabi ( hair covered ) muslim women from lewd licentious belly dancers to oppressed door mats walking behind their men. It’s not an oxymoron to be modern / professional and hijabi; arguably they are the trailblazers of islamic feminism.
I wish the Iowa mosque continued functioning with its dress / gender codes from a diversity perspective; like many muslim men and women who don’t cover their hair. (e.g., Ground Zero Imam and his wife; but majority in the West and America can be ‘sensitive’ to them ).
While the “West” may protray hijabis as oppressed, Muslims themselves look down upon those who don’t cover their hair as insufficiently religious. The women in these photos are very modest, period. It isn’t that they were “weak” in faith, they just hadn’t had the Saudi version of Islam shoved down their throats, made to feel guilty for not being the Saudi’s version of proper Muslims. To me, these photos highlight a time when our Islam was more normal – women modest but visible (how few pictures were these gentlemen able to take of our Muslim sisters on this trip?), people studying together and so on.
These days, our men our obsessed with making the sisters invisible (with “good” women desiring to be invisible at least in the Mosque setting) as a means to demonstrate how super on the Haqq we are.
I would personally love to find a community that is like the one protrayed in these old photos, where I could be a sister in faith able to learn with my brothers and children without having to be stuffed away like some cancer waiting to destroy the group.
a lovely narrative about muslims in the midwest… the pictures of by-gone days are sweet.
thank you for giving us this portrait of america.
Ne güzel bir gezi yapmışsınız tebrik ederim doğrusu keşke doğru düzgün ingilizcem olsada türkceye çevirebilsem bu yazdıklarınızıda ülkemizde yayınlasam turkey
Iowa wasn’t listed in your route map, right?
Did you change your route?
Follow me as I embark on my Hajj journey…http://myhajj.blogspot.com/
Asalam Mualaikom,
May Allah bless us all. May islam flourish in the United States of America.
Mohammed Nasser
Nice post, greetings !
Hi there, You’ve performed an incredible job. I’ll certainly digg it and in my view recommend to my friends. I am sure they will be benefited from this website.
Its such as you learn my thoughts! You seem to know so much approximately this, like you wrote the e book in it or something. I believe that you could do with a few p.c. to power the message home a little bit, but instead of that, this is wonderful blog. A great read. I’ll definitely be back.