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The first mosque in the city was the Highland Park Mosque, and the first imams who lived in Detroit were Kalil Bazzy and
Hussein Adeeb Karoub. This first mosque failed in 1922. A multiethnic coalition founded the Universal Islamic Society (UIS), the city's second mosque, in 1925.[1]
Early Muslim communities in Detroit "navigated turbulent periods of xenophobia, racism (anti-black and anti-Asian), Orientalist stereotyping, anti-Muslim prejudice, economic depression, and war."[2] By the mid-20th century, however, Muslims in Detroit were seen as an upwardly-mobile, modern group on "easy terms with American patriotism."[2] During this time, while the first national organizations for the advancement of Muslim issues began to sprout up across the county, many Muslim activists, political and spiritual leaders began to rise to prominence in Detroit. The city was seen as "a harbinger of successful Muslim incorporation in American society... by Muslims and non-Muslims alike."[2]
The Islamic Center of America original 1963 mosque in Detroit is pictured in the background in 2002.
The character changed in Detroit's Islam in the 1970s when the conversions of the members of the Nation of Islam to mainstream Islam took place, and when immigration from India, southern Lebanon, Pakistan, and Palestine occurred.[1] B. D. Singleton of the California State University, San Bernardino wrote that the older Muslim population were often "marginalized or shut out of" institutions they themselves had created.[3]
In the 2000s a Bengali mosque in Hamtramck named the Al-Islah Jamee Masjid wanted permission to broadcast the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, from loudspeakers outside of the mosque and requested this permission from the city government. It was one of the newer mosques in Hamtramck. Sally Howell, author of Competing for Muslims: New Strategies for Urban Renewal in Detroit, wrote that the request "brought to a head simmering Islamophobic sentiments" in Hamtramck.[4] Muslims and interfaith activists supported the mosque. Some anti-Muslim activists, including some from other states including Kentucky and Ohio, participated in the controversy.[4] Howell added that the controversy, through an "international media storm", gave "a cathartic test of the 'freedoms' we were said to be 'fighting for' in Afghanistan and Iraq" to the remainder of the United States.[4] In 2004 the city council voted unanimously to allow mosques to broadcast the adhan on public streets, making it one of the few U.S. cities to allow this to occur. Some individuals had strongly objected to the allowing of the adhan.[5]
In 2013 the city council of Hamtramck became the first in the U.S. that was Muslim majority.[6][7]
By 2015 many Muslim women in the Detroit area asked to be able to wear hijab in public places and in any identification photographs. Several municipalities are having to determine how to deal with producing identification photographs of Muslim women who are under arrest.[8]
By 2022, there were more tensions between the Muslim and LGBTQ voting groups in Dearborn and Hamtramck in regards to LGBTQ materials in schools. This was a political shift, in which Christian groups now courted Muslim groups which they previously opposed, in order to get more voters for politically conservative causes.[9] On June 13, 2023, the Hamtramck City Council introduced a resolution prohibiting the display of flags representing "any religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation group" on city property, which was widely considered a targeted ban on the rainbow flag.[10] Following three hours of public comment, the Council passed the resolution unanimously.[11] Mayor Amer Ghalib opposed displaying the pride flag, while former Mayor Karen Majewski had supported displaying the LGBT pride flag.[12]
Ethnic relations
The authors Abdo Elkholy, Frances Trix, and Linda Walbridge, all, as paraphrased by Sally Howell, stated that "relations between Albanian Muslims and other Muslims in Detroit were limited at best."[13]
In Hamtramck the Bengali community has established mosques, including Al-Islah Jamee Masjid.[17] In addition, in Hamtramck the Yemeni community established the Mu'ath bin Jabal Mosque (Arabic: مسجد معاذ بن جبل),[18] which was established in 1976.[19] In 2005 the mosque, located just outside the south eastern border of Hamtramck, was the largest mosque out of the ten within a three-mile radius.
As of 2015 Michigan Islamic Academy, a K-12 Islamic day school in Ann Arbor, has students who come from Metro Detroit.[23]
Public schools
In a thirty-year period ending sometime prior to 2010 Dearborn Public Schools and Detroit Public Schools both developed policies to accommodate Arab and Muslim students in collaboration with administrators, parents, teachers, and students. Policies adopted by the districts included observances of Muslim holidays, Arabic-language programs, policies concerning prayer, and rules regarding modesty of females in physical education and sports.[24] Since the early 1980s Dearborn district schools have vegetarian meals as alternative to non-halal meals. As of 2010 some schools use discretionary funds to offer halal meals, but most schools do not offer halal meals since they cannot get affordable prices from distributors.[25]
In 2005 Highland Park Schools made plans to attract Arab and Muslim students resident in Detroit and Hamtramck.[26] Dr. Theresa Saunders, the superintendent of the school system, hired Yahya Alkebsi (Arabic: يحيى الكبسي), a Yemeni-American educator, as the district's Arab Muslim consultant. It added Arabic-speaking teachers and began offering instruction in Arabic. Sally Howell, author of Competing for Muslims: New Strategies for Urban Renewal in Detroit, said that the district began treating "Muslim families more directly like consumers".[24] Howell said that the district agreed "to segregate Muslim students from mainstream classrooms" but that the district routinely denied that this was the case.[24] Alkebsi said that he would bring halal food to HPS schools, but he was unable to do so. The district instead had vegetarian options.[25]
In 2022 there were political controversies in the district regarding LGBTQ materials in schools at Dearborn Public Schools.[27] In 2022, there were protests that advocated for removing certain books and protests that advocated against districts removing such books.[28] The district chose to discontinue holding seven titles.[29] Much of the impetus against LGBTQ books was driven by conservative Muslim advocates, who were backed by conservative Christian advocates.[9]
Cuisine
The number of halal-certified restaurants in Metro Detroit grew from 89 in 2010,[30] to 236 in 2014.[31]
^"Hamtramck OKs prayer call over heated objections." The Detroit News. April 28, 2004. Retrieved on September 9, 2013. Document ID: det18788929. "HAMTRAMCK ? The City Council on Tuesday night approved an ordinance to allow mosques to broadcast the Islamic call to prayer onto public streets over some heated objections. The unanimous vote by the council makes it one of the few cities in the United States to approve the practice. "This is about uniting our community," said Shabad Ahmed, 37, a Bangladeshi immigrant and the first and only Muslim member of the Hamtramck City Council. Supporters of the change outnumbered[...]"
^ abcHowell, p. 220. "HPS, like a dozen or more local charter schools, sought to outmaneuver more experienced districts by[...] and agreeing to segregate Muslim students from mainstream classrooms, a policy that is routinely denied in Highland Park but is also very much on display in local charter schools."
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