Islamic Center of America

01 / The story of this place

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The congregation that became the Islamic Center of America traces back to Imam Mohamad Jawad Chirri, who arrived from Lebanon to lead metro Detroit's growing Shia Muslim community and built Michigan's first purpose-built mosque on Joy Road in Detroit in 1963. That original building filled up quickly, and by the 1990s the congregation had outgrown it, raising money for a much larger complex on Ford Road in Dearborn. The new Islamic Center of America opened there in 2005, a 120,000-square-foot building with a 150-foot dome and twin ten-story minarets that made it, and still makes it, the largest mosque in North America. Imam Hassan al-Qazwini led the congregation through this period, serving from 1997 until 2015, when he left to found the nearby Islamic Institute of America. The Islamic Center of America remains an active mosque and community hub for the region's large Shia Muslim population today.

1. Congregation founded by Imam Mohamad Jawad Chirri, who built Detroit's first purpose-built mosque in 1963
2. Current Dearborn building opened in 2005
3. 120,000 square feet with a 150-foot dome; the largest mosque in North America
4. Imam Hassan al-Qazwini led the congregation from 1997 to 2015