30 Mosques. 30 States. 30 Days.

August 7, 2011 9:42 AM

30 Mosques in 30 Days, 2011

Background
As the world's 1.3 billion Muslims celebrate Ramadan, Islam's holiest month of observance, this month, Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq are traveling to a new state each day to meet with a new Muslim community. They then blog about their experiences each evening, 'highlighting stories about the people they’ve met, the mosque they prayed in and the tasty cuisines each place has to offer.'

"The goal is to hit 30 states and 30 mosques in 30 days ... introducing the world to the wide breadth of wonderful people composing Islam, a religion and culture still considered by many to be foreign and scary." (Via)

This is the second year Tariq and Ali have done this. Here's last year's project archive, and an interview they gave last year.

posted by zarq (22 comments total)

The page that lays out their route shows all the cities they've visited previously, and their upcoming schedule. Found it very slow to load, so didn't want to include it in the post.
posted by zarq at 9:46 AM on August 7, 2011

Wow. This is a dream project. I'd give anything to do something like this someday.
posted by mykescipark at 9:55 AM on August 7, 2011

Zarq! this is good!

And I love this bit...

Now we’re in Las Vegas. Don’t worry, what happens here, we’ll be telling it to everybody.
posted by infini at 9:57 AM on August 7, 2011 [5 favorites]

Thanks for the link. I now know that the first mosque in the USA was built in Ross, ND.
posted by Jumpin Jack Flash at 10:02 AM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

I now know that the first mosque in the USA was built in Ross, ND.

Huh. I'm pretty sure that Cedar Rapids, Iowa claims to have the first mosque built in the US.
posted by craichead at 10:06 AM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

I should have googled before I posted. Cedar Rapids has the longest standing mosque in America. The one in Ross was torn down and then rebuilt.
posted by craichead at 10:09 AM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

one source says 1915 for the longest serving mosque, it's in Maine.
from amperspective.com
posted by clavdivs at 10:16 AM on August 7, 2011

They say that the first mosque was built in Maine in 1915, but do they say it's still in service?

(I don't know why anyone would care about this, really, except for bragging rights. I guess that there might be some tourism benefit for Ross, ND, because there probably aren't very many other tourists going to Ross, ND. It is interesting that many of the first mosques in the US were not in the places where most people would expect.)
posted by craichead at 10:25 AM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Don't know where they get the energy! Last year's trip they took was amazing, the photos and stories of the people they met were just really enjoyable blog posts and the comments were very interesting. Hope this year's is just as good.
posted by jamesonandwater at 10:26 AM on August 7, 2011

Reading that Alaska thing made me realize that there was a significant refugee community in Finland. I wonder how they manage with sunrise and sunset as well...
posted by infini at 10:38 AM on August 7, 2011

I don't care a lick, but I would like it to be accurate.
posted by clavdivs at 10:44 AM on August 7, 2011

The first mosques on US territory were probably in the Philippines.
posted by dhartung at 10:45 AM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

something, something called a clock, something.
posted by clavdivs at 10:46 AM on August 7, 2011

something, something called a clock, something.

Ref blogpost. See midnight sun
posted by infini at 10:48 AM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Bilali "Ben Ali" was the leader of one of America’s earliest known Muslim communities. It’s documented that in 1812 there were at least eighty Muslims living on a plantation controlled by Ben Ali from 1806 to the late 1830s. Bilali was known for regularly wearing his fez, a long coat, praying five times a day facing the east, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and celebrating the two holidays when they came. Bilali was buried with his Qur’an and prayer rug.

Some of the descendents of the other Muslims interviewed were Ed Thorpe, Rosa Grant, and Lawrence Baker (Bakir). Rosa Grant reported that her grandmother Ryan would attend Jumah prayer on Friday she stated that ‘Friday was the day she called the praying day.’

During this period Muslims from Senegambia and Sierra Leone were generally, viewed by slave owners as a more intelligent, more reasonable, and more dignified people. They were valued for their expert knowledge of rice, tobacco, indigo cultivation, cattle, horses, and domestic service.

Harriet Hall Grovner, Bilali Mohammed’s great granddaughter, the grand daughter of Bilali’s daughter Bint (Bentoo) was known for practing Islam and praying until her death in 1922. She was known to have attended the First African Baptist Church on Sapelo Island. The Church was built facing the east, the members still pray towards the east, they bury their members facing the east, and within the Church the males and females sit separate."


we do have a terrible yet fascinating history. This is a good website with some pretty accurate data.
posted by clavdivs at 12:39 PM on August 7, 2011 [3 favorites]

The Big Picture: Ramadan begins
posted by homunculus at 1:16 PM on August 7, 2011

Damn, they're all in the USA. I was hoping for 30 grand mosques from around the world, like the Imam Mosque in Esfahan (Iran), Great Mosque of Djenne (Mali), the Blue Mosque in Istanbul (Turkey) or the Saleh Mosque in Sanaa (Yemen). Plenty more on beautifulmosques.com.
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:52 PM on August 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

#36 picture is amazing.
posted by clavdivs at 1:56 PM on August 7, 2011

I want to watch 30 Mosque (starring Jack Dallal and Liz Laham)
posted by DoctorBananas at 4:25 PM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Why did they just skip over Canada en route to Alaska? We have SCADS of mosques up here.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 8:47 PM on August 7, 2011

Mahalo, mahalo for this post, Zarq. Not only did I get reminisce about Hawai'i (I know Yusef! - and love Doris Duke's home - an amazing trove of Islamic art and architecture!), but am also inspired to try to meet the Seattle woman they interviewed. Beautiful, beautiful!
posted by Surfurrus at 9:44 PM on August 7, 2011

Letters to a friend: Convicted terrorist’s former friends asked, “what would you say to him now?”
posted by homunculus at 2:22 PM on August 12, 2011