History of the Islamic Association

History of the Islamic Association

The history of the Islamic Community of Cincinnati begins in 1961. At this time, the population of Muslims in Cincinnati was comprised of seven people, three men and four women. There was no mosque, which is an Islamic place for worship and gatherings, available at this time. So these seven decided to start congregating weekly for Friday (Jum’uah) prayer. During this time, there were only a few mosques in the Midwest, as there were a greater number of Muslims in larger cities in the East and West, mainly New York and Los Angeles. This small but vitally important start resulted in the Islamic Community of Cincinnati, which is now made up of two main mosques.

After years of gathering at each other’s homes to perform congregational prayers, Azhar Ali Shah and Majid Qureshi, two founding members of the small group, decided that a proper mosque was needed to accommodate the growing community, which was now at about 40+ members. Mr. Shah held a meeting with the other Muslims and announced a plan to begin collecting funds to finance the purchase of a building to be used as a mosque. It was necessary to collect the money upfront because in Islam, interest (on loans, etc.) is not permitted. In 1974, after almost two years of collecting donations from various sources, enough funding was on hand to purchase a former residence that would be used as a mosque. This mosque was located on McMillan Avenue near Clifton Avenue in the University of Cincinnati area.

After several years, however, the community had grown too large for the current mosque, and collections began again to buy another building that was large enough. Finally in December of 1982, after months of preparation, the first Jum’uah prayer was conducted at the Clifton mosque on Clifton Avenue. This mosque served the community well for the next five years. At this time, the members of the community determined that at the current rate of growth, within the next five years this mosque would also be too small to accommodate the area Muslims. A board was elected to assemble plans for the construction of a new mosque, which would be able to handle the group for an “indefinite” period of time.

For the next six years, the community kept growing.