Masjid Muhammad | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Islam |
Branch/tradition | Sunni |
Location | |
Location | 1519 4th St NW, Washington, D.C., 20008 United States |
Geographic coordinates | 38°54′37″N77°00′57″W / 38.91034°N 77.01593°W |
Architecture | |
Type | Mosque |
Website | |
thenationsmosque |
Masjid Muhammad is an historically African-American mosque in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1960 as Nation of Islam Temple 4, the mosque is now affiliated with Sunni Islam. It is the second oldest mosque in Washington, D.C. and the city's oldest mosque founded by African-American descendants of enslaved people. Masjid Muhammad is commonly referred to as "The Nation's Mosque". [1]
Masjid Muhammad was founded in 1960 as Nation of Islam Temple 4 with the help of Malcolm X. Since The 1980s, it has been named Masjid Muhammad and has been affiliated with mainstream Sunni Islam. [2]
In August 2023, the mosque received a bomb threat. The mosque was searched by the Metropolitan Police Department and later reopened. The incident was classified as a "felony offense hate crime" by the police. [3]
A mosque or masjid is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers (salah) are performed, including outdoor courtyards.
Elijah Muhammad was an American religious leader, black separatist, and self-proclaimed Messenger of Allah who led the Nation of Islam (NOI) from 1934 until his death in 1975. Muhammad was also the teacher and mentor of Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali, and his son, Warith Deen Mohammed.
Islam is the third largest religion in the United States (1%), behind Christianity and Judaism, and equaling the shares of Buddhism and Hinduism. A 2017 study estimated that 1.1% of the population of United States are Muslim. In 2017, twenty states, mostly in the South and Midwest, reported Islam to be the largest non-Christian religion. In 2020, the U.S. Religion Census found there to be 4.45 million Muslim Americans, or roughly 1.3% of the population.
Warith Deen Mohammed, also known as W. Deen Mohammed, Imam W. Deen Muhammad and Imam Warith Deen, was an African-American Muslim leader, theologian, philosopher, Muslim revivalist, and Islamic thinker.
Clyde X, also known as Clyde Rahman, was a religious leader associated with the Nation of Islam. Most of his work for the NOI was in St. Louis, Missouri and Cleveland, Ohio. He was wounded when a violent factional dispute arose in St. Louis in the 1960s. In the 1970s he became a follower of W. D. Muhammad's Sunni faction of the NOI and established a mosque in Cleveland.
The holiest sites in Islam are predominantly located in the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant. While the significance of most places typically varies depending on the Islamic sect, there is a consensus across all mainstream branches of the religion that affirms three cities as having the highest degree of holiness, in descending order: Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. Mecca's Al-Masjid al-Haram, Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, and Al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem are all revered by Muslims as sites of great importance.
Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, formerly known as Mosque No. 7, is a Sunni Muslim mosque in Harlem, New York City. It was formerly a Nation of Islam mosque at which Malcolm X preached, until he left it for Sunni Islam in 1964.
The American Society of Muslims was a predominantly African-American association of Muslims which was the direct descendant of the original Nation of Islam. It was created by Warith Deen Mohammed after he assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad. Warith Deen Mohammed changed the name of the Nation of Islam to the "World Community of Islam in the West" in 1976, then the "American Muslim Mission" in 1981, and finally the "American Society of Muslims".
Both Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims agree on the three Holiest sites in Islam being, respectively, the Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca; the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, in Medina; and Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, in Jerusalem.
African-American Muslims, also colloquially known as Black Muslims, are an African American religious minority. African American Muslims account for over 20% of American Muslims. They represent one of the larger minority Muslim populations of the United States as there is no ethnic group that makes up the majority of American Muslims. They are represented in Sunni and Shia denominations as well as smaller sects, such as the Nation of Islam. The history of African-American Muslims is related to African-American history in general, and goes back to the Revolutionary and Antebellum eras.
Anti-Sunnism is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Sunni Muslims.
On 4 July 2016, four suicide bombs exploded in three locations in Saudi Arabia. One of these exploded in the parking lots of the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, killing at least four people. The second and third suicide bombers targeted a Shia mosque in Qatif, but they failed to harm anyone but themselves. A fourth militant blew himself up after police tried to arrest him near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah. Two Saudi Arabian police officers were injured.
There is a significant population of American Muslims in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Dallas-Fort Worth is home to sixty-two Sunni mosques. According to AbdelRahman Murphy, a Chicago-born, Irving-based Islamic teacher and Muslim community leader, other U.S.-based Muslims now refer to Dallas as the "Medina of America". Not only is Dallas Masjid Al Islam the oldest Muslim community in the DFW area, it established the first mosque in the city of Dallas and established the first Muslim school in the DFW area. As of 2021, many major Muslim organizations and charities have headquarters or operations in DFW, mostly located in Richardson, Texas such as: ICNA Dallas, Muslim American Society, Muslim Legal Fund of America, Helping Hands for Relief & Development, Sabrina Memorial Foundation, Islamic Relief USA, CAIR-Texas, and MA’RUF. There are also several institutions of research and higher education such as: Qalam Institute (Carrollton), ISRA Foundation (Plano), Bayyina Academy (Euless), and The Islamic Seminary of America (Richardson). -
The 1973 Hanafi Muslim massacre took place on January 18, 1973. Two men and a boy were shot to death. Four other children ranging in age from nine days to ten years old were drowned. Two others were severely injured. The murders took place at 7700 16th Street NW, a Washington, D.C. house purchased for a group of Hanafi Muslims to use as the "Hanafi American Mussulman's Rifle and Pistol Club". The property was purchased and donated by then Milwaukee Bucks basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Mosque No. 12, also known as Masjid Makkah, is a mosque in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It came to prominence in the early 1960s when a building was leased by the Nation of Islam, converted for use as a mosque, and placed under the direction of Malcolm X, who was a minister there and at Mosque No. 7 until he left the organization for Sunni Islam in 1964.
Mosque No. 11, also known as Masjid Al-Quran, was a mosque in Boston, Massachusetts. The building came to prominence in the late 1950s when it was leased by the Nation of Islam and placed under the direction of Malcolm X, who was a minister there and at Mosques No. 7 and No. 12 until he left the religion for Sunni Islam in 1964.
There are around 70,000 Muslims in Maryland in the United States as of December 1992, according to the American Muslim Council. This is the tenth highest number of Muslims of all U.S. states, representing 1.4% of the Muslim population in the country, as well as 1.4% of the total population of Maryland, at the time of the report.
Islam is the third most widely professed religion in New York City, after Christianity and Judaism. A 2018 study estimated that there are over 750,000 Muslims living in New York City, the largest population of Muslims by city in the United States. Approximately 9% of New York City residents are Muslim, constituting 22.3% of American Muslims, with 1.5 million Muslims in the greater New York metropolitan area, representing the largest metropolitan Muslim population in the Americas.—and the most ethnically diverse Muslim population of any city in the world.
Islam in Washington, D.C. is the third largest religion, after Christianity and Judaism. As of 2014, Muslims were 2% of Greater Washington's population was Muslim. Around 50,000 Muslims live in DC. DC's Muslim history dates to the early 1600s, when the first Muslim residents were enslaved and formerly enslaved African Americans. DC is home to seven mosques, including some of the oldest mosques in the United States. A copy of the Quran owned by Thomas Jefferson is held at the Library of Congress.