By Sarah Bailey

Draped in colorful head scarves and covering clothing in respect for their religion, Muslim women gather with their children for a Friday afternoon service,

The Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. Photo taken by Sarah Bailey.

listening like attentive students as the words of their spiritual leader echo throughout the circular room.

Men assemble on the other side of a wooden fence-like structure. Farooq Aboelzahab faces them capturing their attention with his words. Aboelzahab is their imam, the head of their Muslim community who leads them in their practice of Islam.

“We need brothers and sisters,” he says. “Civilization means humanness.”

While many local residents pass the mosque on their daily commute to or from Perrysburg, they may not know the history and meaning behind the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. Located right off Interstate 75, the mosque is home to 500 families from more than 23 different nationalities.

Members come to worship Allah, or God, most popularly on Friday afternoon “Jumaa,” or “gathering” prayer services. Muslims believe in Islam, an Arabic word meaning “surrender.” They believe someone can find peace with God, one’s self and with humanity by “surrendering to the will of God,” according to the center’s website. Muslim belief is based off the six primary principles: God, the prophets, angels, holy books, the day of judgment and fate and predestination, according to the website.

Approximately 0.6 percent of the U.S. population, or 1.8 million people, are Muslims, according to the CIA World Factbook 2011. Toledo and its surrounding region represent a place where about 7,000 Islamic men and women live and practice their faith daily, said Aboelzahab.

Dressed in black and gold robes, Aboelzahab leads the service with his words and quick hand gestures. He projects his voice periodically. People bow, sit and stand before him, listening to his prayers and lessons. Behind him a large bookcase with a temple-like structure holds a small library of red, green and gold Islamic texts. Stained-glass windows draw in sunshine and cast a warm glow on his face, placing a spark in his eyes.


View Islamic Center of Greater Toledo in a larger map

The center is the third Mosque to ever be built in America, according to toledomuslims.com, a Northwest Ohio Muslim information providing website. The first Muslim immigrants came to Toledo from Syria and Lebanon in the late 1930s, according to the center’s website. They established the Syrian American Muslim Society, and in 1954 Toledo’s first Islamic Center was built on East Bancroft Street.  There was a need for a larger building as the community grew in the 1970s and 1980s. The new center, now located in Perrysburg, was opened in October of 1983. The center now has a full-time school with about 100 students, according to the website.

When the current imam and director Aboelzahab came from Egypt to work at the center in 1989, he was planning on staying only a few years.

Quickly, he became very close to members of the community, Aboelzahab said. He decided to stay longer and had his family back in Egypt join him in Toledo.

“It has been a very rich experience here,” he said. “I have learned more than I’ve taught.”

Since then he has enjoyed working, preaching and exchanging ideas on a daily basis with members of the center and outside community.

“I love communicating with people and talking about issues of mutual concern,” he said.

Imam Aboelzahab holds and explains the Quran. Photo taken by Sarah Bailey.

Aboelzahab leads weekly Friday services and Sunday sermons for about 500 people.  He also gives tours to surrounding schools and people of different faiths, he said. From time to time, speakers from outside the community also come to the center.  Recently a nutritionist talked about how to use food as medicine. In March, a visitor from Canada will focus on misconceptions about Islam, he said.

“This place is a center of learning. It is not just a mosque,” he said. “The mission is to talk about our differences, to celebrate our community and to learn from one another.”

As Aboelzahab leads this Friday service, he looks directly into the eyes of the members. A metallic clock hangs high above him, reflecting the stained-glass window colors and highlighting the tapestries on the walls. Five chandeliers hang from a piece in the center of the ceiling, reflecting the natural light from outside onto each person’s face. Each crystal shines like ice on a bright winter day. Some stand in worship. Others kneel or sit. An occasional child cries but is quickly held and hushed by its mother.

Aboelzahab also participates in Interfaith, a religious group consisted of Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists,  which meets at least two to three times a year to talk about civilization and differences between faiths.

“If we have faith, we should acknowledge that religion has the utmost respect for all mankind, regardless of your religion,” he said.

Aneesa Shaheen, secretary of the center and a Toledo native, has been working and a member of the mosque for over 20 years.

“This is a part of my whole life,” she said.

As a girl, Shaheen grew up going to the old mosque and then started working there. She has known Aboelzahab during his entire time as the imam, and knew the previous imam before he died. She used to teach Sunday school and has seen her students grow up before her eyes, she said.

“I love being with my religion, people and culture here,” she said. “I’ve seen people grow from children to adults.”

Inside the main service area of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. Photo taken by Sarah Bailey.

In order to experience the community for what it is, she welcomes people to visit.

“Come here and understand the religion and culture for what it is, not from the examples of what other people have said,” Shaheen said.

Tabassum Ruby, a Muslim and professor from the women’s studies program at Bowling Green State University, said she is happy knowing there is a place like the
Islamic Center of Greater Toledo.

“To see such a big area dedicated to that place is something I am definitely very pleased with,” Ruby said.

Ruby, who has visited the center but is not a member, said the mosque showcases Islamic architecture and design.The calligraphy on the stained-glass windows and verses of the Quran written in Arabic on the carpet pieces are details she appreciates.

Ruby said that when general discussions on discrimination come up in her classroom at BGSU, she tries to educate her students on the stereotypes associated with Islam.

Muslim communities’ histories go far back in the historical make-up of this society, she said.

“Why do Muslims constantly have to justify their religion?” she said. “It’s a part of the stereotypical environment that we live in. We keep telling particular people and communities that they need to justify their actions.”

While facing Islamic stereotypes can be difficult, Imam Aboelzahab still has hope.

“Islam has a lot to offer,” he said. “We have to start talking about it in a positive and realistic way.”

The entrance to the main service area of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. Photo taken by Sarah Bailey.

As the imam ends his service, members respond promptly in unison, their Arabic prayers blending into a soft humming sound. Each person repeats specific physical praying positions:standing, bowing, and leaning into a deep bow on the floor. When they finish their prayers and bowing motions, they head towards Aboelzahab to hug him and shake his hands. A young girl, covered from head to toe in a bright floral pattern, runs to him and he picks her up. She giggles with delight.

Members exit slowly, lingering with one another. They put their shoes back on, get in their cars, and return to their daily Friday work schedules. Light continues to drift through the stained-glass windows and illuminate the empty room.