Islamic Center of Detroit (Joy Road Mosque)

01 / The story of this place

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Imam Mohamad Jawad Chirri, who had come to Detroit to lead its growing Shia Muslim community, opened this building on Joy Road in Detroit on September 20, 1963, funded partly by a large donation from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and by contributions from the local Lebanese-American community. It was the first mosque in Michigan built specifically to be one, rather than converted from another use, and it served as Chirri's base and the heart of metro Detroit's Shia community for decades. By the 1990s the congregation had far outgrown the building, and after years of fundraising for a larger home, it moved into the new Islamic Center of America on Ford Road in Dearborn in 2005. The original Joy Road building did not close for good, though; it continues to operate today under a different name, the Az-Zahra Center, still serving worshippers on Detroit's west side.

1. Opened September 20, 1963, Michigan's first purpose-built mosque
2. Funded partly by a donation from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser
3. Imam Mohamad Jawad Chirri's base from 1963 to 1994
4. Congregation moved to Dearborn in 2005; the building continues today as the Az-Zahra Center