Islam in Fort Wayne: the Islamic Center and Masjid Al-Quds

Community founded 1970 — incorporated 1987

The institutions: Organized Muslim life in Fort Wayne dates, in the community's own scholarly account, to 1970, when the Islamic Center of Fort Wayne was founded; the centre was incorporated in 1987 (its federal exempt status runs from February 1987) and serves the city from the Masjid Al-Quds mosque at 1109 Chute Street, described in that account as the first mosque built to serve the city. Around it stand the later institutions: the Islamic Association of Fort Wayne (federal exempt status from April 1983, on East State Boulevard), the Fort Wayne Islamic Center on Lagro Drive (a nonprofit from 1998), and the Universal Education Foundation, whose complex at 2223 Goshen Road joined a mosque to a school — the school is in the Schools section. Journalists counting the community in the 2010s found its members drawn from ten to twenty nations — Arab, South Asian, African and, after 1991, Burmese (whose own mosque is in the widening-circle entry below). The Burmese Muslim congregation and cemetery project of the 2010s belong to the refugee story told in the Communities record.

Sources:

1. The Muslim Community of Fort Wayne, Indiana (community study, archive.org) — the Islamic Center founded 1970, the first mosque serving the city, the community's composition.
2. IRS exempt-organization records via public nonprofit directories — Islamic Center of Fort Wayne (exempt February 1987), Islamic Association of Fort Wayne (exempt April 1983), Fort Wayne Islamic Center (1998).
3. Associated Press, 24 May 2015 — the city's Muslims from ten to twenty nations.
4. Input Fort Wayne and Journal Gazette reporting on the Universal Education Foundation, 2223 Goshen Road (opened c. 2010).