The Newest Faiths: Mosque, Temple, Assembly, Zen, and a Single Visit in 1922

The valley's institutions seated in South Bend, boundary-printed; a Bahá'í assembly seated in Mishawaka itself, date unsettled; the Ahmadiyya visit of 1922

Islam, at boundary size: The valley's mosque is the Islamic Society of Michiana's Masjid al-Noor, at 3310 Hepler Street, South Bend — a Sunni mosque open daily for the five prayers, with Friday services in English and Arabic. Its imam, Mohammad Sirajuddin, has headed the mosque since 1998, on a 2025 Michiana food-culture account of the community's Ramadan table. A second South Bend mosque, Masjid Bilal at 725 North Brookfield Street, stands in current Muslim assistance directories at listing size. The Islamic Society's founding date is not carried in any source reached; it is a named gap whose settling source is the society's own records. No mosque or Muslim prayer group seated in Mishawaka stands in any source reached, and the absence is printed rather than passed over: Mishawaka's Muslim residents' documented worship is at the South Bend mosques, four miles west.

The Hindu temple, at boundary size: The Hindu Temple and Community Center of Michiana stands at 19637 Dubois Avenue, South Bend, open daily in morning and evening hours, its principal deity Sri Ganesha on the temple directories' listing. It is the valley's Hindu institution and it is South Bend's; its founding date is not carried in any source reached, and no Hindu institution seated in Mishawaka stands in the record.

The Bahá'í community — the one newest faith seated in Mishawaka: The Bahá'í record of the valley begins in South Bend: a second Local Spiritual Assembly in Indiana was established in South Bend in 1934, after Indianapolis's of 1933, on the Bahá'í encyclopedia's state record, and South Bend's assembly was still corresponding with the national community in 1994, postponing its sixtieth-anniversary celebration to 9 October of that year. The valley's Bahá'í Center stands at 1608 Mishawaka Avenue — a South Bend street address, in South Bend, across from John Adams High School, whatever its street name suggests. But Mishawaka itself seated an assembly: the published obituary of Jeffrey Dana Rowe of South Bend (2015), a Bahá'í from childhood whose sister lived in Mishawaka, records that "he served on the first Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'i's of Mishawaka." A first assembly means at least nine adult Bahá'ís resident in the city and an election held; neither the assembly's year nor its later course is carried in any source reached. The Mishawaka assembly therefore prints at exactly this size — a seated institution, attested by a member's obituary, its dates a named gap whose settling source is the Bahá'í National Center's local-assembly records.

Zen, at boundary size: The valley's Zen record is a South Bend group's life and a South Bend temple. The South Bend Zen Group was founded and led for fourteen years by Tom Brown, meeting at a local church; by the spring of 2004 he had suspended it, its core members having moved away, on Tricycle's 2004 account of teacherless sanghas in Middle America. A seated temple followed in the record: Sophia Zen Temple, at 115 South Saint Peter Street, South Bend, listed among the Soto Zen Buddhist Association's Indiana centers, with Maria Reis Habito — a disciple of Master Hsin Tao and a teacher in the Sanbo Zen line through her husband Ruben Habito's account — as its principal teacher in recent published profiles. No Zen group or Buddhist temple seated in Mishawaka stands in any source reached.

The historic single visit, 1922: The checklist's single-visit entry belongs to the valley in 1922, and it is printed at its true, boundary size. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's first missionary to the United States, fell ill in February 1922 and traveled to Niles, Michigan, for treatment by the eye doctor Frederick N. Bonine, attending twice a week. In his free time he visited the nearby cities to preach: Benton Harbor and Dowagiac in Michigan, and South Bend, Indiana, where, the movement's newspaper Al Fazl reported on 8 and 22 June 1922, he delivered many lectures, distributed literature and gave interviews on Islam. No Ahmadiyya mission, congregation or return visit seated in Mishawaka — or in South Bend — followed in any source reached; the 1922 lectures are the whole local Ahmadiyya record, a missionary's side trips from a sickbed in Niles, and they are the earliest documented Muslim preaching in the valley.

Sources:

1. University of Notre Dame Campus Ministry and Indiana University South Bend places-of-worship directories — the Islamic Society of Michiana, Masjid al-Noor, 3310 Hepler Street, South Bend, Imam Mohammed Sirajuddin, the Friday service times; Edible Michiana (2025) — Imam Sirajuddin heading the mosque since 1998; the 2026 nationwide Muslim assistance directory — Masjid Bilal, 725 N. Brookfield Street, South Bend, at listing size.
2. Hindu Temple and Community Center of Michiana (hindutempleofmichiana.org) and the temple directories — 19637 Dubois Avenue, South Bend, daily hours, Sri Ganesha.
3. Bahaipedia, "Indiana" — the Local Spiritual Assembly of Indianapolis 1933 and of South Bend 1934; The American Bahá'í, vol. 25 (1994) — the Spiritual Assembly of South Bend's sixtieth anniversary postponed to 9 October 1994; obituary of Jeffrey Dana Rowe, South Bend Tribune via South Bend Adams (2015) — service on the first Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Mishawaka, and the Bahá'í Center at 1608 Mishawaka Avenue, South Bend.
4. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, "Zen Cowboys: Teacherless Sanghas in Middle America" (2004) — Tom Brown's fourteen years leading the South Bend Zen Group and its suspension; Soto Zen Buddhist Association, Zen Centers by State — Sophia Zen Temple, 115 S. Saint Peter Street, South Bend; Richard Bryan McDaniel's Zen profiles — Maria Reis Habito as principal teacher at the South Bend center.
5. AhmadiPedia, "Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in the United States of America," citing Al Fazl, 8 and 22 June 1922 — Mufti Muhammad Sadiq's treatment at Niles and his preaching visits to Benton Harbor, Dowagiac and South Bend.