Mosques in the United States

The United States is home to an estimated three and a half million Muslims, a small share of the population but one of the most diverse Muslim communities in the world. From long-standing African American congregations to more recent South Asian, Arab, West African, Balkan and Southeast Asian communities, American Islam has taken shape city by city and generation by generation. This page brings together the historical, geographical and practical landmarks to find your way among the mosques listed on the map.

A layered history

Muslim presence on American soil goes back to the transatlantic slave trade, when Muslims from West Africa were among those brought to the colonies. In the twentieth century, movements such as the Moi'sh Science Temple and the Nation of Islam shaped a distinct African American Muslim experience, while the reforms of Warith Deen Mohammed later brought a large share of that community into Sunni orthodoxy. Successive waves of immigration, opened by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, brought Muslims from Egypt, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran, Palestine, Somalia, Bosnia and many other regions.

The main Muslim cities

The Detroit metropolitan area, and Dearborn in particular, holds the densest Muslim urban fabric in the country, with dozens of mosques serving Arab, Yemeni, Bangladeshi and South Asian communities. New York City has hundreds of mosques across the five boroughs and northern New Jersey. Chicago, Houston, the Twin Cities, Los Angeles, the Washington DC area, Atlanta and the Bay Area each hold their own networks. Minneapolis and Saint Paul have become a major centre of Somali American Muslim life, while cities like Buffalo, Columbus, Philadelphia and Nashville have grown rapidly in recent decades.

A community-run mosque network

American mosques are almost entirely funded and run by their own communities, without state involvement. National organisations such as the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America and the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America provide guidance and services, but no central authority governs the mosques. That autonomy translates into a wide variety of architectures and traditions, from converted storefronts in dense urban neighbourhoods to purpose-built landmarks such as the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn or the Islamic Center of Washington on Massachusetts Avenue.

Practical guidance

Most American mosques follow the five daily prayers, with the largest gatherings on Friday around noon and during Ramadan. A great many mosques welcome non-Muslim visitors outside prayer times and organise open house days, interfaith events and educational programmes. As anywhere, modest dress is expected: shoulders and legs covered, hair covered for women, shoes removed before entering the prayer hall.

How to use this directory

The interactive map above brings together the American mosques listed from OpenStreetMap data. Each marker locates a place and gives access to its details. Coverage is stronger in the main metropolitan areas, and grows over time as the data is refined. City pages will strengthen this section in the months ahead, starting with the largest Muslim urban centres.