Islamic Association of West Viriginia
Muslims in West Virginia
In early 50's, a few Middle Eastern families (like Dandys & Rushdan) came & settled in West Virginia to set up businesses and raised their families. Some of them were absorbed by their new environment, but a few courageous one's maintained their religion in spite of hardship. Late Frank Rushdan born in Huntington was one such individual who maintained his religion while establishing Rushdan Motors in Logan. May Allah's blessing be upon him.
Asian families appeared in WV in 60's. The late Mr. G. R. Kalwar, a civil engineer, was the first one to work with the State Highways Department in Charleston, WV. He was followed by other engineers Mr. M.S. Baloch a Pakistani & Dr. Noorul Islam (Bangladesh) to work with state DNR office. Others, Hasan Habib, Haq, Mazhar Javaid came in 68. A year later, these Muslims were joined by Masood Akhtar & Khursheed Ahmed. Mr. Baloch, Islam & Mazhar moved to Washington to work for federal government. There was a critical shortage of Qualified Doctors, Engineers & Scientists throughout the US & in West Virginia which resulted in immigration of many doctors from Asian & Middle East in the seventies. In all there were 15-20 muslim families scattered around the State. They felt the need to maintain their religious activities & decided to hold monthly meetings at their houses by rotation to offer congregational prayers, recitation of Quran, and socializing.
In 1972, West Virginia Muslims formalized their group into Islamic Association of West Virginia (IAWV) and continued gathering once a month at their houses by rotation. A constitution was written, ratified and elections were held for office bearers: President, Vice President, Secretary & Treasurer. This body called Executive Committee (EC) then took over all the functions including religious (daily prayers), celebrating Ramadan and Eid prayers as well as interaction with the larger Charleston community. More Muslims (Drs. AM Mirza, JH Khan, SA Zahir, Athar Jalil, AR Piracha, AH Qazi, A Khasawinah, Moin Ahmed, Khalid Hassan, Essa Abdulah, H Hossino, and others) came to West Virginia in the seventies. In August 1975 meeting, a resolution was passed to acquire or build a place of worship for the growing IAWV community. Also, through Dr. Mirza's efforts to Association bought 12 cemetery lot and reserved 20 more for use by its members.
Due to insufficient funds of IAWV, it was decided to acquire a church & convert it to a Masjid. Initially, the property owners won't sell us their property because we are Muslims. In 1977, a small, run down, church of God building in Nitro was purchased for the asking price of $22,000 cash. Enthusiastic members went to work, renovated the structure with an additional expenditure of $12,000. Thanks to Allah for all expenses were met by the generosity of local Muslims. We met in this center, started Friday prayers (with Brs: Jalil, Qazi, Moin & Khasawinah), Sunday classes for children education, and social gatherings, etc. The Nitro center served the ever increasing muslim community for about ten years. There were about 30-50 more families settled in WV during this time and the Nitro Center was insufficient for the growing community. A decision was made to acquire a piece of land and build the center. The late Mr. Ghulam Rasool Kalwar, a civil engineer working at the South Charleston City was appointed as head of a construction committee to look for a place within the greater Charleston area. May Allah be pleased with him & reward him Jannah. He found the present location and about 1.66 acre piece of land was purchased in 1983, for $62,000 cash again through the generosity of local muslims.
IAWV community solicited funds to build the center. Using MSA/ISNA mailing list and appeal to raise funds for Masjid Construction was mailed but the response was not very encouraging, $2000 was spent for mailing and about $12,000 was received in return. It was then decided to concentrate raising funds locally. By the Will of Allah, the community responded with great generosity and about $137,000 was raised. A local architet, Mr Bill Preston was hired in 1985. To familiarize him with the Islamic architecture, two members (AM Mirza & AH Qazi) of construction committee took Mr. Preston to Toledo, Ann Arbor & Detroit Mosques pointing out the desirable features in each. We spent the night at Dr. Mirza's younger bother: late Dr Abdul Malik Mirza's house for rest & for evening dinner. May Allah reward him Jannah. Next day on way back, we proposed to Mr. Preston for designing a center that will suffice our growing community for next 10-15 years. Mr. Preston also studied Badshahi Mosque Lahore on his own for understanding Islamic Architecture.
In consultation with the construction committee and EC, Mr. Prston designed a center with an estimated cost of its construction about $300,000 - 500,000. An ISNA consultant, Mr. Mazen Ayoubi, was brought in who determined Qibla direction for the center. With a few minor changes the final drawings were approved. In open bidding, three building contractors submitted bids in excess of $700,000. Due to lack of sufficient funds, it was decided to built the center in two phases (Phase 1 shell complete, Phase 2 finishing of prayer hall for use). A construction manager was hired through competitive bidding, personal merits, bonding etc to build the center. In the name of Allah, the construction of phase 1 was started on September 4, 1986, concrete was poured for the foundation. Soon the walls were going up, watching that our members opened their wallets, donated generously thus collecting about $290,000, about $80,000 more than what was needed to complete the first phase. A few shots of the construction in progress are shown in Exhibit B. It was so exciting that several members (AH Qazi, GR Kalwar, Moin Ahmed & others) spent time daily in supervising the construction in progress. Mr. Preston was also supervising the construction to insure adherence with his design specification.
On November 21, concrete was poured for the first floor ceiling and the block/masonry work for the second level began on November 6th. Both the phases were completed by Spring 1987 & the center was ready to be used daily. Thanks to Allah and may He shower His blessings & reward those who spent their money & time to see this huge undertaking to the completion. To provide sufficient parking places, the Association negotiated with the Highway Department and leased the adjacent land, filled with dirt, compacted & black topped for the parking. The center was opened for services in 1987.
It was determined that existing parking spaces were insufficient especially during Ramadan & Eid celebrations, so EC through Br. Usman negotiated with Marshall University a lease for the land (hill with rainy stream) on the South side of the center to build an additional parking lot for about 100 parking spaces providing the necessary drainage for rainy water from up the hill. This was completed in 2006. The center when built did not have access to the prayer hall for handicaps, older senior members & visitors who had difficulty climbing stairs. The EC & the Board decided to build an elevator, two conference rooms, an imam office and renovate the center, bathrooms and hallways for about $400,000 plus. Dr. Badshah J Wazir took the responsibility & supervised its construction which was completed in 2010.
The Center
The construction of the Islamic center was covered by Monica Orosz of the Daily Mail. Another article: The Islamic Center & Muslims in WV also pray for peace was written by Dorsey Callahan of the Catholic Spirit, January 25, 1991. Father Edward Sadie wrote a very nice article: Welcome the new Islamic Mosque, appeared in an Independent Newspaper. From 87-90's, unfortunately the center was vandalized several times by ignorant people. Its repairs & security added unnecessary financial burden on the Association. One such incident alone cost over $20,000 in repairs. A security system was installed to avoid further vandalism. However, in the late nineties, incidents like shooting through the prayer hall window, spray painting: "Bill Laden" on the white brick stairs wall and "9/11" on an exit door long before 9/11 tragedy have occurred. All such incidents have been reported to Police but no one has been caught or apprehended for these hateful crimes.
The Islamic Center opened for service in 1987 at 1 Valley Drive South Charleston. Activities of the center include but not limited to daily prayers, congregational prayers on Friday, adult & children education on Sundays, and other social activities when planned by the association. The center has held many open house events inviting local dignitaries such as Governors, Wise & Manchin, Mayor Ritchie Robb of S. Charleston, Police Chiefs, Human Rights Commissioner, clergy from Catholic, Episcopalian, Church of God, Unitarian, churches, Synagogues, media personnel & political candidates. The center has also hosted cultural events for the greater Charleston community to visit the center, look at tour diversity, taste variety of foods, & attend our prayer service. The Center also participates in the ongoing interfaith dialogue, other greater charleston events such as Black History, cookouts, other county & state events. The Center has also hosted outside visitors from schools, colleges, & churches.
In the beginning, Charleston Islamic Center served all the West Virginia and is the largest in size of the community but with the arrival of more muslim families especially from middle east (Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Morocco, etc.) & south asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, Etc), the need for other centers was realized. So each of Beckley, Princeton/BlueField, Morgantown & Huntington established their own centers as chapters of Islamic Association of West Virginia.
To address the various needs of the members of south charleston muslim community an imam was hired. Imam Jamal Daoudi was the first Imam who joined the Islamic Center in 2001. With his arrival the religious activities have blossomed as well as interfaith & community outreach were carried out. He was tactful, very good in PR and enhanced center's interfaith program. Imam Daoudi remain with the center until 2006 when he had to go back to Syria. After that, Imam Ehtisham-ul-Haq was hired who increased religious activities of the center well for about seven years. In 2014, Dr. Asal was hired as imam who after about 15 months left for Alabama. There was no imam from 2016 through summer of 2018. The EC were looking for an imam born & educated in North America. Finally, the EC hired Imam Nasir Abdussalam born in American, educated in Atlanta & in Amman, Jordan, during the fall of 2018.
The Muslim Community
The Muslim community of West Virginia is a most diverse vibrant community made up of well educated professionals (Doctors, Engineers, Professors, Dean, Teachers, & coaches) who maintain a lot of interactions with other Muslims & non-Muslims in peace. The Charleston Community has about 200 paid members and its members are from around the globe. West Virginian Muslims represent diversity (in national origin, color & languages) unparalleled by other religions because its members come from many countries such as Afghnistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Libya, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, UAE, US & others. They all live in peace & harmony. The center is beautiful & has brought recognition and respect for Muslims from the Charleston community at large. For Muslim contributions to the West Virginia, see Appendix C.
The Charleston community had grown so much that the center has again become insufficient to accommodate the ever growing needs of the community especially during Ramadan, Eids & other special events. So the center resorted to renting large other spaces to hold special events for the past few years. Many times, the EC & the Board of Trustees has met & discussed the expansion of the existing center or purchasing a new location large enough to accommodate our growing needs. It was decided to expand the existing center and Mr Bill Preston was initially asked to design the expansion of the center which he did but some members took too long & did nothing. Then Br. Dirar Ahmad, a civil engineer with the Highway Dept. contacted another architect to redesign the expansion including a gym-basketball court, a new kitchen, 8 classrooms, a room for body washing, an office for the imam as well as a large meeting/conference room.
Center's Expansion
In December 2014 EC elections, Dr. Badshah J Wazir was elected as president of the association who took over the expansion project. After a couple of general body meetings, discussions, the expansion was approved. Dr. Wazir contacted Br. Dirar & the architect, studied the incomplete drawings, made necessary changes finalizing the expansion. Local building contractors were contacted for open bidding for the project. The bids were very high & out of reach for this community. After careful evaluations of the bids, Mr. Carl ----- was awarded the contract for a prefab construction. The construction included: excavation/preparation of the site, laying the foundation, assembling the prefab walls of the center which were transported from Columbus, Ohio by trucks, & acquiring all other necessary construction materials. Dr. Wazir & Aysha Wazir were supervising the construction on daily basis. May Allah bless them & reward them the Jannah.
To raise the necessary funds two big such events were held in 2016 & 2017 collecting about $2 plus million & getting a million from the Association endowment funds. The project was completed by March 2018. Thanks to Allah for His help.
This history was written by A H Qazi