History of the Islamic Centre of Southern California 1950-1977 - by Mostafa Hashem Sherif (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book documents the history of the Muslim community in the United States, and particularly in California, and the foundation and evolution of the Southern California Islamic Center. The associated digital archive was built in an ongoing project with the University of California, Los Angeles.

This substantial work of social history analyses the Islamic Center's work from 1953 to 1977 as it tries to establish itself within the mosaic of Southern Californian society.

The work of the Islamic Centre has hardly been documented in the literature, and the social history of the wider Muslim Community in the USA is arguably under-researched. This is a unique and important contribution, of interest to historians, social scientists and students of race and religion in America.

Review Quotes

"In A History of Islamic Center of Southern California 1950-1977, Hashem Sherif writes an extraordinary account of how a small group of Muslims in Southern California, many of them students, joined together to form what would become one of the most influential Islamic Centers in the United States. This is the fascinating story of a group of immigrants from the Islamic World creating a space where, in the 1950s, they could practice their beliefs and find social connections in a world that was predominantly white, European, and Christian. When they realized they were not going back to the countries of their birth, they transformed their group into a community-based mosque and laid the foundation for the future of the American-Muslim identity, an identity not focused on any one specific culture, but rather an identity focused on Islam, as prescribed by the Quran and authentic Hadiths. A History of the Islamic Center of Southern California1950-1976 documents how the oldest continuous Los Angeles-based Islamic Center navigated through more than two decades that saw interactions with politicians, Hollywood celebrities, the Nation of Islam, Christian and Jewish religious leaders, and the tumult of many world crises. From its founding in 1953 through 1976, when it purchased a major property in Los Angeles, the Islamic Center grew in numbers and influence on Muslims in Los Angeles. Sherif's book sheds light on how the Islamic Center of Southern California not only survived, but thrived and made a name for itself in the history of Los Angeles."

Dr. Jamil Momand

(Professor of Biochemistry and former Board Chair of the Islamic Center of Southern California)