Muslim Community Center of Minnesota

The Muslim Community Center (MCC) is located in Bloomington, a medium sized city in Minnesota, south of Minneapolis. Although the vast majority of people living in Bloomington are white and Christian, as the religious institutions in Bloomington are made up almost exclusively of churches, with the exception of the MCC and the Sikh Society of Minnesota, the demographics have been changing as more and more immigrant communities populate the city. Muslim immigrants make up a large part of these new immigrant communities, with a majority hailing from Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.¹ Minnesota, in particular, has long been a popular for destination for immigrates and the Midwest in general attracted many of the earliest Muslim immigrants to the United States, who came between 1875-1912, from the rural areas of the former Ottoman Empire.²

In the early 1900s, particularly between 1907 and 1924, U.S. immigration laws became increasingly restrictive, making it extremely difficult for Muslim, as well as other groups, to enter the country. The 1917 Immigration Act restricted immigration from “British India, most of Southeast Asia, and almost all of the Middle East” while the 1921 Emergency Quota Act and 1924 National Origins Quota Act further restricted immigration “by setting admission ‘quotas’ based on nationality.”³ It was not until the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, which lifted the national-origin quotas, that the US experienced a rise in Muslim immigration.⁴ However, these mid-20^th century Muslim immigrants came predominantly from South Asia and the Middle East. It was not until the 1980s and 1990s that larger numbers of Muslims began immigrating to the US from Muslim countries, many arriving in places such as Minnesota with the status of refugees. Although there had been significant increases in Muslim immigrants after 1965, Minnesota experienced significant changes in the late 1990’s, attracting large population of Muslim immigrants, mostly refugees.⁵ The Somalis, by far the largest Muslim immigrant group and formerly in 1997 the largest immigrant group in Minnesota, like other immigrants, were attracted to the strong social services, including a good education and health care system that Minnesota had to offer. Escaping the devastated economy due to the civil war and clan warfare beginning in 1991, Minnesota has become the home to more than 32,000 Somalis, compared to the 9,300 In Washington D.C. and 7,500 in California.^{6 7}

As these new immigrants have arrived, changing the demographics of Bloomington, Minnesota, and contributing to the estimated total of seven and a half million Muslims in US, we are simultaneously seeing the American context transform Islam, while Muslims are transforming Minnesota.⁸ Especially after the events of September 11, 2001, anti-Islamic prejudices and Islamophobia have risen in America. Since the start of the 21^st century it has been increasingly common to hear politicians and others questioning Muslim civil rights and loyalties and accusing Muslims of being terrorists.