{"id":299,"date":"2024-03-11T07:34:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T07:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/?p=299"},"modified":"2024-03-15T23:44:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T23:44:53","slug":"the-mosque-in-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/?p=299","title":{"rendered":"The Mosque in Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theislamicmonthly.com\/author\/bashir-sl\/\">Bashir SL<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theislamicmonthly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/mosque-in-washington-slider.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/theislamicmonthly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/mosque-in-washington-slider.jpg\" alt=\"mosque in washington slider\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On June 28th, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower addressed a crowd of American and Muslim diplomats gathered at the Islamic Center of Washington\u2019s inauguration. Speaking from under marble columns and turquoise floral tiles he declared that the United States held a \u201cstrong bond of friendship with the Islamic nations\u201d and called for the \u201cpeaceful progress of all men under one God.\u201d Capitalizing on Eisenhower\u2019s visit to the Islamic Center, the State Department began broadcasting and distributing printed copies of the president\u2019s remarks throughout countries with significant Muslim populations. Egyptian newspapers published photographs of President Eisenhower and Mrs. Eisenhower removing their shoes as they entered the mosque. &nbsp;In Iran, state news media&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/History-Islam-America-World-Order\/dp\/0521614872\">gave extensive coverage<\/a>&nbsp;to the speech and leading clerics contacted the U.S. Embassy to express their gratitude.&nbsp; The State Department ordered photographs and posters of the Islamic Center of Washington to be printed in mass quantities in French, Arabic, and English at embassies in Dakar, Karachi, Dhaka, Algiers,<a href=\"http:\/\/theislamicmonthly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/islamic-center-shoes.jpg\"><\/a>Tunis, and Damascus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the wake of World War II, with the crumbling of Europe\u2019s old colonial order and the beginning of the Cold War, the United States sought to utilize the Islamic character of countries like Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and others in order to thwart the spread of communism in the region. As the United States built a postwar empire, the Islamic Center of Washington became a local link between Washington and the Muslim world\u2013a local mosque with the headquarters of American empire in its own backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From Eisenhower\u2019s speech at the Center\u2019s inauguration in 1957 to the D.C. hostage crisis in 1977, and from the Iranian Revolution in 1979 to George W. Bush\u2019s landmark speech on Islam after 9\/11, the Islamic Center of Washington has always been more than merely a place of worship for D.C. area Muslims. The Islamic Center\u2019s unique location on Embassy Row, home to dozens of embassies and diplomatic families, allowed the mosque to connect Washington with Muslims not only in the D.C. area, but also across the globe. As a local newspaper proclaimed in the fall of 1953, the mosque\u2019s \u201cgraceful minaret\u201d marked \u201cWashington as more than ever a world city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theislamicmonthly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/AP570628031.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/theislamicmonthly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/AP570628031-1024x810.jpg\" alt=\"First lady Mamie Doud Eisenhower is seated in the first row as she listens to U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's address to representatives of 15 Muslim nations at the dedication ceremony of the Islamic Center in Washington, on June 28, 1957. (AP Photo)\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bashir SL On June 28th, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower addressed a crowd of American and Muslim diplomats gathered at the Islamic Center of Washington\u2019s inauguration. Speaking from under marble columns and turquoise floral tiles he declared that the United States held a \u201cstrong bond of friendship with the Islamic nations\u201d and called for the \u201cpeaceful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}