Mosques of America: designs range from traditional to innovative

A unique exhibition of photographs portraying the architecture of mosques in America was opened yesterday at the American University of Sharjah (AUS). The exhibition, "Approach to Mosque Designs in America", was designed by Dr Omar Khalidi of Boston. His presentation documents the evolution of the architecture of mosques in the U.S. through 200 colour photographs, floor plans and drawings of 40 mosques. The eight-day event was opened by Sheikh Abdullah bin Salem Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Emiri Court.

Khalidi, who works with the Aga Khan Programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, has brought his exhibition to the Gulf. He has taken it to Kuwait and Oman and will go to Bahrain and Qatar next month. it has also been to Pakistan, and is frequently shown in U.S. architecture schools.

Khalidi said that as a result of the migration of Muslims to the U.S. and the conversion of many Americans to Islam, 2,000 mosques and Islamic centres have been built in the past two decades.
The exhibition is significant for architects, professors and students of architecture and Islamic studies, as well as those interested in promoting inter-cultural awareness. There are three kinds of mosque designs in the U.S. - traditional, re-interpretive and innovative, Khalidi said.

"The traditional mosque designs reflect the architectural images taken from Arabia and Turkey. The re-interpretive designs are a mixture of designs borrowed from traditional Islamic architecture and American designs, whereas the innovative mosque designs are entirely different from traditional mosque architecture as they don't contain traditional mosque domes or minarets," he said. "This exhibition will enlighten students about modern mosque designs in the U.S. and may help them bring such designs in this region."

Immigrants to the U.S. prefer traditional designs, but those who have lived there for a long time do not care whether the mosques are traditional or modern. The highlight of the exhibition is the Manhattan Mosque in New York. "This mosque is unique because it is designed by famous architect Mike McCarthy, who also designed the Haj terminal in Saudi Arabia," he said. The largest number of mosques is in California, New York and Texas.