Preface

Asalaam alaikum,

I have known and served this community for almost 20 years. We have seen many successes and unfortunately many failures. In this project, "Central Ohio Muslim News", I'm planning on covering as much of this history as I can, inshallah, with postings as frequently as I can prepare in my limited free time.

The Muslim community has been active in Ohio for around 50 years. My family started coming here in the early '80s when there were only 3 mosques, and most people in Columbus didn't realize there were any. On the rare occasion when we met any Muslims while shopping or at a park we would stop to greet each other and visit, because it was such a surprising event. My first Eid prayer here was at Whetstone Park, outside on the lawn, with around 200 people total, the only prayer in Columbus anywhere. We had refreshments afterwards and everyone ended up knowing each other. Now there are some 13 mosques and somewhere between 30,000 to 50,000 Muslims. How the community has grown!

I intend to share historically important documentation about some of the different organizations in the Columbus area that I have accumulated over the years. I invite people with interesting material to share it with me to create a more complete picture.

I will be starting with some important events that are happening now, so that people will have background to understand them when they need them, but I have other information as well that may be useful for the future generations of Muslims in this community.

We are a community of people from all over America and the world. We are united in our love of Allah (SWT) while divided by our diversity and, today, by our ever increasing numbers. We should join together to rejoice in our successes. We need to be honest and truthful to learn from our mistakes.

May Allah help me to be fair and objective.

Dr. Mouhamed N. Tarazi