Source: The Plain Dealer

http://www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living/112394701893820.xml&coll=2

On August 13, 2005 The Plain Dealer reported, "The 92,000-square-foot, $14 million Islamic Center of America [in Dearborn, MI] buzzes with activity most days, observers say. But Friday, the Islamic Sabbath, brings hundreds of worshippers, filling parking lots with cars and the classrooms, banquet areas and prayer room with people. The nation's largest mosque opened its doors less than four years after extremists inspired by their own violent vision assaulted the nation on Sept. 11... Three months after its opening, the big worship place already has become a familiar feature of Dearborn's landscape... Dearborn has many mosques. Arab- Americans (nearly half of them Muslims) make up 30 percent of the population. The 2000 Census counted more than 29,000 immigrant and first-, second- or third- generation Middle Easterners in the city, most from Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Another 4,600 lived in Dearborn Heights; 100,000-plus called the Detroit metropolitan area home... The municipal home to Ford Motor Co. has the highest proportion of Arabs of any city in the country (though New York and Los Angeles have larger Arab populations). And Dearborn's newest mosque seems destined to become 'the calling card for Muslims around America,' Mayor Michael Guido said. 'It's something the community is very proud of.'"