Clifton Mosque

The Islamic Association of Cincinnati's (IAC) current Clifton Mosque was completed in 2003 on the site of a facility that the IAC had been operating out of the since the 1980s. IAC's history dates to the late 1960s, when a local Muslim family acquired a house at 2515 Fairview Avenue and converted it to a mosque where prayers and a weekend school were held. Previously, Muslim families in Cincinnati would gather at each other's houses for prayers and holidays, and later at the University of Cincinnati YMCA. The IAC was officially established in 1970. By the 1980s, the community had outgrown the converted house and in 1982 the IAC purchased a larger house at 3668 Clifton Avenue, its current site.The community continued to grow and the mosque was often over capacity during prayers. Additional land around the mosque went up for sale and was purchased and donated to the mosque, and in the early 2000s, a new facility was designed and built to accommodate continued future growth of the community. The new mosque and community center officially opened in June 2003.The facility sits on 3.2 acres and is built of buff-colored blocks with a green tile accent band running along the top of the building. The entrance is through a one-story section, opening up to a taller section in the rear. An octagonal tower with long arched windows running its length and topped with a gold dome with crescent finial sits to the left of the entrance. Inside, there is 4,750 square feet of prayer space for men on the first floor, and 850 square feet for women in a balcony above. Classrooms and multipurpose space are housed in the basement. A house built in 1905, which the IAC also owns, sits immediately to the north of the mosque. In January 2017 the community became the first mosque to join the "Sanctuary Movement" in the US, a movement of religious institutions to shield undocumented immigrants from deportation and other government actions.Sources:Clifton Mosque. "History." Accessed April 29, 2015. http://cliftonmosque.org/history.Hamilton County Auditor. "Property Search" database. Accessed April 29, 2015. http://hcauditor.org/.Vance, Karen. "New mosque adds to Ramadan." Cincinnati Enquirer, October 26, 2003. Accessed April 29, 2015. http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/10/26/loc_ramadan26.html.Winston, Kimberly. "Ohio Mosque Is First to Join Sanctuary Movement." Religion News Service. January 24, 2017. Accessed January 29, 2017. http://religionnews.com/2017/01/23/ohio-mosque-is-first-to-join-sanctuary-movement/.