Encyclopedia of Islam

fedayeen

  

235  J

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Federation of Islamic Associations

 

(acronym: FIA)

One of the first organizations created to link dif-

ferent Muslim groups in North America was the 

Federation of Islamic Associations. It started in 

1952 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, under the name of 

the International Muslim Society. Its membership 

consisted mostly of people of Syrian and Lebanese 

descent living in the Northeast and Midwest. The 

mosqUe

s represented by its early members were 

those of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Dearborn, Michigan, 

Michigan City, Indiana, and Quincy, Massachu-

setts. The group’s purpose was to promote Muslim 

self-awareness and to help Muslims adapt to life in 

the U

nited

 s

tates

 and c

anada

. At its third annual 

meeting in Chicago in 1954, the group’s name 

was changed to Federation of Islamic Associa-

tions. During that year, it appealed to the Ameri-

can president, Dwight Eisenhower (r. 1952–60), 

for recognition of Islam as a religion by the U.S. 

armed forces. As it grew, the FIA offered informa-

tion about Islam to non-Muslims, organized social 

events where Muslim youths could meet future 

spouses, monitored media coverage of Islam and 

Middle Eastern politics, and established full-time 

accredited schools for Muslims. The main publica-

tion of the FIA was the Muslim Star. In the 1960s 

and 1970s, it worked together with the m

Uslim

s

tUdents

  a

ssociation

 (MSA), which was based 

on college and university campuses in the United 

States and Canada. The FIA attempted in the 

1970s to conduct a census of Muslims living in the 

United States and to standardize the curriculum 

for religious education classes held at mosques and 

Islamic centers, but these efforts were not success-

ful. There is still no widely accepted estimate of 

the number of Muslims living in the United States. 

The FIA’s effectiveness has diminished greatly 

since the 1970s. The MSA and the i

slamic

 s

ociety

oF

 n

orth

 a

merica

 (ISNA) have largely replaced it, 

and publication of the Muslim Star has ceased.