A record kept by the community it belongs to
ICM History & Timeline exists so that the story of Murfreesboro's Muslim community — the ordinary parts and the extraordinary ones — doesn't only live in scattered news archives and memory.
The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro traces back to a single group prayer in 1982. For most of the next thirty years, its story is a quiet one: a community organizing itself, buying its first small building, and slowly outgrowing it. Then, starting in 2009, ICM's plan to build a larger campus on Veals Road became a four-year legal and public battle that drew national news coverage, a CNN documentary, an act of arson, and eventually a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit on the congregation's behalf.
Murfreesboro Muslim Youth (MMY) started this project because that history — both the hard parts and the hopeful ones — deserves to be easy to find, easy to read, and told straight. We are a youth-led community organization, and this site is our own project. It is not managed, operated, or endorsed by the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.
What this site is not
It is not a comprehensive history. It is not a legal record. And it is not a place for taking sides on matters still remembered differently by different people. Where the historical record includes hostility, hateful rhetoric, or public officials' own statements, we've kept those details because they're part of what actually happened — not to relitigate them, but because an honest record has to include the parts that are uncomfortable, too.
How we source and correct this record
The timeline draws on public reporting from the outlets that covered the story as it happened, public court and county records, official government press releases, and the recollections of community members. The specific news coverage we rely on is listed on our Media & Press page.
Where we don't have a reliable date or source for something, we leave it out rather than guess — so gaps are expected, and the record only gets better with more people checking it. If you spot an error or can fill in a gap, tell us which page or year it concerns, what should change, and a source if you have one, through the contact page.
Who is behind this
This is a project of Murfreesboro Muslim Youth, a youth-led community organization. We are independent of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro; for the mosque's own information, use the contact details on our contact page.
Have a question?
Common questions about this project — what it is, where the information comes from, how to request a correction — are answered on our FAQ page.