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.
Questions we get
Is this the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro's official website?
No. ICM History & Timeline is an independent project run by Murfreesboro Muslim Youth (MMY), a youth-led community organization. It is not managed, operated, or endorsed by the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.
Is this a complete history of ICM?
No, and it's not intended to be. This site focuses on the milestones and public events that shaped ICM's story, particularly the 2010–2014 legal battle over its Veals Road campus. Many smaller, equally important moments in the community's history aren't documented here yet — often because we simply don't have reliable dates or sources for them.
Where does the information on this site come from?
The timeline draws on public reporting from outlets that covered the story as it happened — including the Daily News Journal (DNJ), local NBC affiliate WSMV, and CNN's documentary “Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door” — along with public court and county records and the recollection of community members.
I was there for some of this. How can I help?
Please reach out through the contact page. Corrections, missing dates, additional context, and photos are all welcome — this project only gets more accurate with more people checking it.
Can I use this content elsewhere?
If you'd like to reference or reuse material from this site, please get in touch first so we can make sure it's used accurately and with the right context.