North Dakota Is Home To First Mosque In The United States -- November 20, 2016

This past week, our 10-year-old granddaughter participated in a "Heritage Day" event at her school in which students explored their heritage, a project that will occupy their time for the next week or so. Parents were invited to be part of this particular day in which the students placed as many items that  they could fit into a large "shoe box." Then for two hours, the students (and parents) would study the contents of at least four boxes to a) attempt to identify the student to which the items belonged; and, b) the history of that particular family.

Unrelated, but that event and the note I received earlier today from a reader, caused me to look again at a link I've had at the site for years. The link is at the bottom of the sidebar. I noted that the link took one to the original article but not to a MDW post.

I needed to make a comment regarding that article from Voice of America.

First of all, I was alerted to the migration pattern of the Syrian-Lebanese by a woman of Syrian descent who I had met about fourteen years ago. I was always intrigued.

Subsequently I stumbled across Prairie Peddlers: The Syrian-Lebanese in North Dakota, William C. Sherman, Paul L. Whitney, and John Guerrero, c. 2002. Chuck Wilder at Books on Broadway in Williston, ND, always keeps this book in stock (a great, great Christmas gift).

Back to the linked article. There is a typographical error in the article. The article mentioned "Rapid City, Iowa" in the last couple of paragraphs. In fact, the city is Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The woman who alerted me to the migration patterns of Syrians in the US back in 2002 was from Cedar Rapids.

Just think, when visiting North Dakota, President Obama could have taken a helicopter ride for a photo op of that mosque and with the Bakken in the background.