In the Northern NJ area, there are a few Islamic centers that used to cover most of the needs of the Muslim community. These include marriage and matrimonial services, funeral and burial services, Ramadan Iftars and taraweeh prayers, Eid prayer organization, etc. But who started these institutions? What were their stories? What were their sacrifices? What were the challenges they faced? If you ask a random attendee of these centers, they will most likely have no idea.

This film will focus on the stories of two sets of brothers, how they came to America, and how they worked together to start an institution that would eventually offshoot into many other Islamic institutions across the country. This institution is the Islamic Center of Jersey City, or ISCJ, and the two sets of brothers are the Fahmy brothers, and the Abbassi brothers. Of course there were many others involved, but these were the central ones.

Fikry Fahmy came to America in 1969, after the 6 day war between Israel and Egypt, and 2 years later, his brother, Fareed Fahmy, followed him. They kept outgrowing apartments and other spaces, until they were able to purchase a large building on Park Street in Jersey City and establish the “Islamic Center of Jersey City.”

The other set of brothers, Saied and Samih Abbassi, were originally from Palestine, but they grew up in Baghdad, Iraq. Seeking better economic opportunity, they immigrated to America in the early 70s and started the “Arab and American Islamic Society of North Hudson” from a small space in the basement of their house. This space would hold regular prayers and Qur’an study circles.

A few years go by, they have children who are at the age where they need to go to school, and they decide to create a new institution, the first ever Islamic school, the Al-Ghazaly school. They speak of integration vs assimilation, and the vision they had for their kids growing up Muslim in America. Eventually the pair of brothers would find each other, and ISCJ and the AAISNH would merge to create the Al-Ghazaly school. Years later, this school would expand into another elementary school and a high school. These 4 founders were also the initiators of the NHIEC, and ICPC. And the Al-Ghazaly school spun off ISNA, CAIR, and dozens of other Islamic schools.

This film will go into what were the political circumstances in America that led to the Immigration and Nationality act of 1965. This opened up the door for many of the founders of the Islamic institutions in America to be able to come to America. It will include their imigration to America, who they met, how they got started, what the challenges were that they faced in expanding into other institutions, where the institutions centers are today, and also reflections on the current state of Muslims in America. Some of the challenges included: lack of finance / expertise, and administration infighting and suing each other in court.

A surefire way to destroy the will of a people is to cut them off from their history... To sever the connection to a people’s ancestors, to their culture, to their global community. This tactic was used by the slave masters in America in the 1700s. White slave masters changed slaves names so they wouldn’t feel any connection to anywhere except the master. As second and third generation Muslim Americans, this has indirectly started to happen. We are losing the first generation, without documenting their struggles, their stories, the lessons they learned. This project aims to change that. With this film I hope to not only document the history of these institutions from Northern NJ, but also inspire others across the country to start doing the same.

This project is important to me because I myself went to Al-Ghazaly school from KG through 12th grade. I am still in contact with many graduates from Al-Ghazaly, and have connections with the current administration and previous administrations. Growing up I attended these institutions religiously (pun intended), and even today I am now taking my kids to these same institutions. I would like my own kids to understand how these institutions came to be, who were the people behind them, and why they were established, so when they get older, they have more of a connection to them.