Inside a small wooden building on a quiet street in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Albert Aossey looks at a black-and-white photograph of a group of young Muslims praying.
“Top row, second one in, that’s me,” he says, pointing to a young man wearing a white T-shirt, his head bowed in worship.
The photo was taken in the 1950s, close to where Mr Aossey, 84, is now standing.
It is one of dozens of images displayed in the basement of the Mother Mosque of America, chronicling the ups and downs of the country's oldest standing mosque.
Mr Aossey has been inextricably linked to the modest square building near the corner of 9th Street and M Avenue since birth.
His father, Yahya, immigrated to the US from Nabatieh in what is now southern Lebanon in 1907, and eventually settled in Cedar Rapids in the 1920s.
Yahya, who went by the name William in the US, banded together with a handful of other Muslims from the Levant to build Cedar Rapids' first mosque.
The white clapboard building, which resembles an old schoolhouse, was not the first mosque built in the US. That was in Ross, North Dakota, constructed in 1929, but it fell into ruin last century.
Construction for the Mother Mosque also began in 1929 and work was finished in 1934. The mosque has earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.
“I will say that the building itself is a very simple building,” said Imam Taha Tawil, who has led services at the mosque for more than three decades.
In what is to this day a working-class neighbourhood, the original Muslim community here was made up of peddlers and farmhands.
They did not possess the skills to build an ornate structure, so they went for functionality.
“There are not many Islamic features because we did not have artists in the community,” Mr Tawil told The National,
The mosque has two floors. The main level, essentially a square room, is for worship. A small area in the back is for people to perform ablutions before praying.
A narrow stairwell leads to the basement, where there is a small kitchen, bathroom and main seating area for the community to gather.
The mosque still very much resembles the building that Mr Aossey’s father helped to build nearly 90 years ago.
The proud Muslim, who speaks with a thick Midwestern accent, has warm memories of coming to the mosque as a small child.
“Every Thursday night, there would be coffee and there would be sandwiches or rolls or doughnuts,” Mr Aossey recalls.
“Someone would read from the Quran for a half hour down on the main floor then they’d slide the chairs back, they’d get the tables out and they’d play pinochle until 10 or 11 at night.”
The building served as a gathering point for the expanding Muslim community until the 1970s, when numbers began to outgrow the small space.
They eventually built a larger mosque in a different part of Cedar Rapids and sold the original structure.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the building was a refugee centre for Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge, and then as a Pentecostal church, before falling into disrepair.
That’s when Imam Tawil rallied the community to buy back the building and restore it as a functioning mosque.
Mr Tawil, who is originally from Jerusalem, said he was inspired to reclaim the mosque by his childhood in the ancient city.
“I thought of history and of the next generation,” he said. “I thought we need to preserve this building and keep it going as a lighthouse.”
While the city of Cedar Rapids has long been supportive of the Muslim community, which now numbers in the thousands, the mosque weathered an Islamophobic backlash after the September 11, 2001 attacks and more recently when Donald Trump was president.
“Mr Trump caused a lot of pain and a lot of suffering for us as Muslims in America, in his policies and right-wing policies,” Mr Tawil said.
The imam believes the mosque, which has stood for nearly a century, is proof of Muslims' deep ties to the US.
“This building is an American entity and an institution,” he says. “We need to keep it so people cannot say, 'Go back to your country'.
“This is our country and this is the proof. The building is proof that we are here and our forefathers have been contributing to society.”
For Mr Aossey, the building is a tangible connection to his beloved, late father.
“He taught me the importance of life and family,” he says, in the familiar space of worship that has kept him rooted in Cedar Rapids for eight decades.
Match info
Athletic Bilbao 0
Real Madrid 1 (Ramos 73' pen)
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Real Madrid 1
Ronaldo (87')
Athletic Bilbao 1
Williams (14')
Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
THE BIO
Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren
Favourite travel destination: Switzerland
Hobbies: Travelling and following motivational speeches and speakers
Favourite place in UAE: Dubai Museum
Company%20profile
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
The biog
Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists.
Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.
Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EAdvanced%20materials%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20specifically%20engineered%20to%20exhibit%20novel%20or%20enhanced%20properties%2C%20that%20confer%20superior%20performance%20relative%20to%20conventional%20materials%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EAdvanced%20components%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20includes%20semiconductor%20components%2C%20such%20as%20microprocessors%20and%20other%20computer%20chips%2C%20and%20computer%20vision%20components%20such%20as%20lenses%20and%20image%20sensors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EAdvanced%20products%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20includes%20personal%20electronics%2C%20smart%20home%20devices%20and%20space%20technologies%2C%20along%20with%20industry-enabling%20products%20such%20as%20robots%2C%203D%20printing%20equipment%20and%20exoskeletons%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cem%3ESource%3A%20Strategy%26amp%3B%3C%2Fem%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
